Multi-location digital presence platform
I led three designers on a live platform that manages how multi-location businesses appear across web, local search, reviews and social. The hardest call was the navigation. I held it against the product team, choosing one structure from four.
- Role
- Design Lead, team of three
- When
- March to November 2023
- Scope
- 6 to 7 modules, three AI features
Eleven modules in one row
The platform's eleven modules sat in one horizontal bar. The dashboard stacked dense metrics with nothing to act on, and internal staff handled onboarding. The client's own design team held the content system in parallel.
Process maps before screens
Each module began as a process map, validated with the client before design. The domain research was a joint effort with the client's experts. Requirements went into a tracker, broken into screens and estimated, and each sprint got its own design file.
Four navigation structures, one held
The product team and I argued over top or side navigation, what was primary and what was a submenu, and dark or light. I held the call.
A fixed left navigation, with an accordion second level, a hover menu third level, and a global profile selector with filtering at the top. It beat the existing top bar and three other left treatments, including a collapsed icon rail.
I judged each option on usability, on fit with the platform's information architecture, and on how quietly it read. The chosen one serves new and experienced users, and it scales as modules are added.
Action before reporting, and three AI features
Under my lead, the team moved pending setup actions above the dashboard's metrics, so the page asks for action before it reports. Onboarding moved from internal staff to the user, in four steps.
My team designed the interfaces for three AI features. Their interaction patterns were set by the client's product manager. Drafts come as three suggestions, not one answer. Generated schema is validated before it is published, with a manual route beside the automatic one.
Handed over to the client
The designs were handed over to the client. I led, reviewed and approved every feature here, and designed no single screen alone. The design system was configured from an existing kit, not built.
Ekam, a design method that runs with AI
A method I built with AI, where a person decides at every gate.
Also: Research and design system, agentic mortgage platform, Payments bank B2B platform. Every role, team and date.