Hi I’m Skye! A product designer that transforms
research-driven designs into unforgettable journeys.
Solutions Workspace
Community
Profile
6 months of design, 2 user testing rounds, 14 interviews, 26 pgs of annotations, 900+ minutes of analyses.
New York City
Web Product
Project Lead & Designer
① A designated hub for all documents, Figma files, presentations, links, etc. into where all teams creative have access to.
② A hierarchical structure for the features within a Figma design file, with the pages sections by atoms, molecules, organisms, patterns, pages, and prototypes.
So as the product team works through future sprints, many components would already have a lovely home to live in.
③ A component / content flow chart with a new structure, that designated all the feature priorities on our backlog awaiting for design critiques, development feasibility confirmations, reviewing feedback / suggestions, and revisions.
This step took up around 1/4 of our timeline, but was a necessary push to ensure that obstacles are cleared up before engaging in quick weekly design sprints.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way, so PING ME, let me get all the Slack notifications.
| ① Display of Profile ② Display of Contents Table ③ Collaboration and Version History ④ Content Archiving, Restoration, & Deletion ⑤ Collections ⑥ Drafts & Publication Statuses |
*Disclaimer: Details are blurred out for protection purposes.
| ③ Collaboration and Version History |
To tackle this pain point, was to design the “best of” layout, that enables users to seamlessly manage collaborators, maintain clear ownership, and receive immediate feedback on their actions. Working within an established design system, the focus is narrowed to assembling the right components and interaction patterns to create a cohesive, intuitive flow that felt both efficient and familiar to users. Of course along the way, with any components or features that do not exist, the subtask is to streamline them through a smaller DIRT (design, iterate, review, test) workflow.
Because most times, an essential smaller component, is a cruicial piece of the larger design ecosystem. My job is to build, update, and uphold those components (atoms, molecules, organisms, or patterns) according to the core design system, so that it doesn’t become an obstacle for future project members.
| For the Version History experience, the process was similar — with the added task of designing appropriate toasts for validation messages, and defining how post-publication labels should appear. Within the larger Solutions Workspace design ecosystem, many components can function as “labels.” One of the challenges lay in identifying the right one without overlapping with existing definitions. |
And the pattern is constantly evolving — it’s about the thoughtful planning, refining details, and ensuring it continues to adapt to new feature requests and shifts in the broader tech landscape. But just because a feature will evolve in the future doesn’t mean it can’t be smoothly integrated now. That’s where careful alignment with the design system come in, it’s for ensuring flexibility without sacrificing consistency.
To address this, a version history list was used to surfaces key metadata for each save point — including publication status, version number, creator, and timestamp. I also included an accessible sub-menu for each version, allowing users to delete, copy a direct link, or restore that version as the current live draft.
| ④ Content Archiving, Restoration, & Deletion |
In the previous version of SW Community, uses around deletion and restoration was a big “wanted” point.. Within the old forum, if a post is deleted, it meant a more permanent action because...
Restoration was NOT an option. Once it’s gone, it’s wiped from the servers forever.
Thank goodness that this time around, there were backend servers being restructured and it opened up the path for keeping past versions of posts within the product. It’s still quite limited but it’s a start for sure. Instead of having high frequency controls scattered in different areas of the interface or nonexistent at all, this centralized action menu (a "kebab" menu), consolidates all post management tasks, and balances quick access for common actions with safe, organized access to advanced or destructive functions.
⑥ Drafts & Publication Statuses
The first part is, users are faced with two similar but distinct entry points for post-creation: starting a new post from scratch, or continuing a draft. This created a confusing mental model and led to two key issues:
① The "Abandoned Draft" : Users who intended to start a fresh post might accidentally open and edit an existing draft, leading to unintended changes and content confusion.
② The "Lost Draft" : Users looking to continue a draft might not find a clear path to do so, or might start a new post instead, creating duplicate content and fragmenting their work.
This can be simply resolved by designing targeted UI components—tooltips and modals—to guide users down the correct path based on their intent.
For users with existing drafts, the system proactively surfaces these drafts. When a user attempts to start a new post, a modal would intervene if drafts existed, asking them to confirm their choice and present their drafts as alternatives. Tooltips and clear visual indicators are greatly used within the draft management area to educate users on the different states (e.g., "Draft," "Published") and the actions available to them, ensuring they understood the workflow.
It was great that we were able to find a solutoin to this, until this problem morphed into a high priority core problem.
I ran into a unique obstacle that revolved around ranking certain metadata and pensively selecting how to display it without fanning confusion.
Since expanding and redesigning Collaborations and Version History, it opened up a new world where there can be multiple MAIN collaborators within one post, and any one of those collaborators have editing permissions (as opposed to just viewing in the older SW Community) to create a draft and save a draft.
So it becomes, the WHO and WHAT, being the most important aspect of the metatdata that needs to be shown.
If a users goes through post creation, and gets to the step of saving the draft, the draft is saved, and the users is now back in their content home. Perfect.
There is also an option to publish, if let’s say the user is finished with post creation, and wants to publish immediatly. Publish button equals public. Also makes sense.
So what does it mean to have both a draft AND a live version. What does publishing mean then?
How do I let the user know that there is a live published post AND a draft for that same content post? How would that display out to the users if the table can only support one publication label (exhibit a).
Data Visualization, and Validation
There were 2-3 roles established: an interviewer (to help guide the user into certain tasks visually and verbally), a notetaker (in charge of recording, sending links), and an observer.
and man let me tell you, sifting over 900 minutes of footage for analyses on:
is one heck of a task!
Working with a veteran ux researcher—it opened up my eyes on deeper ways to test products, and mini interactions—and it made this journey all the more meaningful. It also helped me solidify what broad or narrow user testing truly means to the overall design.
- Diana, Senior Visual Designer
“It’s very similiar to what I would do in Solution Central...it covers what I need.”
- Vanessa, Senior Demo Architect, FINS
- Vamsidhar, Lead Product Manager, Data Cloud
“Really easy to manage and...not take much time to make sure your stuff is up to date.“
- Tom, RFP Manager
| Oh dang, you’ve hit the end of the story! But don’t worry, this is the tldr version since some of the contents are restricted—there is much more in the longer version just waiting to be heard, so don’t be shy to connect! |