LexisNexis was a fascinating project. I was brought on board to help create a hybrid version of their five executable applications for their web platform, which is used by 85,000 agencies across the country and around the world.

LexisNexis is the largest data company in the world, holding personal data for nearly every person for the last 200 years. Even if you don’t have a Social Security number, you’ll have an LX ID assigned to you. These applications are used by organizations like the NSA, CIA, FBI, local police, sheriffs, and agencies like Interpol in Europe—just to name a few.

The challenge was to understand how all the applications worked together and how users from different agencies around the world used them. Fortunately, when I arrived, they had conducted extensive research and user studies to understand how all users interacted with the five apps. With all this data in hand, I began reverse-engineering the apps to create a hybrid web application.

You might wonder how I managed to solve the issue for so many agencies and users with varying needs. The idea was to create custom components based on user roles and allow users to create their dashboards according to their specific job descriptions. Once I identified the need for 565 components and categorized them by role, I got to work creating a dashboard that enabled users to customize it to meet their needs, helping them perform their jobs more effectively.