QuickBooks Homepage Dashboard

How do you get buy-in for a total redesign?

For
Intuit QuickBooks
Role
Staff Visual Designer
Team
PMs
Developers
Product Designers
Content Designers

Overview

Close-up of the redesigned dashboard: an Invoices widget showing $8,973.74, up 36% from last month, beside soft-colored cards for invoice reminders and QuickBooks Payroll.

Problem

Customers told us the QuickBooks dashboards made it hard to get work done.

Why it mattered

We needed to turn more trial users into paying customers, and win over younger business owners. But our head of design said using QuickBooks felt like walking down a hospital hallway. Customers pay a premium. The product should feel like it.

Goal

A dashboard that shows each customer what matters to them, so they can get set up and get to work faster.

Outcome

One reusable widget component to keep all nine QuickBooks dashboards consistent, and a phased redesign plan the whole team agreed on.

The problem

Small business owners said the dashboards were cluttered with things that didn't apply to them. They couldn't find what they needed to get set up and run their business. One owner compared it to an act of Congress.

What we found

We looked at all nine QuickBooks dashboards.

Close crops of QuickBooks dashboards side by side, each mixing setup checklists, charts, task lists and tables in its own layout.
Nine dashboards, each a slightly different flavor of vanilla.

Inconsistent page layout. No two dashboards used the same columns or grid.

Inconsistent content. "Task" or "To Do"? "Shortcuts" or "Quick Actions"? It depended on the dashboard.

Inconsistent visuals. Icons, illustrations, and text styles changed from widget to widget. Charts even used the same colors as the rest of the interface.

No hierarchy. Every widget looked equally important. When everything is important, nothing is. Customers got no hint about where to look first.

What we did

One widget for every dashboard

Nielsen Norman Group calls widgets "snapshot-like displays." Years of clutter had made ours anything but.

We sorted them into six groups, then listed what every widget had in common and what they all needed. That list became the wireframe for one new widget.

Wireframe of the new widget: a header row, a stat row, a slot for content and a footer row, beside a list of the parts each row holds.

As the widget took shape, we added variants: hero, data, and add-on. We wanted a framework so durable, so flexible, that nobody would ever "detach instance."

Charts, illustrations, and icons were out of scope.

While this was going on, I ran quick visual explorations on the new wireframe.

Six versions of the widget in different color treatments, from pale blue and mint gradients to bright green and charcoal.

Good, better, best

Our code was old, so the best version would take time. We all agreed customers couldn't wait that long, so we planned in phases, starting with stopping the bleeding. I designed the visuals for every phase, with feedback from designers, PMs, and engineers.

The first step was a no-brainer: a new layout that grouped similar widgets together.

Layout wireframe: shortcuts across the top, then Cash flow, Invoices, Expenses, Tip and Add on in one column, and Tasks and All accounts in the other.

Version zero: a few weeks. A cleanup. We applied the new widget and layout, and removed cluttered charts and extra illustrations. Not ideal, but a step in the right direction.

Version zero: white cards with small all-caps titles holding cash flow, tasks, invoices, expenses and account balances.

Good: 3 months. I used color to make each section stand out, gave the icons one consistent style, refined the typography, and removed the last illustrations.

The Good version: Cash flow and Tasks on soft green and blue tints, with outlined buttons.

Better: 6–8 months. I narrowed the color palette and added a warm tone, so related content grouped together more clearly.

The Better version: green titles, a larger $6,073 total, and Cash flow, Invoices and Expenses grouped on one warm gray panel.

Best: 12–18 months. Here I pushed the visual design further. Cash Flow, Invoices, and Expenses felt even more connected. Titles and totals got bigger, and each section got clearer. I even tried neumorphism. It's polarizing, but small changes only bring small results.

The Best version: soft raised cards on a warm gray background, with large green and orange totals for cash flow, invoices and expenses.

Results

I finished the proposal: one widget component for all nine dashboards, and a phased plan the whole team agreed on. Everyone shaped it along the way, so nothing came as a surprise.

Next steps

Test the new widget with every dashboard team, and with customers. These changes would touch all of QuickBooks, so leadership and other teams needed a say.

Reflections

The phases did more than set a schedule. Each step was small enough for the team to react to, so feedback came early instead of after the fact.

That was the idea for customers too: small steps, so nobody logs in one day to a dashboard they don't recognize.

I left before any of it shipped. I'd still plan it the same way.