Modernizing a Legacy Enterprise Analytics Platform
Client Name
*Client name, branding, and selected project details have been anonymized to protect confidentiality.
Project Overview
This project involved redesigning a legacy enterprise SaaS analytics platform for a large organization. Due to confidentiality, the company and product names have been omitted.
The platform had been actively used for years and contained numerous dashboards, reports, and data visualizations. During this three-month part-time engagement, I was responsible for modernizing key areas of the product while working within the company’s existing Design System.
Rather than redesigning the entire platform, my work focused on improving the Home Dashboard, navigation structure, and reusable filter patterns that supported multiple dashboard pages.
My Role
Product Designer
Industry
Commercial Real Estate
Web Application (Internal Enterprise Tool)
Platform
Team
Product Manager, Data Engineering & Developer Team
Duration
3 months
Year
2024
Project Goal
The goal of this project was to modernize a legacy analytics platform without disrupting the existing product ecosystem.
By leveraging the company’s Design System, I aimed to improve usability, strengthen visual consistency, and create reusable interface patterns that could scale across multiple dashboard experiences.
My Responsibilities
Redesigned the Home Dashboard to improve visual hierarchy and usability.
Modernized the navigation structure and category organization.
Designed reusable filter patterns for dashboard pages.
Applied the company’s existing Design System to ensure consistency across products.
Collaborated closely with the Product Manager throughout the design process.
Delivered production-ready UI designs for developer implementation.
Success Criteria
Improve the overall visual quality of the platform.
Simplify navigation and information hierarchy.
Create reusable filter patterns across dashboard pages.
Maintain consistency with the company’s Design System.
Deliver implementation-ready interface designs.
Project Scope
Included
Home Dashboard
Navigation & Categories
Reusable Filter Pattern
UI Modernization
Design System implementation
Outside the Scope
The platform contained numerous dashboards, reports, and specialized data visualizations. These pages remained outside the scope of this engagement.
Design Challenge
The analytics platform had been in use for years and contained a large amount of business data across multiple dashboards. Customer feedback collected by the Product Manager highlighted opportunities to improve usability and modernize the interface.
Rather than creating a completely new product, my challenge was to redesign key areas of the platform while working within an established Design System shared across products in the organization. At the same time, the redesign needed to preserve familiar workflows for existing users while creating a cleaner, more intuitive experience.
Design Process
1. Understanding Business Requirements
The redesign began with discussions with the Product Manager, who shared customer feedback, business requirements, and product goals gathered from existing users. These insights helped identify the areas that would have the greatest impact during the limited project timeline.
2. Designing Key User Experiences
Given the three-month part-time engagement, the project focused on redesigning the Home Dashboard, navigation, and reusable filter patterns rather than the entire analytics platform.
Using the company’s Design System, I redesigned layouts, improved information hierarchy, refined spacing and typography, and simplified navigation patterns to create a cleaner and more consistent user experience while remaining aligned with existing product standards.
3. Collaboration & Iteration
Throughout the project, I worked closely with the Product Manager to review design proposals and refine solutions based on business priorities. The final designs balanced customer feedback, implementation feasibility, and consistency with the organization’s broader product ecosystem.
Key Design Improvements
Home Dashboard
Improved information hierarchy.
Organized related content into clearer sections.
Reduced visual clutter.
Modernized the overall interface while preserving familiar workflows.
Navigation
Simplified menu organization.
Improved category structure.
Increased discoverability of key functions.
Filter Pattern
Created reusable filtering patterns.
Improved consistency across dashboard pages.
Simplified user interactions for searching and filtering data.
Results
The redesign modernized key areas of the analytics platform while remaining consistent with the company’s existing Design System. By focusing on reusable interface patterns, improved navigation, and a clearer visual hierarchy, the project established a stronger foundation for future product enhancements.
Working within the constraints of an existing enterprise product also reinforced the importance of balancing customer feedback, business requirements, and implementation feasibility when improving mature software products.
This project strengthened my ability to design within an established enterprise environment. Unlike creating a product from scratch, I learned how to improve an existing platform by working within an established Design System, respecting existing user workflows, and collaborating closely with a Product Manager.
It also reinforced that successful product design is not always about creating something entirely new. Sometimes the greatest value comes from making complex products easier to use while preserving consistency across a larger product ecosystem.