8 weeks
MapleTax
Harness the power of AI to simplify your tax filing process, maximize deductions, and ensure compliance with a unified chat workflow.
UX Design
UX Research
Web App Design
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Harness the power of AI to simplify your tax filing process, maximize deductions, and ensure compliance with a unified chat workflow.
In Canada, the process of filing taxes is often perceived as overwhelming and confusing, leading to errors and dissatisfaction among users. There is a need to redesign the tax filing experience to minimize its complexity and enhance user understanding, thereby improving the accuracy of filing and overall satisfaction with the tax process.
How might we enhance the digital tax filing system to simplify the process, increase clarity, and reduce the time needed for Canadians to accurately complete and file their tax returns?
MapleTax web app aims to improve the Canadian tax filing experience by integrating advanced AI systems into the digital tax process, simplifying complexities, and significantly reducing preparation time.
The AI-enhanced system will auto-fill forms, extract data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), identify optimal deductions, and provide real-time, personalized guidance with unified chat workflow. This approach ensures a more accurate, efficient, and user-friendly experience, transforming tax filing from a daunting task into a seamless process.
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The project began with a simple hypothesis: integrating AI into tax filing software could make the process faster and less complicated for Canadian users. We envisioned a system that could handle much of the tedious work automatically-filling out forms, identifying the best deductions, and offering real-time advice based on each user's unique financial situation.
The idea was that, by automating these tasks, users would spend far less time preparing their taxes and have a much smoother experience overall. Compared to the traditional, non-AI tax filing methods, this new system would be more intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly, leading to greater satisfaction among those who use it. Our goal was to transform tax filing from a time-consuming chore into something straightforward and manageable.
Based on the hypothesis, I conducted 10 interviews to gain insights into users' current experiences with tax filing. These interviews explored how users manage the process, their level of understanding, and their expectations of a tax filing system.
Through affinity mapping, the analysis revealed key pain points, such as the complexity of deductions and the need for clearer guidance, particularly for freelancers and individuals with unique tax situations.
I created two personas for the primary user segments of non-tax professionals to clearly understand their needs. This group includes first-time filers, freelancers, small business owners and others who don't have in-depth tax knowledge.
The user personas developed include Jenna, a tech-savvy freelancer who struggles with complex tax filing and understanding deductions, and Ross, a PhD student overwhelmed by multi-income tax situations and time constraints. Both users highlight the need for personalized support and simpler, more efficient tax filing solutions.
I conducted a hybrid card sorting session with five participants, including freelancers, small business owners and first time taxpayers. The goal was to validate and refine the categorization and information architecture for the Maple Tax website dashboard. Utilizing remote card sorting through Optimal Workshop, I gathered valuable insights on user preferences.
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The dendrogram above represents the placement and grouping of features like start new filing, tax filing history, and tax reports options. This helped in identifying optimal groupings and allowed for iterative prototype refinements to improve navigation flow and content discoverability. Below, I present the top three dashboard designs along with feedback from participants.
This is an early concept created before the card sorting process, focusing on gathering feedback related to interface design and information categorization.
Feedback on Prototype 1:
This prototype was designed after the card sorting method, as I realized that the naming of certain labels needed to be changed or updated. This feedback was focusing on UX writing, hierarchy and interface design.
Feedback on Prototype 2:
This prototype is the final iteration, carefully developed and refined through extensive user feedback. This version incorporates improvements aimed at enhancing usability and clarity.
Feedback on Prototype 3:
The homepage serves as an introduction to the platform. It highlights key features, capabilities, user testimonials, FAQs, and contact information. This page also includes links to social media for the latest updates. From here, users can easily log in or sign up to access and start using the web app.
MapleTax Homepage
The dashboard was designed to provide users with essential and relevant information in a clear and organized layout.
Key features include:
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Start New Filing
Intuitive Form-Filling Process
MapleAI Chat
Privacy Concerns: Faced privacy concerns with handling sensitive information like SIN numbers and the inability to delete data, so I tested only a few known tax tools and relied on reviews and social media for additional insights.
Interview Insights: I was able to conduct interviews with participants under 40, which provided useful insights, but a more diverse group would have yielded even richer data.
Need for Further Research: More research is needed to understand how users trust tax tools and AI when it comes to sharing private information. It’s also important to explore how UX writing can be optimized to effectively communicate privacy and security measures, ensuring users feel confident in the process.
