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Empowering People to Navigate Legal Situations with Confidence

Designing for Copilot Mode

Rocket Copilot Mode

Copilot Mode is a focused AI-powered experience inside Rocket Lawyer designed to help people navigate legal situations with confidence rather than fear or avoidance. Instead of treating legal help as a transaction, we reframed it as a guided journey that combined AI assistance with access to human Legal Pros.

THEMES

User Interface Design
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing

TEAM

Me as the Lead Product Designer
Product Manager 
2 Legal Pro
Data Scientist

FE Engineers
2 ML Engineers

TOOLS

Figma
User testing.com

FullStory

Adobe After Effects
Google Meet

TIMELINE

5 Months

Rocket Copilot is Rocket Lawyer’s next-generation legal AI assistant, designed to help people confidently navigate legal situations and take meaningful actions.

Copilot Mode is a focused experience that enables users to:

  • Ask legal questions and get fast, tailored answers

  • Ask a Legal Pro for expert help with complex issues

  • Generate legal documents with AI guidance

  • Clarify legal terms and steps while drafting documents

The Problem

Legal situations often feel confusing, expensive, and intimidating..

Through customer support data, and surveys, we found that many users avoided legal tasks until they became urgent.

Key problems we identified:

  • 62% of users reported feeling "unsure where to start" with legal issues

  • 55% said legal language made them anxious or confused

  • 48% didn’t trust AI alone for important legal matters

  • 40% abandoned document creation mid-way due to confusion

  The initial core challenge:​

  How might we design a system that could answer legal questions with AI?

Research and Insights

Users need in-flow guidance and human backup.

I conducted 22 user interviews, analyzed behavior from hundreds of sessions, and ran multiple usability tests.

​

4 key insights shaped Copilot Mode:

Guided, not blank

Users preferred guided conversations over blank text boxes.​​

→ Guided prompts increased completion rates by 31%.

Explainable AI builds trust

People trusted AI more when they understood how answers were generated.

→ When we explained reasoning, perceived trust increased by 26%.

Human backup matters

Having access to a Legal Pro as a backup significantly increased confidence.

→ 68% of users said they were more likely to proceed knowing a lawyer was available.

Help in the moment

Users wanted help while creating documents, not only before or after.

→ Real-time guidance reduced drop-off by 22%.

One of our biggest realizations was that the product didn’t just need to "answer questions", it needed to coach users through their legal journey

Defining the Opportunity

Based on our findings, we reframed the problem from:

How might we design a system that could answer legal questions with AI?

To:

How might we empower people to navigate legal situations with confidence using both AI and human expertise?

This shifted our focus toward trust, clarity, and emotional reassurance, not just speed

Ideation and Exploration

We explored multiple concepts:

  • Pure chat-based assistant

  • Step-by-step legal wizard

  • Conversational AI + document split screen

  • AI guidance alongside legal forms

  • Hybrid AI + Legal Pro escalation model

After testing 7 different prototypes, we converged on Copilot Mode, a structured yet conversational experience that combined guidance, easier legal document creation, and human support when needed.

The Solution: Copilot Mode

Copilot Mode became a focused environment where users could:​

Start with guided prompts

Gentle questions help users frame their situation and know where to begin.

Get fast, tailored answers

Copilot provides clear, situation-specific legal direction in plain language.

Create documents with AI guidance

Legal documents are drafted step-by-step with contextual help built in.

Clarify legal terms in real time

Complex language is explained instantly, right where users need it.

Escalate to a Legal Pro

Users can bring in a human expert whenever the situation feels high-stakes.

Key design principles:

Transparency

Explain why the AI suggests something

Guidance

Provide smart suggestions at the start, throughout, and after each step to guide users seamlessly

Continuity

Keep context across chat + documents

Human reassurance

Make Legal Pro support visible and accessible

The experience blended conversation, structure, and intuitive document creation into one seamless workflow.

Validation and Iteration

We ran 3 rounds of usability testing with 34 participants total.

​

Improvements we made based on feedback:

NOTE: ADD DO AND DON'T CHAT SCREENSHOT HERE

More human AI tone

Simplified AI language to be less

"legal" and more human

Clearer legal explanations

Added clearer explanations for complex terms

Easier access to Legal Pros

Made Legal Pro access more visible

Smoother situation-to-doc flow

Improved transitions between legal situation
and document creation

Each iteration measurably improved clarity, confidence, and completion rates.

Launch and Impact

After launch, Copilot Mode delivered measurable results:

  • +34% increase in document completion rates

  • -27% reduction in user drop-off

  • +38% increase in AI engagement compared to previous Copilot integrated products

  • +22% increase in users opting to Ask a Legal Pro

  • Higher trust scores in post-session surveys

​

Beyond metrics, users reported feeling more in control, less intimidated, and more willing to address legal issues earlier with confidence.

My Contribution

As Lead Product Designer, I worked on:
 

  • Defined the UX vision for Copilot Mode

  • Led research synthesis and problem framing

  • Designed core interaction models

  • Created high-fidelity prototypes

  • Facilitated cross-functional alignment

  • Partnered closely with engineering and legal teams

  • Drove iterative improvements based on data and feedback

    I acted as both a strategic designer and systems thinker, ensuring the product was not just usable, but truly empowering users.

What I learned:

Next Steps:

  • Trust is the most important design principle in AI products

  • Great AI design is as much about explanation as automation

  • Legal experiences must address both logic and emotion

  • Hybrid AI + human systems require careful orchestration

Future opportunities include:

  • Expanding Copilot Mode to more legal domains

  • Personalizing guidance based on user history

  • Adding visual explainers for legal concepts

  • Improving accessibility and multilingual support

  • Tighter integration with Legal Pros

© 2026 by Omar Alamrani.

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