CASE STUDY

ISA – Member Experience Redesign

The International Screenwriters’ Association’s (ISA) platform offered a sprawling mix of services—competitions, evaluations, memberships, and community content. But the experience felt cluttered and confusing. Writers often didn’t know what was free, what they had access to, or what to do next.

I worked under a lead designer to redesign key parts of the experience, including onboarding, dashboard navigation, and the checkout flow. The goal was to simplify decision-making, personalize content, and reduce drop-off.

Project Summary

Tools

Sketch

Role

UX/UI Designer

Responsibilities

UX design
Onboarding flows
Dashboard layout
Checkout logic
Design handoff

Team

Founder
Lead Designer
UX Destigner (me)
Engineers

Duration

1 year (concurrent with broader site work)

Challenge and Constraints

ISA wasn’t a single product. It was a dense collection of overlapping offerings, surfaced inconsistently across pages. Users often couldn’t tell which features applied to them, what was free or paid, or how to take the next step. The challenge was to bring structure to that sprawl—clarifying entry points, guiding navigation, and helping writers feel grounded in their experience.

At the same time, we were designing without a formal roadmap. Feature priorities came directly from the founder, and there was no product manager to filter or sequence the work. Our dev team handled requests as they came in. That meant we had to prioritize clarity, modular design, and careful documentation to make sure handoff was successful—even if timelines shifted.

Design Approach

While I worked on nearly every part of the site, we focused the redesign on three core experience areas that spanned the writer journey:

- Account creation and onboarding
- Personalization and content targeting
- Submission and checkout

Each phase needed to feel seamless and self-explanatory, especially for users encountering ISA’s services for the first time.

Account Creation and Role Routing

We designed a role-specific onboarding flow that let users self-identify as a Writer, Industry Pro, or Service Provider. Each path included tailored sign-up questions and led to a dashboard experience designed to reflect that user’s goals.

Letting users self-select their role created the foundation for a more personalized experience.

We followed with a Free vs. Premium selection screen, shown only to Writers. The free plan was given equal visual weight: same styling, same CTA, clearly labeled as $0. We used a side-by-side comparison to clarify what each tier included — with red Xs marking the differences — but avoided urgency tactics or pre-selected defaults. The goal wasn’t to convert on the spot, but to present the options clearly and let users proceed without pressure.

A clear side-by-side breakdown helped users choose without pressure.

Personalization & Content Targeting

We introduced a quick set of onboarding prompts that asked about users’ writing interests—genre, goals, and experience level. This allowed the dashboard to show relevant competitions, services, and resources immediately.

By asking just a few targeted questions, we could curate the experience from the start.

Writer Dashboard

This was ISA’s first true dashboard — a central hub built from scratch to help writers orient themselves, find value quickly, and move forward with confidence. We structured it into three predictable zones: center content, left sidebar, and right sidebar. The goal was to make the experience feel welcoming, scannable, and easy to act on — whether a user was just joining or returning to pick up where they left off.

1

Customizable focus tabs

Writers could toggle between Pro Tips, Motivation, and Inspiration, or set one to appear by default.

2

Primary project actions

Two key CTAs — “Share Projects” and “Add/Update Projects” — kept next steps visible without overwhelming new users.

3

Curated content feed

Beneath the fold, users could browse articles, podcasts, and writing tips — organized into tabs like “Recommended for You,” “The Industry,” and “Read/Watch List.”

4

Next-step carousel

A rotating set of cards pointed users to relevant actions like submitting to competitions or upgrading their plan — reinforcing value without adding clutter.

5

Left sidebar

Profile links, quick adds (awards, stories, expenses), and submission management were consolidated in one consistent place.

6

Right sidebar

Time-sensitive updates — like writing gigs or competition deadlines — lived in collapsible sections to stay visible but unobtrusive.

This layout made a dense ecosystem feel more usable. We had to fit a wide range of actions and value props on a single page—a founder-driven constraint aimed at keeping everything within reach. By anchoring the page around three predictable zones, and surfacing only the most relevant tasks upfront, we gave the experience a sense of structure without losing flexibility.

Global Navigation Redesign

ISA’s original navigation grouped tools, programs, and paid features under unclear categories like “Screenwriters Toolbox” and “Get Connected.” These labels lacked context and often led to overlapping dropdowns, which buried core features under vague or redundant paths. For first-time users, it wasn’t obvious how the site worked or what value it offered.

We reorganized the nav around concrete actions and recognizable categories:Competitions, Events / Classes, Gigs, Writer’s Showcase, Screenplay Library, Success Stories, Feedback, and ISA Insider.

This version didn’t solve every issue — repetition remained, and some paid features were still unlabeled — but the structure made key services easier to find and removed one layer of confusion.

The redesign was also shaped by founder direction: nearly every offering needed to be reachable from every page. This included contributor shortcuts—like adding competitions or submitting articles—which stayed prominent to encourage participation. So our focus became clarity through labeling and grouping, not minimalism. The result was a still-dense nav, but one that reflected the core ISA ecosystem more honestly. Below, you can see examples of the original and redesigned navigation, including dropdowns and contributor actions.

Before: The original navigation grouped everything under broad labels and repeated links across dropdowns. Users had to guess where to start and what applied to them.

After: The redesigned nav used clearer category names and more structured grouping. While contributor shortcuts and some duplication remained, the structure made core actions easier to scan.

Checkout Experience

The redesigned checkout consolidated all the ways users could engage—submitting scripts, adding evaluations, and upgrading to membership—into a single, uninterrupted process. Writers could apply promo codes to individual contest entries, see real-time pricing adjustments when they joined ISAConnect, and even create new projects on the fly without leaving the flow. This approach kept every option visible while reducing drop-off from page-hopping. Even though the experience stayed dense to meet business requirements, it prioritized clarity in totals and minimized friction for first-time and returning users.

Below are screens illustrating how the checkout experience guided users through selection, upsells, and payment without breaking flow.

Users could select an existing script or create a new project on the fly without leaving checkout—a key step to reduce drop-off.

Relevant upsells—like additional contest entries or evaluations—were presented inline, keeping the flow uninterrupted.

The cart clearly itemized all selections, with individual promo code fields for each contest entry to accommodate contest-specific discounts.

Dynamic membership discounts were applied immediately after upgrading, reinforcing value without requiring the user to start over.

A final step focused solely on secure payment and confirmation, reducing distractions at the point of conversion.

Reflections

ISA was a dense product with a wide range of offerings and a lot of moving parts. Much of the scope was founder-driven, so my job was often to bring structure to ideas that arrived loosely defined. That meant shaping clearer flows where I could, proposing solutions that helped users focus, and adjusting when priorities shifted. I didn’t control every piece of the experience, but I learned how to design within complexity, find seams where UX could make an impact, and contribute to a product that needed both polish and practicality.