Simplifying Complexity: Platform Redesign

A usability-focused redesign that transformed a complex sustaainability and supply chain platform into an intuitive experience - improving navigation, reporting, and workflows while making sustainability insights accessible to all users.

Role

UX/UI Design

BEFORE

AFTER

Project Overview

Problem

Makersite offers powerful sustainability and supply chain tools, but complex workflows made it hard to navigate and extract insights. I led the UX redesign to simplify navigation, streamline reporting, and support both expert and non-technical users.

As the platform scaled, improving usability became essential: not only to help users extract insights more efficiently, but to support sales demos, reduce training costs, and position the product as a scalable enterprise solution.

Role & Goals

UX/UI Design - I worked across research, design, and implementation, collaborating with internal teams to:

Improve usability
Reduce training time
Support sales demos
Simplify workflows

Outcomes

The redesign introduced simplified workflows, clearer navigation, and improved reporting tools, helping both technical and non-technical users access sustainability insights more effectively.

Positive early feedback

Improved usability

Faster decision-making

Business Objective

UX Approach

Accelerate client conversion

🎯 Immediate insights & value through landing pages & visualizations

Reduce training costs

🎯 Simplified workflows & streamlined navigation

Enhance sales demo effectiveness

🎯 Improved data visualizations to showcase sustainability insights

Ensure frustration-free user flows

🎯 Task-oriented design for a smoother, intuitive experience

Research Approach

Analyzed the platform’s structure and navigation
Conducted internal interviews (sales, implementation, experts, customer success)
Led user interviews and usability tests
Observed training sessions and sales demos

Research Results

Our research revealed a gap between technical and non-technical users: experts needed control and validation, while others needed clarity and ease of use.

Rather than traditional personas, I focused on task-based user groups to uncover specific workflow challenges. This helped identify core friction points in how users navigated the platform and accessed insights.

Technical Users

Sustainability/LCA experts

“I need to dig into the data and validate results.”

Needs:

Advanced data analysis
Reporting (external and internal)
Decision making

Non-Technical Users

Management, procurement, product designers, sales, etc.

“I just want the key insights in one place.”

Needs:

High-level insights
Easy navigation
Visual reports

Where users struggled:

Complex, disconnected navigation
Reporting locked inside hard-to-reach tools
Overreliance on Power BI
No clear QA or validation step in workflows

I mapped these pain points to a representative user journey to highlight inefficiencies across key steps.

To dive deeper into reporting friction, I mapped the actual QA and export flow. This exposed redundant steps, tool fragmentation, and external dependencies, directly informing the redesign.

Insights from user research highlighted critical usability challenges, directly shaping navigation improvements, workflow optimizations, and a more intuitive reporting experience.

Step 1: Exploring High-Level Structures

With the pain points identified, I mapped early concepts to streamline workflows, simplify navigation, and clarify reporting.

Modular Dashboards

Explored the concept of a customizable dashboard framework, enabling users to personalize their workspace based on role and needs. Focused on simplifying data access for non-technical users, while supporting detailed workflows for technical users.

Replacing Apps with Views

Consolidated multiple scattered apps into a structured dropdown inside the product view, streamlining navigation and eliminating the need to switch between separate applications.

Balancing Overview & Granular Data

Ensured high-level sustainability insights remain accessible, while allowing users to drill down into detailed product data, lifecycle stages, and impact hotspots without overwhelming complexity.

Enhancing Reporting & Exporting

Integrated quick reports and one-click exports to reduce reliance on Power BI, making insights more accessible directly within the platform.

Step 2: Iterating & Focusing

As the design evolved, I balanced input from sales, product, and engineering to align stakeholder needs with feasibility.

Sales: Pushed for more visuals and simpler reporting tools for client-facing usability.
CEO: Prioritized data and API-first principles, even if it made the product harder to sell.
PM: Focused on emphasizing the user journey and driving architectural changes.
UX: Aimed to balance user needs with technical goals, making the design accessible without overwhelming users.
Engineers: Ensured technical feasibility, scalability, and platform stability as new features were added.

We adjusted the direction based on stakeholder insights, preserving the key ideas from the initial exploration while simplifying navigation and workflows.

Key Refinements:

Dashboard Structure: Confirmed, sidebar navigation was removed to keep current navigation pattern.
QA Workflow: Dedicated space to validate results for technical and non-technical users.
Navigation Simplification: Apps remained due to CEO preference, but the most used ones were converted into dashboard widgets, enabling users to access key insights without navigating to separate apps.
Data & Mapping Improvements: Further iterations planned for better dataset integration.

Before & After: Transforming the User Experience

We replaced the generic landing page with role-based dashboards, while also enhancing reporting, navigation, and data visualization across the platform.

Landing Page: From Generic to Role-Based Dashboards

Landing Page - before:

Landing Page (Sustainability) - after:

Direct value & key insights: Users now land on a page with relevant data instead of a generic starting point.
Streamlined navigation: Logical links replace scattered tools, making workflows faster and more intuitive.
Full portfolio view: Eliminates the need to search for products.

Corporate Landing Page: From Reports to a Dynamic Dashboard

Corporate Sustainability Dashboard - before:

Corporate Sustainability Dashboard - after:

Now acts as a landing page for corporate users, centralizing data access and sustainability targets.
Data accessibility: Previously only available in reports, now centralized in a live dashboard.
Simplified visualization for non-technical users: Key insights are now easier to understand and export.

Product & EPD: Key Dashboards for Actionable Insights

Product Dashboard: Focuses on performance insights and reporting for individual products.

EPD Dashboard: Provides lifecycle impact assessment and compliance tracking.

Previously scattered data across multiple apps, now centralized in one place
Actions and insights combined, eliminating workflow fragmentation
Integrated reporting: Users can analyze data within the platform, reducing dependency on external tools.

Reporting: From Fragmented to Streamlined

Challenges Before:

Reporting required navigating multiple apps and manually reselecting products.
Users relied on external tools (Power BI, Excel) due to limited in-platform visualizations.
Exported reports contained too much data without filtering options, making insights hard to extract.

Improvements After:

Reporting is now embedded within workflows, eliminating app-hopping.
Built-in visualizations reduce reliance on external tools.
One-click export options for stakeholders and clients streamline reporting.

Before:

After:

Project Impact

The Makersite redesign improved workflows, reporting, and navigation - enhancing sales impact, platform scalability, and user experience.

Stronger Sales Impact

New dashboards help sales teams showcase product impact more effectively, making sustainability data more actionable for clients and boosting user acquisition.

Scalable Navigation for Growth

The new structure supports seamless workflows and lays a foundation for scalable platform expansion.

Better User Experience & Adoption

The redesign improved user satisfaction, with early feedback indicating the new design was more intuitive, easier to navigate, and made product data more accessible.

Learnings & Next Steps

Balancing Simplicity & Depth

Making data accessible for non-technical users while preserving depth for experts required continuous iteration.

Aligning Stakeholder Priorities

Balancing the needs of technical teams, sustainability experts, business stakeholders, and users led to a scalable, user-centered solution.

Looking ahead

Expanding user coverage while enhancing accessibility for non-technical users through simplified models, mapping, and fast QA tools.