EquipWareTM

UX Discovery and Branding

SaaS Product Design, Branding, and Design System

A complex SaaS platform designed to streamline the workflow and planning process for medical equipment, art, and furniture, including inventory, procurement, and installation. The platform had been in use for years, but growing internal needs created an opportunity to modernize the product, improve the user experience, introduce new functionality, and establish a stronger brand.

My Role

My Role: Director of UI/UX

Scope: Discovery, UX/UI, Branding, User Research, User Testing, Accessibility, Wireframes, Mockups, Prototyping, Beta Testing

Team: Team of one

I owned the design work from discovery through beta testing.

As Director of UI/UX, I led the project as a team of one. I led all discovery sessions with existing users, organized feedback into key themes and user stories, designed the branding, created all wireframes and mockups, tested accessibility, conducted user testing, and helped beta test the system..

The Challenge

Modernizing a complex platform for a growing organization.

Falkon built the original system in the early 2010s. As the internal team grew, new needs and ideas emerged, along with the desire to modernize the platform with updated branding, integrations, workflows, and customization that could support it as a successful SaaS product. We had extensive technical knowledge of the existing system. The next step was understanding how people across the organization actually used it, where they experienced friction, and what they needed from a future version.

Discovery

Step 1: Start with the people actually using it.

I began discovery with a companywide survey to gather broad feedback about the existing platform, user needs, pain points, and opportunities for improvement. I then met with 8 departments and 21 employees to observe their existing methods, understand how they worked in the current system, gather direct feedback, and identify ideal features, workflows, and recommendations for the new platform. Seeing how each department actually worked was especially important because the platform supported different teams with different responsibilities. I documented the feedback from each session and consolidated the findings across departments to identify the themes that applied to the organization as a whole.

Discovery methods included:

Companywide survey
Department user interviews
Competitive SWOT analysis
User pain points and needs assessment
Feature prioritization and phasing
Brand exploration
Accessibility audit
Department and full-team usability walkthroughs

Competitive Research

Finding where the product could stand out. I also helped conduct a competitive SWOT analysis to understand the competitive landscape and identify opportunities for the product to differentiate itself. The research helped the team understand what competitors were offering, where gaps existed, and where the platform could provide additional value in the market.

Turning a lot of feedback into something people could actually use.

Using the discovery findings, we established the MVP scope, prioritized desired features, and defined the direction for the redesigned platform. I created 130+ high-fidelity mockups covering the revised desktop system as well as a mobile app for inventory tracking. I also led department and full-team usability walkthroughs to review the new processes, gather feedback, and refine the experience.

The discovery work directly informed the workflows, navigation, customization, reporting, mobile functionality, notifications, and other features incorporated into the redesigned platform.

Branding

A new brand for a very complicated product. I developed the new brand, including:

Logo
Color palette
Pattern
Typography
Tone and personality
Photography style
Custom mascot, EquipBot & illustrations

I then translated the new brand into the UI/UX, keeping accessibility and brand consistency top of mind. The goal was to bring new life to a product that had become increasingly complex without sacrificing the functionality and flexibility its users needed.

Accessibility & Customization

The redesigned platform was built around extensive user customization, including:

Light and dark modes
Customizable view settings
Filters
Side or top navigation options
Customizable reports, including client logos

Accessibility was also a core consideration throughout the redesign. The new brand and interface were tested to ensure the color system was accessible to colorblind users.

App and Web platform

We worked hard to simplify the parts that caused unnecessary friction for clients. Each department used the same screens differently, with different workflows, priorities, and data needs. I used the cross-department discovery findings and key themes to optimize the flows and UI around those differences.The redesigned system introduced simplified interfaces to reduce confusion, along with new functionality.

We introduced:

Customizable dashboards so teams could see only the data and modules relevant to their department
Collapsible sections, saved settings, and customizable views to reduce clutter and repetitive setup
Real-time updates and change tracking to improve visibility into progress and reduce overlapping work
Flexible workflows and navigation to support different departmental processes within the same platform
Mobile, offline, and dual-editing capabilities to improve asset management and data accuracy

The result was one consistent platform that could adapt to the way each department actually worked.

The impact

A complex system became a more intuitive SaaS product. Falkon transformed the existing software into a more accessible, intuitive, and easy-to-use platform that improved employee efficiency.

The redesigned product brought together the needs identified across 8 departments and 21 employees, with new workflows, automation, integrations, reporting, customization, mobile capabilities, and collaboration features.

The new brand brought renewed life to the platform while maintaining accessibility for colorblind users. The combination of a stronger product experience, simplified processes, and expanded functionality positioned the platform as a more polished and competitive SaaS product.

See it in action at: https://www.equipware.com/