Designing a Global Employee Support Experience
My role: Product Designer Scope of work: End-to-end UX for chat and bookingFocus: Emotionally safe flowEmployee support features are often used in moments of stress, when users need help quickly and without friction. In this product, employees could reach professional support either by starting an online chat or by booking an online session with a specialist, depending on availability and eligibility.
The goal of this project was to design clear, end-to-end flows for both chat and booking, ensuring users understood their options, felt safe progressing through the flow, and always knew what would happen next.
Understanding the problem space
While chat and booking may seem simple on the surface, both flows involved multiple conditional steps. Users needed to understand whether they were eligible, choose the appropriate support option, and complete the flow without uncertainty or dead ends.
These interactions often happen during emotionally sensitive moments, even small points of confusion could lead to frustration or drop-off. The challenge was to guide users through relatively complex flows without making that complexity visible.
Designing the chat flow
The chat experience was designed to help users reach support as quickly as possible while setting clear expectations. Rather than presenting all information upfront, the flow progresses step by step, confirming eligibility and explaining what will happen once the chat begins.
Waiting and error states were treated as part of the core experience. The language and visuals were intentionally calm and reassuring, avoiding urgency or pressure while still keeping users informed.
The focus throughout was on reducing friction and helping users feel confident that they were moving in the right direction.
Designing the booking flow
Booking an online session required a more structured journey. Users needed to review available specialists, select a suitable time slot, and confirm their booking.
The flow was designed to feel predictable and transparent, clearly communicating progress and next steps at each stage. Confirmation and failure states were given the same level of attention as the happy path, ensuring users always understood whether their session was successfully booked and what would happen next.
Designing for non-ideal scenarios
A significant part of the work involved handling edge cases such as unavailable time slots, incomplete input, or booking failures. These situations were not treated as exceptions, but as expected parts of the experience.
By designing these states with clarity and care, the flow remains supportive even when it cannot continue as planned. This helped reduce anxiety and kept users oriented, regardless of the outcome.
Outcome & learnings
The final result was a set of clear, end-to-end flows for online chat and session booking that guide users through sensitive interactions with structure and reassurance.
This project reinforced the importance of designing flows, not just screens, especially in high-stress contexts. Predictable steps, clear expectations, and thoughtful handling of failure states can significantly shape how supported users feel.
Next steps
While working on the booking flow, a clear next step emerged: enabling users to cancel or reschedule a booked session. Although this wasn’t part of the initial scope, it became evident as users navigated real-life scheduling constraints and changing needs.