Self-serve legal answers
Designing a diagnostic tool that helps people get reliable answers to common legal questions in minutes
Client
Legal tech platform
Website
Context of the Project
Legal teams and public services kept fielding the same simple questions over and over, things like whether a project involves personal data and what obligations follow from that. Most of these questions had a clear, fairly simple answer, but there was no easy way for people to find it themselves. The goal was a self-service tool that could handle straightforward legal questions directly, and point people toward the right contact when a question turned out to be more complex.
Problem to Solve
Legal teams were spending time answering questions that, in most cases, had a predictable answer based on a few key facts. Users had no way to self-serve, so even simple questions meant waiting on a person to respond. The challenge was designing something that could handle genuine complexity responsibly (knowing when to hand off to a person) while still being fast for the cases that didn't need one.
Goals
Let users answer their own legal questions in a few minutes, without contacting anyone
Keep the flow short, a maximum of four context questions, so it stayed usable rather than turning into another long form
Build in a clear path to a real contact for anything too complex for the tool to resolve
Reduce repeat, low-complexity questions reaching the legal team
Design Process
Research
Reviewed the most common legal questions the team received to find patterns and identify which ones were simple enough to automate
Mapped out the decision logic behind each question, what facts actually determine the answer
UX design
Designed the diagnostic flow as a short, guided sequence, capped at four questions, so it stayed quick even for someone unfamiliar with legal language
Built in a clear branch point: straightforward answer delivered directly, or a handoff to a real contact when the situation was too complex for the tool
UI design
Designed the interface for the question flow and results screen, keeping the tone plain and approachable rather than legalistic
Anonymized version of the interface below (client name withheld)
Testing & iteration
Tested the flow with real questions to check whether four questions was actually enough to reach a reliable answer, or whether some paths needed adjusting
Result
The tool now handles common legal questions directly, giving people a fast, reliable answer without needing to wait on a person, while flagging anything genuinely complex for proper follow-up.