Presentation given at the Legal Design Summit in Helsinki 2016-11-16

1. Creating products that
lawyers love (sic!) –
design in legal technology
Anna Ronkainen, Chief Scientist, TrademarkNow,
President, Finnish Legal Tech Forum (etc. etc.)
anna@tmnow.com @ronkaine
Legal Design Summit, Helsinki 2016-11-16

2. Hello, what’s this?
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

8. But is this really a problem?

9. In the medical sector, it sure is...
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

10. ..seriously!
@ronkaine
#legaldesign
(Viitanen et al 2011)
Anybody think it’s
really any better for
legal software?

11. What is usability?

12. What is usability?
“Usability is the extent to which a
system can be used by specific users
to achieve specified goals with
effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction in a specified context of
use.”
ISO 9241-210
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

13. What is usability?
“It is important to realize that usability is not a single, one-dimensional property of the user
interface. Usability has multiple components and is traditionally associated with these five
usability attributes:
• Learnability: The system should be easy to learn so that the user can rapidly start getting
some work done with the system.
• Efficiency: The system should be efficient to use, so that once the user has learned the
system, a high level of productivity is possible.
• Memorability: The system should be easy to remember, so that the casual user is able to
return to the system after some period of not having used it, without having to learn
everything all over again.
• Errors: The system should have a low error rate, so that users make few errors during the
use of the system, and so that if they do make errors they can easily recover from them.
Further, catastrophic errors must not occur.
• Satisfaction: The system should be pleasant to use, so that users are subjectively satisfied
when using it; they like it.”
Nielsen 1993
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

14. mental
model
high-level
represented
model
low-level
represented
model
implementation model
Levels of usability

15. Levels of usability: legal tech
mental
model
high-level
represented
model
low-level
represented
model
implementation model

16. Levels of usability: law
mental
model
high-level
represented
model
low-level
represented
model
implementation model
§§

17. How to implement usability
• evaluation of current systems and processes
• field studies
• mock-ups, paper prototypes
• iterative development
• heuristic evaluation by an expert
• end-user usability testing

18. How to implement usability
• evaluation of current systems and processes
• field studies
• mock-ups, paper prototypes
• iterative development
• heuristic evaluation by an expert
• end-user usability testing

19. These guys get it
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

20. Software is not always the answer!
Our project management solution:
(for the first 3 years)

21. The devil is in the details...

23. icons for classes of
goods and services
relevance
ranking
all important information
at a glance

25. most important information all
at the top of the details page

26. state-of-the-art
line break
technology

28. state-of-the-art
bullet point
technology

30. cryptic codes, explanation
links to a pdf document
graphic representation
and its description
interjected by the list
of goods and services

31. codes expanded
and linked to
longer explanations
(when available)

32. In conclusion...

33. Good usability is good for
• increased productivity
• reducing training and support costs
• speeding up development
• speeding up legal processes
• quality of legal decisions
• occupational well-being
So why isn’t there more of it in the legal field? And
why (almost) no research?
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

34. [ADVERTISEMENT]
More on legal tech...
• Finnish Legal Tech Forum, legaltech.fi
• Helsinki Legal Tech Meetup, meetup.com/
Helsinki-Legal-Tech-Meetup (next: Nov 21)
• my Introduction to Legal Technology course
(Turku), slides at slideshare.net/ronkaine
...and on shower taps, usability, and everything:
• Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things
(MIT Press)
@ronkaine
#legaldesign

35. THANK YOU!
www.trademarknow.com slideshare.net/ronkaine @ronkaine