Redesigned and unified the navigation system across the innovation management platform to improve usability, consistency, and discoverability for enterprise users.
Unified two navigation systems (frontend and backend) into one consistent flow, reducing confusion and improving platform learnability.
Redesigned the data table with better UX, advanced filtering, and search, enabling users to find and manage information more efficiently.
Streamlined navigation bar items to declutter the interface and improve discoverability of key features.
Introduced a new dashboard item for admin users, giving quicker access to essential tools and insights, enhancing their daily workflows.
Our product is an enterprise innovation management system where users can submit, share, and develop ideas to drive innovation. As our platform grew, the navigation became fragmented, with separate systems for the frontend and backend. Users and CSM frequently reported that the current setup was confusing, inconsistent, and difficult to learn. Navigation items were cluttered, key features were hard to discover, and admins lacked quick access to the tools they used most. These challenges created inefficiencies for enterprise users and highlighted the need for a unified navigation system.
interviews with users and CSM to understand how they navigate the platform, search for information, and use settings.
The insights revealed common pain points around finding features, inconsistent structures, and hidden functionalities, which informed the redesign priorities.
short sessions with CSM to compare the two navigation systems.
These sessions helped uncover the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, highlighting which elements supported usability and which created confusion. The insights guided decisions on what to keep, refine, or remove in the unified navigation.
card sorting sessions with CSM to understand how they naturally group sub-settings and which settings are confusing for the users.
The insights helped restructure and categorize settings more intuitively, ensuring that users could find configuration options quickly and logically.
Users considered the dashboard statistics and KPIs largely irrelevant to their needs. Most users rarely interacted with the dashboard directly, instead relying on the “recently visited” section as their primary way to access pages.
Recently visited items were not always enough. Instead of relying on search or the dashboard, users preferred direct access methods like typing URLs or using page-specific shortcuts to quickly reach their destination.
Users felt overwhelmed by too many topics and confused by inconsistent naming. Duplicate labels and multiple access paths to the same page added to the navigation inefficiency.
Setting up workflows was described as the most challenging task, since related settings were scattered across multiple tabs and often inconsistent. Without a centralized place for workflow configuration, users spent unnecessary time navigating back and forth to complete tasks.
Users desire a customizable dashboards, such as pinning topics or settings. They also highlighted the need for templates tailored to specific use cases. In addition, admins and campaign owners wanted more specialized overviews and analytics to support their roles.
Users suggested that pinning items in “Recently Visited” or creating bookmarks for frequently accessed pages could make navigation more practical and efficient.
We decided to redesign key parts of the platform to streamline workflows, reduce clutter, and make information easier to find for enterprise users.
Customizable Dashboard: Fully tailored dashboards with widgets to surface relevant topics and workflows.
Enhanced Page Overview: Advanced filtering and search to quickly locate pages and data.
Redesigned Settings Modal: Grouped settings with descriptions and breadcrumbs for easier navigation.
Find the relevance and interpretation of the business using Open's AI API. Providing a specific and detailed business context for finding the relevance.
The dashboard doesn’t show what I need, and I can’t tailor it to my workflow.
Users can now fully customize the dashboard with different widgets, allowing them to pin relevant topics, workflow settings, or analytics. This ensures the dashboard aligns with individual needs and priorities, improving efficiency and usability.
I struggle to find the pages or information I need quickly using the current navigation or dashboard.
A new page overview was designed with advanced filtering and search, helping users locate the right pages and data efficiently. The improved layout and search functionality reduces time spent navigating and supports better decision-making.
Settings are scattered and confusing, and I often don’t know what’s inside each group or where I am in the system.
The new settings modal groups related settings with clear descriptions, and adds breadcrumbs for deeper layers. Users can now understand what each group contains and easily find their way through the configuration system, improving task completion and reducing errors.
I have to switch between different pages to see submissions and survey responses, which is time-consuming and confusing.
We combined the submission overview and survey responses into a single user content modal and updated it with a new data table. This allows users to view all relevant information in one place, improving efficiency and reducing context switching.
Since prompt engineering was new to me, I took the initiative to learn it hands-on, experimenting in LangSmith to design and test prompts. This experience taught me how to translate design intentions into effective AI behaviors, expanding my skill set beyond UX design.
I learned the importance of grounding design in research before ideating, taking the time to gather and analyze user feedback before creating solutions. By validating assumptions and iterating on prototypes based on real user input, I ensured the final design truly addressed user needs and avoided solving problems that didn’t exist.
Through multiple rounds of prototyping and iteration, I learned the value of testing ideas early and often. Each cycle of feedback and refinement helped improve usability, clarify AI interactions, and ensure the final solution was both intuitive and effective for users.
Working closely with developers pushed me to adapt my communication—from visualizing ideas for non-designers to clarifying technical needs during implementation.