FULL REDESIGN
DESIGN SYSTEM
WEB APP
Role
Lead Designer (Freelance)
Industry
Drone Data Visualisation, Asset Management
Duration
3 months
SmartData is a web-based platform developed by National Drones. It transforms drone-captured imagery into actionable intelligence, enabling industries such as mining, telecommunications and renewable energy to monitor, visualise, and manage complex infrastructure from a centralised platform.
The platform had strong technical capability but faced growing UX challenges. Inconsistent terminology, confusing navigation, and fragmented UI design were slowing adoption and frustrating users.
The opportunity was clear: refine the platform into a more intuitive, scalable, and professional-grade product that matched the value of its data.
MY ROLE
I was engaged as Lead Designer to conduct a comprehensive UX audit and deliver a redesigned, scalable design system. My responsibilities included:
Interviewing stakeholders and customers to uncover pain points and usage patterns
Evaluating information architecture, terminology, and navigation structure, with the resulting recommendation of a refined taxonomy to clarify asset and dataset relationships
Redesigning core workflows for clarity and scalability
Building a new design system to unify UI components and interactions
I worked closely with the founder, business analyst, and lead developer - ensuring solutions aligned with technical constraints and business priorities.
CHALLENGES
The UX audit uncovered three core issues:
Naming and labels like Location, Asset, Dataset, Views, Viewers, and Inspection caused confusion.
Users struggled to understand relationships between objects or how data was classified.
Confusing navigation
Key features were buried in a hamburger menu.
Navigation patterns were inconsistent, making task completion unnecessarily slow.
Fragmented UI
Inconsistent components and visual styles made the interface harder to use, scale, and maintain.
PROCESS
I conducted stakeholder interviews (CEO, business analyst, sales) and customer interviews to uncover business goals, user needs, and product pain points. This revealed opportunities to align the platform with both strategic vision and frontline workflows.
I performed a deep audit of the platform, highlighting issues with navigation, terminology, and component consistency. A recommendations report was presented to leadership, securing buy-in for a design overhaul.
Through low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes, I explored potential solutions and tested them with stakeholders and customers. These iterative sessions validated direction early, reducing design risk and building alignment.
I established a scalable design system with:
Foundational tokens (colour, typography, spacing)
Reusable components (navigation, cards, data tables, image viewer tools)
Standardised interaction patterns
This ensured consistency across the platform and provided the dev team with a maintainable framework for future features.
I redesigned high-impact workflows, including:
Dashboard overview for quick status scanning
Asset and Dataset views with clearer hierarchy
Dataset upload flow with progress and validation feedback
Image viewer with annotation and reporting tools
OUTCOMES
Validated improvements: Early prototype testing with customers confirmed clearer navigation and improved usability.
Successful design system adoption: Delivered a scalable, reusable foundation for long-term growth.
Internal alignment: Stakeholders praised the clarity and speed of the design process.
End-to-end delivery: From audit → redesign → design system handoff, the project enabled the dev team to continue evolving SmartData independently after my contract ended.
Stakeholder feedback
“The new structure just makes sense… it’s much easier to find what I need.”
“The design system has really helped us standardise and move faster.”
