📈 Business Impact
• Successfully redesigned and launched a high-profile enterprise tool within a 3-week window
• Accelerated team buy-in and beta release readiness through visual storytelling and design leadership
• Demonstrated the value of responsive design and a scalable design system in a fast-paced production environment
🎯 Project Role
Owned end-to-end design, from stakeholder alignment to UI execution. Leveraged a pre-built design system, strong engineering collaboration, and strategic visual design to fast-track a complete redesign under a tight deadline.
🛠 Skills Used
• Product Design
• Visual Design
• Interaction Design
• Design Systems
• Responsive Design
• Stakeholder Communication
• Rapid Prototyping
• UI Polish & Craft
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Presentation Design
The Problem
The product needed help—and fast.
My client had an enterprise app that converted photo sets into 3D models. It had been designed and built externally, and was approaching a beta release. With just 3 weeks to go, the product owner asked me to step in and “clean up a few areas” of concern.
Initially, the ask was narrow. The team believed the current design was “fine,” with only minor tweaks needed. But once I reviewed the product, it was clear: this app had significant UX and UI challenges. It was visually outdated, inconsistently structured, and poorly optimized for accessibility. It needed more than polish—it needed vision.
Here was the first area of concern ↓
I was asked to clean up the side panel above and add some additional information. This is what I came up with ↓.
OK. This is starting to look a bit better. My guess is that you already notice a whole lot of other areas of concern both from a UX and UI perspective.
- First off, it's ugly
- The grid is not aligned properly and the gutters are far too wide
- The primary color does not pass color contrast tests
This app is in serious need of design love.
The Solution
Earn Trust, Then Inspire
Having worked with the product team before, I began by meeting their initial request: small updates to the side panel UI. But once those designs started circulating, feedback came back that they were still “lacking.” That opened the door to what I had anticipated all along—a full redesign.
I moved quickly to create higher-fidelity, visually compelling mocks. These sparked immediate excitement across Product, Engineering, and Business teams. Pretty designs, when timed right, create momentum. Suddenly, the team was aligned: let’s do a full redesign before beta—in just 3 weeks.
Use the Design System to Move Fast
Fortunately, I had previously led the creation of our internal design system—and it paid off. With a full-time engineer maintaining the coded library, I was able to design and deliver pages using standardized components, dramatically speeding up development.
I worked on a near-daily cadence with Product and Frontend Engineering, incorporating feedback in real time and validating assumptions during weekly calls with the Business Owner. This rhythm helped us stay fast, aligned, and focused.
Champion Responsiveness
As someone who’s spent years designing enterprise tools, I know that responsiveness should be the default, not a luxury. I used this redesign opportunity to push for full mobile support—even in “gritty” areas like editing and data entry.
To demonstrate viability, I created mockups of complex features on mobile screens, showing exactly how the app could scale down without losing power. This strategy not only got buy-in—it raised the team’s bar for what enterprise UX should look like.
Adapt on the Fly
Just days before delivery, the Business Owner changed direction: they now wanted a light theme instead of dark.
This could have derailed a project on a tight deadline—but because our design system was built with flexibility in mind, I was able to switch themes and update mocks quickly. This moment reinforced the long-term ROI of investing in scalable systems.
The Results
Hit the Deadline
The app was successfully redesigned, developed, and released to beta users on time
• A fully responsive, cleanly themed, and modern enterprise app experience was delivered
• The redesign generated excitement across teams and increased stakeholder confidence
This project is a powerful example of how strong design leadership, visual storytelling, and systems thinking can deliver high-value results—fast.
