During my two years leading design at Seqera Labs, I had the privilege not only to lead the field but also to design numerous new features and evolve existing ones for product called Seqera Platform. My work also included refining core components, building a cohesive design system, and creating a content style guide, all while shaping the overall UX strategy. I frequently managed multiple projects simultaneously before my team grew.

Each project presented unique challenges, from optimizing user flows to elevating the platform’s visual identity, with the ultimate aim of delivering a more seamless and engaging user experience.

Throughout this period, I contributed to the development of approximately 20 features. Below is a showcase of a selected project called "Data Studios," which highlights my work in product design. I will not discuss/publish the feature details, as they are covered by an NDA.

Process

Step 1: Understanding of the future Data Studios

Analyzing the provided technical requirements document and conducting interviews with experts allowed me to gain a clear understanding of the feature's objectives and user needs.

"Data Studios provides a seamless transition between data pipelines and interactive analysis. It simplifies workflows, ensures secure collaboration, enables customizable environments, enhances reproducibility, and facilitates portability."

(It's highly specialized feature used by bioinformaticians.)

Step 2: Story mapping and story prioritization

The technical requirements document provided a solid foundation for back-end functionality. However, I facilitated a story mapping workshop with key stakeholders and users to shift the focus to a users. This process involved reevaluating requirements, functionality, and the naming of features and navigation within the application, setting up the core user journey and forming the basis for user flows. Early discussions underscored the importance of a clear naming convention, making UX writing a key focus to ensure the feature’s success.

Prioritizing stories enabled us to strategically plan work across three releases. Throughout the process, user experience, back-end needs, and business goals emerged as the three primary factors driving our decisions.

Step 3: UX/UI design and UX writing

For each release, I designed user flow(s) together with high-fidelity mockups. Before handing over to devs designs were discussed in interactive workshops with users and stakeholders (PM, BE, FE and experts). This phase proved to be instrumental in fostering discussions among the entire team and revealing several technical barriers. This collaborative environment encouraged diverse perspectives, leading to a deeper understanding of the challenges we faced and allowing us to address them effectively.

This iterative process focused on identifying a solution that effectively met user and business needs while achieving a level of usability consistent with company standards. I paid particular attention to language, testing several variations of the entire user flows to ensure clarity and effectiveness.

Step 4: Collaboration with FE team

Each release, I prepared a detailed user flow, complete with mockups and content. This setup ensures developers have everything they need to build not only new components and patterns but also entire flows. Following discussions in the design phase, where details are clarified and compromises arranged, I present finalized designs with thorough annotations to capture every detail. From there, we collaborate asynchronously via Figma comments, ensuring smooth and efficient development.

The Design QA was part of the process to ensure the final product aligns with design specifications and user experience goals.

Design system

Operating in a fast-paced environment of a startup, managing multiple projects simultaneously, and leading a team would not have been possible without the implementation of a Design System. We developed this system based on a well-defined strategy and roadmap, working closely with the front-end (FE) team to ensure seamless integration.

Key tools used in this process included Figma for design collaboration and Storybook for documenting and showcasing UI components.

Below is an example of one of the most recent components I worked on: a text field, designed in all its variants (ready for prototyping), complete with detailed specifications. These specs not only describe the UI but also outline the expected behaviors and interactions, ensuring consistency and usability across the application.

ABOUT:

Date: 2022 - 2024

Design team: Design lead (me), 2 UX/UI designers, 1 web/graphic designer designer, several contractors such as illustrator and logo designer

Role: build design strategy, design system, content style guide, led rebranding, managed design team and design operations (recruiting process, trainings, performance reviews) organized events and fostered design culture

Company: Seqera

kh.uxer@gmail.com

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