This a story 📖 about improving a product by asking good questions 🔍 and driving a process to get there.
Project Background
MC3 delivers customized training and compliance solutions for major pharmaceutical companies. Their SaaS platforms host virtual conferences, leadership presentations, training modules, live workshops, and digital games.
The Challenge
MC3 sought to increase user adoption rates and enhance the overall UX of their portals while modernizing the UI to current standards in both functionality and design.
The Work: A 1-to-N UX StrategyÂ
I developed a UX strategy based on 1-to-N discovery sessions with stakeholders and users, asking key questions to understand the product’s current state and uncover pain points. From there, I began conducting user interviews to collect insights from the top healthcare employees using the product. Â
Through this process, I sought to transform the static and somewhat outdated experience into something engaging and user-friendly. Armed with user insights, I began the design process, producing quick lo-fi prototypes and iterating through testing and feedback. The final step was delivering developer-ready mockups and collaborating closely with the development team to ensure a smooth implementation.
Testing, Insights, and Iteration
Post-launch, I set up a series of evaluations using the "Userlytics" platform, where I gathered valuable user feedback on the updated portal. One critical finding was around a social media component that wasn’t functioning as intended. After identifying this and other key insights, I quickly iterated on the design, producing updated mockups and re-submitting them for additional testing. Â
The success of these updates was confirmed by quantitative metrics. For example, using the Single Ease Question (SEQ) task, we recorded an impressive 6.6 out of 7—validating the effectiveness of the design improvements. Â
Part One: Defining the mission
A friendly chat but with a strategic goal.
To kick things off, I sent calendar invites to decision-makers and set up meetings to ask crucial questions that would define the project’s goals. This laid the groundwork for the user research and design phases that followed.Â
The key to success at this stage was keeping things simple. I outlined key points in the calendar invite and started calls with casual chats. I set up recurring meetings, asked specific questions, and organized research in Notion.Â
I also chose to use “Typeform” to gather up initial screening data.
With fresh insights from the users, including stakeholder interviews and weekly calls, I created a new Slack thread to keep the people on the team updated. This outlined the next steps in the UX process, which included: Â
• User Flow DiagrammingÂ
• Information ArchitectureÂ
• Competitive ResearchÂ
• Design Ideation
My first obstacle! đźš·
Advocating for the UX process​​​​​​​
From radixweb.com. “Waterfall vs Agile: What to Know Before Choosing Your Development Method”
A major challenge I faced early on was advocating for a UX-driven process in a traditionally waterfall-style development environment. Some decision-makers were skeptical of UX’s benefits, and getting buy-in for an agile, iterative approach was difficult. The management structure at MC3 relied on legacy methods, where top-down decision-making left little room for iterative feedback loops. Â
However, with the support of my team, I made the case for a more collaborative, user-centered approach. I emphasized that it wasn’t just about aesthetics but about driving better usability, engagement, and ultimately, measurable success.
Part Two
​​​​​​​Analysis and charting the course of UX/UI work into the following steps
Delving Into UX – User Flow, Information Architecture, and Design ThinkingÂ
One of my first tasks was to analyze the user flow, particularly how users navigated the portal. Starting in Miro, I mapped the user journey from login to the “portal home,” where they were presented with a screen of tiles. One major issue was that users had to leave the portal to watch videos—an outdated experience that needed modernization.  ​​​​​​​
Login user flow.
Within the “portal home” 18 possible action points.Â
Upon creating the user path, it became apparent that the portal was not providing a rich user experience beyond a basic Web 1.0 result. The current version displayed 18 tiles, half of which were dedicated to “Video.” The presence of multiple links or tiles forced users to navigate away from an area that could have provided more information upfront.​​​​​​​
Miro diagram of initial portal screen (after successful login).
If we strip away the visual design it’s easier to see what the user is getting at the skeletal level.
The existing portal featured multiple rows of tiles, but they weren’t optimized for usability. Each tile led to a video, but this forced users to click back and forth between different pages, increasing cognitive load and reducing efficiency.
 POV and HMW Analysis
To address these pain points, I used the “Point of View” (POV) and “How Might We” (HMW) framework to generate solutions. If we want to enhance the users experience and keep things like “Time on Task” down, is there a better way to present what the user needs/wants up front? What are the areas in this portal experience that can be slimmed down? Are there UI components that can be created to accomplish these things versus adding more clicks/taps/screens to navigate to?
Competitive Research
To inspire the redesign, we conducted a competitive analysis of successful SaaS products that excelled in UI and UX. We focused on examples that used UI elements like cards, dialogues, and modals effectively, ensuring that users could navigate without feeling overwhelmed. Â
One standout was Apple’s use of scale to create visually appealing, intuitive screens that look like a mosaic. We drew inspiration from this to improve the overall user experience on MC3’s portal, using similar design principles in the final mockup.
Competitive analysis breakdown.
Dashboard experience wireframing
Heading over to Uizard I prompted their AI engine to show me a quick series of wireframes to support the teams vision for an improved portal landing page.Â
Part Three
Solving Key User Experience Problems
Video platform​​​​​​​
The original video experience forced users to navigate away from the main page to view content. To solve this, I designed an interactive slider that allowed users to browse and play videos without leaving the portal. This update was a game-changer in terms of improving the flow and reducing cognitive load.
Main dashboard wireframe with “video experience” slider link.
Click to view functionality.
To generate solutions for the video experience platform I used UIzard to generate quick wireframes to get a good starting point for conversations with the team about proposed solutions.
“Shout Outs” Feature​​​​​​​
The “Shout Outs” feature, meant to encourage camaraderie, was cluttered and underutilized. I redesigned it with a revealable UI component, saving space and making it more intuitive. Additionally, I simplified the submission process by keeping the user on the same page, increasing engagement.
Before the update:
After the update with the new hidden design.
I noticed a UX issue in the "Shout Outs" feature. To fix this, I suggested updating the UI and simplifying the submission process. My proposed solution uses the "modal" method, allowing users to stay on the same page while submitting their contribution.
User Profile and Social Media Hub
The user profile creation process was outdated, relying on icons that didn’t effectively communicate information. I replaced this with a semantic approach, speeding up recognition and improving the overall flow.Â
Below is the before and after for the “Identify Interests” part of the profile building tool.
Previous UX with icon row.Â
New solution using a semantic approach.
Working interactive prototype.
For the social media hub, I proposed a move to a native app experience. This would streamline posting and increase engagement by leveraging users' device controls. While challenging to get approval, I argued that this shift would create a more intuitive, modern experience.Â
The current experience was only accessible through a clunky HTML-based interface. While this was an inexpensive way to manage this space, the downsides were more pronounced than those of other social media apps, as it lacked the fundamental feel of a social media user experience. The way the user would “Post” forces users to use the HTML-based uploader and “Contribute” modal, which had a significant impact on user participation.
The previous version was a UX problem begging to be solved!
New Experience
Part Four
User research/study and metrics
Through continuous iteration and user feedback, the final product was a massive improvement over the original. Both the UX and UI were modernized, and the design process proved that incorporating agile methods could drive positive change. Â
Final takeaways​​​​​​​
From the user studies that I directed, I was able to gather several insightful metrics. Both quantitative and qualitative data was a critical measure taken to confirm the right track/wrong track and get great feedback for plugging into the iterative phase of the product's development.​​​​​​​
Next steps
Building a Design System to support the product update
The next phase of the project is to build a scalable design system that supports the updated product, ensuring that future iterations continue to meet user needs and align with business goals.
