BOARDSPACE
Streamlining governance board workflows for effortless navigation
PROJECT
ROLE
TIMELINE
UX Redesign of a Webapp
UX Researcher, Product Designer, Stakeholder Liaison, Research Communicator
5 Weeks, Weekly Virtual Check-Ins
TOOLS
Design & Prototyping: Figma, Unsplash
Research & Documentation: Xtensio, Google Docs, Google Slides
Collaboration & Communication: Miro, Canva, Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Keynote, Slack
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
BoardSpace is a web app that helps nonprofit boards manage meetings, agendas, and minutes. The existing platform had complex workflows, redundant steps, and an unintuitive interface that slowed users down. Over the course of five weeks, our four-member team redesigned the experience to make meeting creation and minute-taking faster, clearer, and more user-friendly.
Time-Consuming
Confusing
Minute taking?
Meeting creation?
"Board management software so easy you don't know you're using it!"
PROBLEM
GOALS
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Pat Crosscombe (CEO, Boardspace)
Difficult
Agenda building?
PROBLEM, OBJECTIVE, & GOALS
​Key workflows—Meeting Creation, Agenda Building, and Minute-Taking—were inefficient, cluttered, and hard to use on smaller screens. Users experienced anxiety and delays due to excessive steps, unstructured layouts, and hidden controls. While our efforts centered on solving these three core problems as we revised and refined the client’s existing prototype, we also improved overall usability by refining the information architecture, visual design, and accessibility to create a clearer and more consistent experience.
1
Meeting Creation
Streamline meeting setup by reducing steps and improving the overall flow.
2
Agenda Bulding
Make agenda creation feel more intuitive, familiar, and structured.
3
Minute-Taking
Simplify cluttered layouts, replace complex tables, and improve clarity.
By applying user-centered design principles—minimalism, clear feedback, and flexibility—our team of four designers transformed BoardSpace into a more intuitive and efficient tool for nonprofit governance boards.
DISCOVERY
UNDERSTANDING USER NEEDS & PAIN POINTS
To ground our design decisions, we drew on client-provided research—including user interviews, testing scripts, and usability reports—shared by BoardSpace’s CEO. This data revealed three main frustrations:
TOO MANY STEPS​
Meeting setup and agenda management were overly complex
INCONSISTENT WORKFLOWS
Creating, reviewing, and editing meetings lacked clarity
CLUTTERED INTERFACE
Excess information made navigation and task completion difficult
​​​Using affinity and empathy mapping, we organized these insights into key themes: meeting creation was cumbersome, the agenda builder was unintuitive, and managing minutes was stressful. Users consistently desired a simpler, time-saving workflow. To see more detail on our affinity and empathy mapping process, [click here].
From this synthesis, we developed two user personas to represent primary user needs and goals, which guided all design decisions.
I need a faster, simpler process. It should be streamlined with everything in one place.
Sarah Thompson
Condo Association Manager
AGE: 48
SIZE: Small/medium condo association
TECH SAVVINESS: Moderate to good
DEVICES: 13-in laptop, occasionally mobile
ROLE: Manages board meetings, coordinates agendas, and ensures minutes are recorded and shared, relying on BoardSpace to streamline these tasks.
pain points
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Too many screens and clicks to set up meetings
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Cluttered site, complex agenda builder
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Poor responsiveness on 13-in screens
goals
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Reduce clicks and simplify meeting setup
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Streamline agenda building
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Improve mobile responsiveness for overall usability
pain points
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Complex, multi-step approval process for minutes
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Time-consuming screen navigation
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Cluttered and unintuitive interface
goals
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Simplify approval of minutes - "fewer clicks"
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Ideally, add real-time collaboration tools
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Reduce website clutter and inefficiency
David Miller
Nonprofit Board Secretary
A more responsive design with fewer clicks would make this much easier.
AGE: 65
SIZE: Small nonprofit, a team of 10-15 members
TECH SAVVINESS: Low to moderate
DEVICES: Desktop
ROLE: Manages board meetings and takes minutes for a small nonprofit. He relies on BoardSpace for meeting management and minute-taking.
IDENTIFYING STANDARDS & USABILITY GAPS
To understand industry benchmarks and uncover opportunities for differentiation, we performed competitive analysis on five platforms—Boardable, OnBoard, BoardPro, My Board View, and Dropbox Paper—alongside a heuristic evaluation of BoardSpace’s sandbox platform. Conversations with the CEO and lead programmer provided additional context on functionality priorities and existing challenges. This dual approach helped us evaluate both external offerings and internal usability issues.
