2024’s Game-Changing Insights: Our Top 3 Lessons for Success in Contract and Legal Design

Today marks the last day of 2024, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the lessons learned over the year and think about how we can apply them moving forward. For those of us in the world of contract legal design, it’s been a year of growth, challenges, and transformation. Creativity is about solving real problems, and this year has been a fantastic journey of applying just that! As we continue to shape the future of contracts and legal documents, here are our top three lessons from 2024 that we believe will drive success in the years to come:

1. Start with User-Centered Design

One of the most fundamental principles of contract and legal design is understanding who you're designing for. In 2024, we saw firsthand how focusing on the user from the very beginning of a project leads to more impactful and effective legal documents.

When designing contracts, agreements, or terms of service, it’s not enough to think about the legal requirements or the firm’s perspective alone. You need to start with a deep understanding of your users.

Mistakes You'll Avoid When You Start with the User in Contract and Legal Design

When it comes to contract and legal design, starting with the user is crucial. Too often, we see legal professionals fall into common traps when they overlook the needs of their audience. Here are the top 3 mistakes we see happening:

Wrong Document Format – The Biggest Mistake of All: Redesigning or drafting important documents like online terms of use or privacy policies in a traditional Word A4 or letter format is a huge problem. It’s not just outdated; it's useless. In today’s digital world, no one is going to download and read a bulky, poorly formatted word document, especially when they have questions and need clarity fast.

What happens when you ignore format? You end up with more work on your desk. Expect constant requests for clarifications and complaints from internal clients and from end-users because the document wasn’t designed for ease of use in the first place. It’s a waste of both your time and your customers' time.

Wrong Language – Low Readability Makes Documents Inaccessible: A major issue arises when legal documents are filled with dense legalese. If your audience consists of non-lawyers—whether it’s business units, clients, or customers—legal jargon does nothing but confuse and frustrate them. But here's where the pendulum swings the other way: some beginners in contract and legal design believe that every document must be 100% readable, which isn’t always necessary. It’s about finding the right balance.

For example, a readability score of 55/100 might be more than enough for a particular document or audience. The key is understanding who you’re designing for and adjusting accordingly. Going too far in simplifying language can dilute the message, making it overly simplistic and even condescending. Don’t compromise the integrity of your content just to score high on readability.

Not Asking for User Input – A Critical Missed Opportunity: One of the worst mistakes is failing to ask users for input. When you skip this step, you’re left guessing how to go about your redesign or drafting. This is a huge setback because you miss out on a critical opportunity to address user concerns, uncover pain points, and understand what really matters to them.

By not asking for feedback, you risk misunderstanding your users’ priorities. You may even overlook clauses that could be a major turnoff for your clients—clauses that could easily be flagged and adjusted if you only asked. Not involving users in the process leads to a trail of redlines, slowing down negotiations and deal-making.

How to Avoid These Mistakes and Create User-Friendly Legal Documents?

When designing contracts, agreements, or terms of service, it’s essential to think beyond just the legal requirements. You need to truly understand your audience. Ask yourself:

• Who will be reading this document?
• What are their pain points and frustrations with legal language?
• How can we make this document more accessible, clear, and actionable for them?

By incorporating user feedback early in the process, you can create documents that not only meet legal standards but are also easier to navigate, reducing confusion and increasing trust with your clients. Legal design is about humanizing the law, and that starts with the people who will be using your documents. 

2. Keep it Simple

Simplicity, when done right, is the highest form of sophistication. Keeping it simple is key—but don't mistake simplicity for oversimplification. It's about striking the right balance: simplifying the complex without losing the essence or legal precision. In 2024, I saw the magic that happens when contract and legal design masters this balance, creating documents that are both user-friendly and legally sound.

Mistakes You'll Avoid When You Truly Simplify Things

Trying to Do Everything at Once: Many people think they need to overhaul every aspect of a document redesign all at once—plain language, visuals, navigation, process flow. But here's the thing: trying to tackle everything at once usually leads to overwhelm and a result that lacks focus. Pick your battles. In the Bootcamp, we teach how to master core skills in contract and legal design so you know when to apply them and when to leave them out.

A typical contract redesign can take months, but you don’t have to start from scratch. You can begin with the document you already have and gradually apply improvements. In-house counsels who take our course do just that—they start small, improving incrementally, and avoid the pressure of a massive, all-at-once redesign.

Avoid Using Unnecessary Visuals: Sometimes, in an attempt to make a contract or legal document more engaging, you go overboard with visuals. You want to add icons, colors, and other graphic elements— often to the point where the document ends up looking like a Christmas tree with colored icons everywhere.

While visuals can enhance comprehension and make documents easier to review, using too many just adds clutter. It makes the document feel unprofessional and distracts from the important content. Less is more. Simple, effective visuals are what make a document stand out—not a design overloaded with unnecessary graphics.

