B2B/B2C SAAS PLATFORM REDESIGN
Redesign workspace for a Content Platform
COMPANY
NDA B2B Client
ROLE
Product Designer
TEAM
Engineering, QA
TIMEFRAME
2025
Project Description
A strategic redesign of a complex content platform’s account area to unify navigation, reduce cognitive load, and make core actions (share, customize, analyze) feel fast and predictable for tens of thousands of daily users.
The platform had evolved over a decade into a powerful, but fragmented tool for creating, customizing, publishing, and analyzing interactive content. More than 50+ screens and several product modules (library, editors, sharing, analytics, shelves) grew independently, leading to inconsistent navigation patterns and duplicated UI behaviours.
Users were not just asking for a “modern UI” — they were struggling with basic orientation inside the product. Similar actions worked differently in different places: sharing could happen from a modal in one module, from a right-hand panel in another, and from a dropdown somewhere else. As a result, simple tasks took 40% more clicks than necessary and first‑time users needed up to two hours to build a reliable mental model of the interface.
This case focuses on a conceptual redesign of the account area that introduces a unified navigation model and a consistent way to work with both individual documents and shelves, while requiring only minimal changes to the underlying design system.
Timeline
From concept to validated design system in 2 months.
Background
The platform had grown rapidly over 10 years, resulting in a fragmented interface where key features were hidden behind complex navigation. Users struggled with slow workflows, while the engineering team faced mounting technical debt due to inconsistent UI patterns. The goal was to build a scalable foundation for the next decade of growth.
Process
As a solo product designer on this initiative, I treated it as a strategic UX exercise rather than a purely visual refresh. Over 5–7 sprints, I:
Audited 50+ existing screens across library, editors, customization, sharing, analytics, and shelves to understand how users move between them today.
Mapped key workflows (create → customize → share → analyze) and measured how many clicks and context switches they currently required.
Identified at least seven distinct navigation patterns across the product, including different placements for action panels and different ways to reach the same function.
To validate the new navigation model, I created high‑fidelity prototypes and ran moderated internal testing sessions with five stakeholders (designers and a PM). The goal was to see if people could locate core actions faster, and whether the new structure felt more predictable without needing a full onboarding tour.
Research & Planning
Conducted a UX audit revealing that simple tasks required 40% more clicks than necessary. Mapped out new user flows to prioritize "Create" and "Share" actions.
Design System
Modify current design language focused on data density and clarity. Introduced a flexible grid system that works equally well for visual-heavy marketing content and data-heavy administrative lists.
Prototyping & Validation
Created high-fidelity prototypes to test the new "Global Sidebar" navigation. Early validation showed a significant reduction in time-to-task for old & new users.
Solution
The core of the redesign is a unified account workspace built around a global left sidebar, consistent content workspaces, and simplified flows for documents and shelves.
In the public portfolio version, all screens are recreated with updated colors, mock data, and neutral branding to respect NDA constraints while showing the real structure and interaction patterns.
Unified global navigation
The new collapsible left sidebar becomes the single source of truth for top‑level navigation: Dashboard, Content, Shelves, Analytics, Settings. Regardless of where the user is, these entry points stay in the same order and location, flattening the information architecture and reducing the need to “hunt” for modules.
Consistent workflows
Working with a document now follows a clear sequence inside one workspace: Preview → Customize → Add content → Share → Analyze. The same mental model applies to shelves — organizing collections, tailoring their appearance, and reviewing performance all live in a single, predictable layout. Instead of scattering actions between right‑hand panels, modals, and hidden menus, the redesign:
Groups primary actions in consistent places across all modules.
Reduces visual clutter so that content always remains the focal point of the screen.
Minimally disruptive to the design system
Visually, the concept builds on the existing component library, adjusting spacing, hierarchy, and a few key patterns rather than reinventing everything. This approach allows engineering to roll out the new navigation and workflows with minimal changes to the underlying design system while still delivering a noticeably calmer and more coherent experience.
Results
Although this project remained at the concept stage, the impact is grounded in analysis of current flows and industry benchmarks for B2B SaaS tools.
Projected outcomes after implementation:
Fewer clicks to core actions
Reducing average steps to share, embed, or customize from 8–10 clicks down to 4–6, a ~45–50% decrease.
Faster onboarding
Cutting the time for new users to feel comfortable navigating the account area from roughly 120 minutes to about 60, thanks to a single, repeatable navigation model.
Lower cognitive load
Internal testers described the new workspace as “lighter” and “more obvious,” despite the same feature set, due to fewer competing patterns and a clearer hierarchy.
Support and roadmap benefits
Centralizing navigation and unifying document/shelf workflows is expected to reduce navigation‑related support tickets by 25–30% and make it easier to introduce future modules like dashboard‑level insights and advanced analytics without overloading the UI.