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We prioritized insights from BoardPro and Boardable, combining their usability strengths with heuristic findings and leadership input. This foundation prepared us for the next design phase—wireframing and prototyping—to ensure BoardSpace evolved into a platform that is intuitive, efficient, and aligned with organizational goals.
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DESIGN & VALIDATION
APPROACH & CONSTRAINTS
We worked directly with high-fidelity wireframes and an interactive prototype, refining the interface within several important constraints:​
Technical Limitations
Large-scale changes were not feasible due to backend dependencies.
Feedback-Driven Iterations
Formal user testing was not conducted. Instead, iterations were guided by direct feedback from the CEO, leveraging his deep knowledge of the user base.
User Familiarity
Users were accustomed to the existing platform, so updates needed to be incremental to avoid disrupting workflows.
START
HI-FI PROTOTYPE
DESIGN FOUNDATIONS
BoardSpace provided foundational user flows and a design system (style guide, typography, colors, and UI components). These resources ensured the redesign remained consistent with existing expectations while allowing us to refine workflows. See the provided flows and style guide [here].
ITERATION PROCESS
The design process began with more exploratory concepts, but system constraints required us to adjust and preserve certain core structures. Through iterative refinement, we balanced usability improvements with technical realities—enhancing clarity, simplifying workflows, and maintaining an intuitive experience for current users.
Baseline
Heuristic Analysis + Discovery Insights
Workflow Clariffications
Cohesive Prototype
ORIGINAL VERSION
FIRST ITERATION
SECOND ITERATION
HANDOFF
VERSION
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Existing UI with cluttered structure and limited feedback.
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Simplified UI, clearer feedback, more user control.
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Incorporated CEO’s feedback and style guide alignment.
​
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Refined interactions for efficiency and familiarity.
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CEO confirmed direction; requested minor tweaks.
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Applied refinements across all screens.
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Post-handoff polish for smoother user experience.
1
Meeting Creation
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Meetings are now categorized into Current (in-progress) and Approved (finalized and locked for editing).
Each meeting row displays title, location, and date for quick reference.
Users can create a new meeting by clicking “Add New Meeting,” which opens a form for entering key details like title, location, and type.
2
Agenda Building
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Redesigned as a document-style interface for intuitive agenda creation.
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Users can add items, sub-items, and notes with a floating footer bar providing quick access to the “Add Item” button.
The header displays the meeting title and includes a commenting feature.
A right-hand sidebar allows for drag-and-drop file attachments.Items are draggable, enabling users to rearrange the agenda easily.
3
Minute-Taking
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Clicking an agenda item in the left-hand menu scrolls the page to the relevant section.​
Displays all meeting minutes in a long, scrollable document for easier navigation.
The attendance section is collapsible, allowing users to minimize it after attendance is recorded.
final prototype
By balancing user experience improvements with technical constraints, we refined BoardSpace’s core workflows while keeping changes intuitive for existing users. The iterative prototype development process ensured that BoardSpace’s platform remains efficient, structured, and easy to navigate, fulfilling both business and user needs.​
EXPLORE THE INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE
CONCLUSION
Designing for nonprofit governance required balancing usability improvements with technical and organizational constraints. Through competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, and stakeholder feedback, we identified key usability gaps and redesigned BoardSpace to be more intuitive, structured, and efficient—without disrupting familiar workflows. Looking ahead, usability testing with real users will be essential to validate assumptions, while enhancements for power users, improved mobile responsiveness, and stronger accessibility features will expand the platform’s reach. This project reinforced the importance of user-centered design in nonprofit tools, where clarity, efficiency, and inclusivity are paramount, and showed how aligning user needs with technical realities can deliver a modern solution that supports governance boards while respecting established workflows.
LESSONS LEARNED
Balancing Needs & Constraints
System limitations demand practical, incremental improvements over sweeping redesigns.
Iteration Matters
Stakeholder-driven feedback ensured solutions were both usable and technically viable.
Designing for Older Users
Prioritizing clarity and simplicity reduced cognitive load for a less tech-savvy audience.
Testing Trade-Offs
While direct user testing wasn’t possible, leveraging stakeholder insights kept the redesign aligned with real user needs.