The context
Hiring a freelancer shouldn't
require a lawyer on call.
Managing contingent workers in the UK is administratively brutal. IR35 off-payroll working rules. Contract generation. Timesheets. Invoice management. Payment processing. Background and compliance checks. Companies managing more than a handful of contractors typically needed a dedicated operations person just to handle the paperwork.
YunoJuno's mission: collapse all of that into one platform. Source the freelancer, generate the compliant contract, manage the engagement, process the payment — and never let anyone end up on the wrong side of HMRC.
The design challenge was inherently dual-sided. Employers needed speed, confidence, and compliance coverage. Freelancers needed to feel like professionals, not admin subjects — fair contracts, fast payment, clear communication.
A marketplace only works when both sides trust it equally. That required designing for two completely different mental models simultaneously.
Fast access to vetted talent. Auto-generated compliant contracts. IR35 status determined automatically. Payment handled without a finance team getting involved.
Professional profile. Transparent contracts. Reliable payment. A single hub for all active and historical engagements — without chasing anyone.
Designing a marketplace means no side gets preferential treatment in the UI. Both users needed to feel the platform was built for them.
Core design principle
Confidence before complexity.
Progressive disclosure at scale.
IR35 legislation is genuinely complex. Contracts have legal weight. The design job was to surface exactly what each user needed to make a decision, shield everything they didn't need to see, and never leave anyone uncertain about the consequences of an action.
Progressive disclosure was the dominant structural pattern across the product: show the summary, reveal detail only when needed, never front-load with complexity before earning trust. For legal concepts — IR35 status, contract terms, compliance flags — I designed contextual education moments that explained the thing at the point of need, not in a help centre article nobody reads.
The measure of success: a hiring manager should be able to contract a freelancer compliantly without knowing what IR35 means. A freelancer should know exactly what they're agreeing to without a lawyer.
"B2B doesn't mean boring. When someone's livelihood depends on your product — their hiring pipeline, or their income — the design stakes are actually higher than in most consumer apps."
James Ciclitira — on YunoJuno