UX research

UX Research Hub

Internal UX source of truth for Legacy Defenders personas, think-aloud scripts, and customer-research reports.

Run A Think-Aloud Report Scenarios Open Report Library
4 Core personas
10 min First strategy target
Private Noindex docs

What This Is

This is the internal UX room for Legacy Defenders. Use it to design the first ten minutes, test the Preliminary Estate Strategy, and keep the site, chat, reports, and backend agents anchored to real people instead of generic "users."

The customer is usually not browsing calmly. They may be grieving, ashamed of the house condition, afraid of being exploited, short on cash, and responsible for decisions they have never made before. The UX has to make the next step smaller.

Product principle

The first experience should feel like a calm person saying: "Tell me what happened. I can help you see the money, the house, the belongings, the records, and the safest next move."

Local Research Signals

County scale 1.225M people

Allegheny County remains a large, dense local market with many older homes and repeat estate-transition cases.

Census QuickFacts
Aging pressure 21.9% age 65+

More than one in five residents are 65 or older, which supports planning, inherited-home, and care-transition demand.

Census age data
Homeownership 65.2% owner-occupied

The problem often centers on a house. Median owner-occupied value is listed at $227,600 for 2020-2024.

Census housing data
Data foundation Parcel + assessment data

WPRDC publishes Allegheny County parcel characteristics, values, sales, and residential building characteristics. It is dynamic and needs review.

WPRDC property assessments

Persona Set

These are composite personas for design and testing. They are not real clients, and the photos are scenario images rather than customer portraits. Each one gives us a different pressure pattern to test: grief, distance, cash, family conflict, house condition, records, and digital confidence.

Laptop, notes, and keys for a person managing a house from out of town Persona 01 Erin, out-of-town only child

High responsibility, low local control, afraid of accepting a bad offer.

 An overfilled room being documented for belongings decisions Persona 02 Marcus, local caregiver executor

Physically close, emotionally exhausted, blocked by belongings and siblings.

 Bills, keys, and calculator showing property carrying costs Persona 03 Denise, cash-poor equity-rich heir

Good property value, little cash, needs a bridge to avoid a forced mistake.

 Probate notes, folders, and house keys for records review Persona 04 Tom, estate-at-risk executor

Debts, repairs, and authority questions may make spending dangerous.

How To Use This UX Section

01Pick a persona

Start with the person whose pressure pattern matches the product question.

02Run the think-aloud

Read the scenario, watch the homepage and strategy, and capture hesitation in plain language.

03Write the report

Store findings in the UX report library so product, chat, content, and backend agents stay synced.

04Update the artifact

Improve the intake, strategy, module pages, and specialist prompts from observed friction.

UX Report Storage

Use UX Report Library as the single internal link for research reports. Source files and future research reports should live in:

project-docs/ux-research/reports/

Use this folder for think-aloud notes, persona test reports, usability findings, and report-redesign decisions.

Immediate Product Questions

  • Does the homepage make a grieving executor understand what Legacy does before they type?
  • Does the Preliminary Estate Strategy show value in under ten seconds?
  • Does the strategy scenario match the estate: hidden equity, cash poor, belongings blocked, estate at risk, preserve/rent/keep, or fast sale safest?
  • Does the user understand that the first strategy is free, deeper work may use credits, and people enter when judgment matters?
  • Do the Property, Belongings, Cleaning, Money, Records, and Help pages feel like useful drill-downs instead of more reading?
  • Can a low-tech customer still find the call path without feeling judged?