Element X
Redesigning a legacy app experience
A ground up redesign, improving the experience and performance of our mobile app under a tight 9 month deadline, driving 50% of company revenue.
Fixing the foundations
In early 2023 Element faced a tough decision - rebuild our mobile app from the ground up or risk losing clients and users. The app had some key foundational issues that were creating pain points:
Problems
Performance: The legacy app was very slow, sometimes not even being able to load information or function.
User Experience: Design debt and inconsistencies contributed to a confusing experience with poor accessibility.
Technical Roadblocks: Adding new features and any interactions to the app was very difficult due to the ageing architecture.
High Cognitive Load: The flows and content were overly complex and full of technical jargon which made using the app difficult for workplace users.
Platform inconsistencies and non native patterns
Low accessibility and confusing messaging
Process
Given the aggressive 9-month deadline, we opted for a zero-to-one approach to help us reach decisions quickly and get to strategic alignment across our distributed teams. We split the redesign into smaller projects and features, and the process of each one included:
Strategy & Alignment: I started each project with full team kick-offs and set up regular syncs with Product and Engineering to align on technical scope, prioritisation, and design decisions. Buy in from senior leadership was essential and I presented to them regularly.
Competitive Benchmarking: I conducted extensive analysis of leading competitors such as Teams and Slack, which was essential to create a familiar and intuitive experience.
Rapid Iterations: I managed multiple rounds of design critiques, incorporating feedback from stakeholders and end users to ensure solutions were validated.
The Redesign
Core Experiences
Room List & Settings: I redesigned the app’s core screens making sure they feel familiar to iOS and Android users.
It was important that we defaulted to platform native patterns and components. This reduced the customisation options available, but ensured user familiarity and was essential for implementation speed.
Feature Enhancement
Voice Messages and Location Sharing: I overhauled legacy flows for critical features to meet the specific needs of our new enterprise user base.
We prioritised providing core functionality with a secure implementation. This didn't provide a full feature set but it guaranteed the reliable experience that our clients wanted in the time we had available.
Compound Design System
Compound: I acted as the key mobile contact for Element’s new design system.
We chose to build a library of core components, custom and native with our styling, rather than an all encompassing system from day one. This helped to streamline the process and meant we could provide engineering with a stable foundation. I assisted in the creation of these mobile components, icons and platform specific styles.
Impact
We successfully delivered a performant, simple, and consistent user experience, eliminating the primary friction points of the legacy app.
The redesign directly contributed to the company's financials, bringing in 50% of Element's total revenue in 2023.