Designing a new feature based on user requests
2025
CUSTOMER:
Design and development of a highly requested new feature from scratch based on user feedback.
MY ROLE
Designing a feature from scratch, including creating interactive prototypes, in close collaboration with developers.
Achievements
I worked in a team alongside 1 business analyst, support team and 2 developers. I was responsible for conducting UX research, as well as the design and prototyping of a new feature. Here are some key achievements:
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• Created a simple and intuitive settings interface. By adhering to usability heuristics, I simplified the experience and ensured that the interface would be easy to use for all types of users. The design prioritizes minimizing clicks and offering default settings that are simple to use, reducing the cognitive load on users.​
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• Designed universal widgets adaptable to any intranet site. The key challenge was ensuring that the widgets would work across various intranet themes and styles. I achieved this by offering different size and color options, enabling users to select the most appropriate configuration while maintaining default settings.
Problem
How to determine if a product works well or has issues? Talk to users, of course! One of my favorite ways to understand what users need is to speak with the Support team. They know exactly what our customers are asking for.
It turned out that at a certain point, a large number of feature requests had accumulated in one specific area. Users were struggling with the lack of sorting and filtering options in the product. So much so that they repeatedly mentioned and wrote about it.
This led to a clear problem statement:
The product is missing key features users need.
Research
Since the product is used for designing intranet sites, which often contain numerous lists, items, and large volumes of data, it’s no surprise that users felt the lack of filtering options.
Together with the business analyst and the support team, we held a call and reviewed all requests related to filtering. Just on the first page of feature requests, we found three messages about this - and there were even more beyond that.
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We sorted these requests and identified the key features that users were missing the most. Below, you can see their frequency.
This led us to the conclusion that we needed to create a toolbar that would cover all these functions. The key priorities were ease of use and customization. Additionally, it had to seamlessly adapt to different color themes, sizes, and styles of various company intranet sites—in other words, it needed to be as generic as possible.
I then divided the work into two parts:
• Toolbar configuration
• End-user interface
How might we make the toolbar setup simple and quick?
First, I created wireframes for the toolbar settings, which the team approved. Then, I moved on to the design phase.
In total, we have five widgets. I chose a consistent design approach, where all fields have the same look and feel, with only the sets of options differing for each widget. This way, once users configure one widget, they intuitively understand how to set up the others.
Main usability heuristics:
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Familiarity
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Consistency
To make it easier for users to navigate the widgets on the main settings screen, I created minimalist animations that visually demonstrate how each widget functions. These visual cues significantly reduce mental load and help users make decisions faster.
Main usability heuristics:
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Recognition Rather than Recall​
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Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
Here is the final prototype for widget setup and customization. The process is simple and intuitive - users can see changes immediately on the screen, with real-time adjustments.
Users always know when a filter is active or inactive, as this is clearly indicated by color.
Main usability heuristics:
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User Control and Freedom​
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Visibility of System Status
How might we make the toolbar universal and suitable for any site theme?
Color
The most challenging task for me as a designer was creating a generic design for all widgets.
What does that mean? Each company and its intranet follows a unique style, color palette, and design system. Our toolbar had to be universal enough to seamlessly fit into any possible page design.
To achieve this, I decided to use the primary color of the website, which is automatically pulled into the widget design, along with its derivatives. Depending on the site’s overall tone, widgets will appear in either a light or dark mode - this is also determined automatically by the system.
This approach ensures that the widgets blend organically into any website’s color scheme.
Size
Another task was to create widgets in different sizes. I decided to implement three options - large, medium, and small. The toolbar size will adjust based on the list it is applied to.
Limited width
In cases where the list is very narrow, with a width of just one column, it is essential to find a way to fit all the widgets. Below, I have presented options for when all widgets are activated. In this scenario, the search field shrinks to an icon, and the tabs become scrollable.
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Use cases
Below are use cases demonstrating how the toolbar can be utilized. On a large element, like tiles with player images and on a smaller element, like a document list. The toolbars differ in color and size, seamlessly blending into the website’s theme and design.
Conclusion
As a result of analyzing data collected in collaboration with the support team, I designed a new feature from scratch - one that users had been eagerly waiting for. The biggest challenge was creating a universal toolbar design that could seamlessly adapt to any intranet site’s style and aesthetics.
Following usability heuristics, I aimed to make the interface as simple and intuitive as possible, reducing the number of clicks required while keeping default settings user-friendly.
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