myUSPTO: Secured Unified Access & Personalization

Acting Product Owner, UX — Led vision, backlog, and release readiness for SSO + MFA modernization.

At a Glance

Unified access | one login Secure sign-in | SSO + MFA Personalized | dashboard view Release ready | QA + rollout Accessible | WCAG / 508

Project Overview

  • Client: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)
  • Role: Acting Product Owner, UX / Information Architect
  • Timeline: Aug 2014 – Sep 2015
  • Scope: SSO portal, personalized dashboard, modular widget framework
  • Standards: FedRAMP, WCAG 2.0 / Section 508

Tools & Methods

  • Axure & Adobe Suite
  • User & stakeholder interviews
  • Workshops & whiteboarding
  • Requirements & data analysis
  • Information architecture
  • Interaction design & prototyping

Challenge

  • Fragmented authentication: Multiple portals with separate sign-ins caused confusion and security risk.
  • Disjointed experiences: Users had to re-authenticate to move between tools, leading to frustration and inefficiency.
  • Lack of personalization: Each business unit maintained its own dashboards and alerts with no shared framework.
  • High support dependency: Account recovery and sign-in errors drove costly support volume.

USPTO needed a single, secure way for users to sign in, manage tasks, and access services—while meeting strict federal accessibility and security standards.

Challenge Examples

Multiple logins, shared passwords, and disconnected systems — a fragmented experience built for protection, not productivity.

Legacy USPTO patent login screen, reflecting separate sign-in flows and sessions before unifying to one USPTO ID.

Separate patent login, separate flow — I drove the case for a single USPTO ID with MFA.

High-fidelity wireframe of a sign-in page with multi-factor authentication, showcasing user input fields, validation messages, and a help widget.

Many competing iterations — we set shared decision criteria and converged on a unified direction.

Vision & Objectives

  • Unify access: Deliver a single, secure sign-on with MFA across all USPTO portals.
  • Streamline tasks: Centralize dashboards, alerts, and messages to reduce context switching.
  • Personalize experiences: Give each user a tailored view of filings, actions, and deadlines.
  • Ensure compliance: Meet Section 508 and FedRAMP requirements for accessibility and security.
  • Build for scalability: Establish a modular widget framework for future portal integrations.

Anchored in usability, security, and accessibility—this vision unified three business units into one coherent, user-centered platform.

Vision Examples

Design workshops that aligned product, engineering, and security — redefining access through single sign-on and role-based collaboration.

Competitive analysis of existing patent login systems, highlighting the need for a unified approach.

Separate patent login, separate flow — I drove the case for a single USPTO ID with MFA.

Designers at a whiteboard covered with Post-its, sketches, and voting dots, synthesizing research to align on priorities.

Customer journey at a glance — check deadlines, act on cases, confirm status.

Approach

  • Defined the UX north star and acceptance criteria for each release, aligning product, engineering, and compliance.
  • Led research → prioritization → sprint goals with examiners, SMEs, PM, and Engineering to focus on highest-value work.
  • Managed roadmap trade-offs (examiner density vs. guided clarity; compliance vs. delivery velocity).
  • Ensured release readiness through prototypes, usability validation, and development sign-off.

Product ownership at the UX level turned scattered requests into a cohesive plan for secure SSO and a personalized dashboard—grounded in evidence and built for compliance.

Transformation

  • Unified three business units under one secure SSO portal with multi-factor authentication — reducing duplicate logins and support volume.
  • Centralized dashboards and widgets into a single modular framework, giving users a personalized, task-focused view of filings, alerts, and deadlines.
  • Streamlined collaboration across product, security, and accessibility teams through shared governance and release readiness reviews.
  • Standardized UI patterns with accessible components and consistent navigation, ensuring WCAG 2.0 and FedRAMP compliance.
  • Established a scalable foundation for future integrations — enabling new portals and features to plug into a unified experience model.

What began as disconnected systems evolved into a secure, user-centered platform — uniting design, compliance, and technology around one consistent access experience.

Transformation Examples

A unified workspace delivered personalized widgets, alerts, and role-based tools — bringing clarity and trust to every login.

Search widget concept showing aggregated patent/trademark results with filters and result cards.

Unified search — patent & trademark results in one view, fast filters, decision-ready.

Sign-in concept screen for a unified USPTO account showing create account, sign in, feedback, and FAQ panels.

Unified account concept — clearer sign-up, sign-in, and guidance as we converged on a single approach.

Outcomes

Login reduction 70% | fewer accounts & faster access Task completion ↑ 25% | streamlined dashboard & navigation Reusable components | modular widget framework Accessibility WCAG 2.0 | compliance baked into design FedRAMP & MFA | secure single sign-on adoption

Takeaways

  • Design systems scale trust. Expanding the widget library deepened adoption and made consistency measurable.
  • Governance sustains momentum. Regular security and accessibility audits kept modernization aligned with federal standards.
  • Real users reveal reality. Continuous usability validation paired with analytics confirmed measurable improvement in efficiency.
  • Frameworks create future value. The modular design architecture became a foundation for other USPTO portals and partner integrations.

Modernization wasn’t just about access — it was about building systems that earn trust, sustain compliance, and evolve with user needs.