BillTracker

Background

Lobbyists and government affairs professionals track thousands of bills every year. Miss one amendment, one committee hearing, one floor vote, and their clients lose.

BillTracker has been that safety net since 2007. Built by former lobbyists who were tired of spreadsheets and sticky notes, the platform now serves over 5,000 active users across hundreds of organizations nationwide. They track more than 10,000 bills annually and deliver over a million calendar invites to keep their users on schedule.

But 17 years of organic growth had taken a toll. The interface that once felt cutting-edge now felt dated. Features had been bolted on wherever they fit. New users needed training just to find the search bar.

BillTracker's leadership knew the platform needed a complete redesign. But they couldn't risk breaking the workflows their users depended on during legislative sessions.

The Problem

BillTracker's challenges weren't just cosmetic:

Navigation had become a maze. Users couldn't tell where they were in the application. Page titles were generic or missing entirely. Breadcrumbs didn't exist. Every task required re-learning the interface.

The UI couldn't adapt. Lobbyists work from capitol hallways and coffee shops, not just desks. But BillTracker wasn't responsive. On mobile, it was barely usable.

Accessibility was an afterthought. Keyboard navigation didn't work. Color contrast failed basic tests. For users with disabilities, the platform was effectively off-limits.

Forms fought against users. Required fields weren't marked until submission failed. Validation messages appeared in random locations. Error recovery was guesswork.

The bill detail page buried the lead. Critical information sat below the fold. Every tab reset the scroll position. Users clicked, scrolled, clicked, scrolled, for every single bill.

The platform had become a victim of its own success: so much functionality that the functionality itself was hard to find.

Project Goals

BillTracker didn't need us to reimagine what they do. They needed us to make what they do intuitive.

Modernize without disrupting. Their users track legislation during live sessions. We couldn't break muscle memory or introduce learning curves mid-crisis.

Design for everyone. WCAG accessibility compliance wasn't optional. Neither was mobile responsiveness.

Build for scale. Any redesign had to accommodate future features, including AI integration, without another overhaul.

Stay within reach. BillTracker is a focused company by design. Solutions needed to match their development capacity, not exceed it.

Our Approach

Discovery

We started where we always start: understanding what's actually happening.

Innovation workshops with BillTracker's team surfaced the real problems: not the symptoms, but the underlying UX failures that caused them. We mapped every user journey, every pain point, every workaround users had invented to deal with interface limitations.

What we found:

• The "Tracking Wizard" wasn't a wizard at all, just a list with a confusing name
• Search forms showed nearly 30 filter options before showing any results
• Dark mode was detected but broken, forcing users to change their OS settings
• Bill actions were indicated by unlabeled icons with no tooltips

We documented over 40 specific UX issues before writing a single line of design.

Design System

Before redesigning screens, we rebuilt the foundation.

We developed a comprehensive design system: typography, color palette, iconography, and a component library that would ensure consistency across every corner of the platform. This wasn't decoration. It was the scaffolding that would let BillTracker's developer implement designs efficiently and maintain them independently.

Key decisions:

• Color-coded status indicators with a legend, ending the guessing game
• Touch-friendly targets sized for mobile interaction, not just desktop precision
• Accessible contrast ratios that pass WCAG AA standards
• Consistent spacing system that scales across breakpoints

Core Screens

With the system in place, we tackled the highest-impact areas first.

Dashboard Users previously landed on a calendar. Not wrong, but not helpful. The new dashboard surfaces what matters: bills with recent activity, upcoming hearings, pending reviews. It's personalized, scannable, and gets users to action faster.

Bills The bill list view went from overwhelming to organized. Filters now collapse until needed. Results appear immediately. Color-coded status indicators make scanning fast. And clicking through to details no longer resets your scroll position.

Search & Filtering We moved from "here are 30 fields, figure it out" to progressive disclosure. Basic search is prominent. Advanced filters reveal on demand. Saved searches let users rebuild complex queries in one click.

Tracking Queue Renamed from "Tracking Wizard" (because it wasn't one), the queue now makes batch operations obvious. Assign multiple bills at once. Send review requests to groups. Track responses without hunting.

Calendar Events now show which hearings are related to tracked bills. Export options let users sync with their actual calendars. The dense information presentation was reorganized for clarity without losing completeness.

Reports We simplified report generation from "figure out the interface" to "choose a template and customize." Pre-configured options handle common use cases. Custom reports save for reuse.

Responsive Design

Mobile wasn't an afterthought. It was a parallel track.

Every screen was designed for three breakpoints: desktop, tablet, and mobile. Navigation adapts from full menu to hamburger. Tables become cards. Filters become bottom sheets. The experience stays complete; only the layout changes.

Implementation Support

Design handoff wasn't the end of our involvement.

We worked directly with BillTracker's lead developer through implementation, providing:

• Sprint-by-sprint design delivery aligned with development capacity
• Component specifications and interaction documentation
• Regular design reviews to catch deviations early
• Front-end engineering support for complex interactions

This wasn't "throw designs over the wall." It was partnership through launch.

Results

The redesigned BillTracker launched in late 2024, featuring:

• Modern, accessible interface that passes WCAG AA standards
• Fully responsive design that works from desktop to phone
• Redesigned navigation that tells users where they are and how to get elsewhere
• Streamlined workflows that reduce clicks and eliminate scroll-hunting
• Component library that enables consistent future development
• Foundation for AI features including the new PublicMeetingsAI integration

The platform that started in 2007 to replace spreadsheets and sticky notes now looks and feels like software built in 2024, without abandoning the users who've depended on it for nearly two decades.

Conclusion

BillTracker didn't need a new product. They needed their existing product to work better for the people who use it every day.

That's what modernization looks like when it's done right: preserving what works, fixing what doesn't, and building a foundation that supports whatever comes next.