Dumbing Down the Language: A warning! Keeping it simple document doesn’t mean dumbing down language. One of the biggest mistakes I see is when people oversimplify the language to the point where it loses its meaning. It's tempting to use overly simple terms or remove important legal concepts, but this actually undermines the document’s purpose. Keep the language clear, but stay true to the legal context. There’s a fine line between simplifying and oversimplifying—make sure you don’t cross it!

Using Plain Language isn’t just about simplifying the words; Simplicity isn’t just about cutting down word count either. It’s about making legal documents clearer, more accessible, more usable. Shorter sentences, straightforward vocabulary, and clear structures make it easier for users to comprehend their rights and obligations. When documents are easy to read, you build trust—clients will appreciate the effort to communicate transparently.

How to Avoid These Mistakes and Simplify Things for Real?

It's about enhancing clarity. In 2024, I’ve seen how Plain Language has transformed legal documents. The power of Plain Language lies in its ability to break down complex legal jargon into something everyone can understand, regardless of their legal background. Some may argue that simplifying legal language takes away its authority or precision, but the truth is, Plain Language enhances both clarity and trust while maintaining the necessary legal rigor. Whether you’re designing contracts, terms of use, or privacy policies or procurement documents, simplifying your language is an investment that pays off in user satisfaction and legal compliance.

The same principle applies to visuals. You don’t need to add colors everywhere or throw icons at every heading. Doing so will only create visual clutter—and waste a lot of your precious time! Instead, think strategically about how you can use visual elements to clarify important concepts. If you understand what your users value, it becomes easier to choose which concepts to highlight with visuals, like a timeline or a flowchart, to make the information clearer and more actionable. Focus on quality over quantity when it comes to visuals, and always align them with the content’s core message. 

3. Embrace Technology, But Don’t Forget the Human Touch

In 2024, technology has played an increasingly central role in contract and legal design, and one of the biggest shifts we’ve noticed is the integration of AI. From drafting templates to automating certain processes, AI is here to stay. But here’s the lesson I’ve learned: AI is a tool, not a replacement for human insight.

Mistakes You'll Avoid When You Combine Tech + Humans

Using AI, but keeping everything in legalese – When you rely on AI to generate content but keep the language filled with legal jargon, all you end up with is more legalese — content that only lawyers can understand. This crystallizes the idea that contracts and legal documents are meant for lawyers alone, slowing down the entire process and creating more work for yourself. The key is to use AI to streamline processes while keeping the language clear and accessible for all users, not just lawyers.

Not organizing your information – Without proper organization and structure, AI can’t truly work its magic. If your data is a jumbled mess, it becomes difficult for AI to process it effectively. But when you organize your information and design it for the users, AI can make better use of that data. A critical skill we teach in our Bootcamp is document mapping—a strategic approach to drafting contracts and legal documents that helps you structure content for both the machine and the user. It's a huge time-saver and a strategic approach to improving your legal documents!

Failing to supervise the machine – Technology can be a great tool, but it’s not a substitute for human judgment. AI can process data quickly, but you need to supervise it to ensure that the output aligns with your legal goals. If you haven’t done the groundwork to map your document and structure the content properly, you might find yourself overwhelmed by the AI’s results. Having a solid understanding of the content and its intended audience is still crucial.

How to Avoid These Mistakes and Bring a Human Touch to AI and Technology?

AI can help streamline the contract and legal design process, improve efficiency, and even suggest improvements based on data. However, human input is still crucial when it comes to the creative aspects of legal design—like ensuring the tone is right, that the document is legally sound, and most importantly, that it meets the needs of the end user.

In 2024, we embraced AI tools that helped us design more efficiently, but we also made sure to infuse human judgment into every step. Technology can speed up repetitive tasks and offer valuable insights, but when it comes to user-centered design, the human touch is irreplaceable.

Looking Ahead to 2025

As we look ahead to 2025, these lessons will continue to shape how we approach legal design. Starting with a user-centered mindset, simplifying language, and embracing technology while maintaining a human touch will be the keys to creating legal documents that work—for businesses, for clients, and for the law itself.

If 2024 taught us anything, it’s that legal design is about making the law, legal documents and contracts more valued because they become more useful. Let’s continue this journey together and transform the legal landscape—one document at a time!

You can join our Bootcamp - registrations open now for the next intake with 3 EXTRA early bird bonuses including a full Contract Design Audit, our Plain Language Blueprint and Gen-AI course for contract and legal design! Find out all the details here: https://www.legalcreatives.com/bootcamp

What were your key lessons from 2024? We’d love to hear how they’ve shaped your work and how you plan to apply them in the future.

Questions? Email Tessa Manuello our Founder and CEO at [email protected] or follow on LinkedIn here for more practical insights and free weekly educational videos.