LayBuy
I worked with LayBuy, a fintech company based in New Zealand. I led the entire product and design project, and mentored and trained three junior UX designers along the way.
The challenge
I was contracted to completely redesign the look and feel of LayBuy’s app. They had recently updated their branding and wanted the app to match it. My job was to take the new brand assets and bring them into the product’s design. I was also asked to create a design system the team could use to make consistent designs on their own, even without me.
The challenge was bigger because the team was three junior designers who were new to design systems and didn’t know how to create components. Building a system everyone could understand and use was demanding. In fact, it was harder than the design work itself.
The process
I began by creating concept designs and tested them with current users again and again, so they stayed in line with the founder’s vision. Once the designs were final, I had long meetings with the CTO to make sure everything I designed could be built. After getting the green light from both the founder and the CTO, I started on the design system.
I laid the foundations first, then moved on to the components, and involved the whole design team at every step. To help them learn, I used my own YouTube tutorials to teach them how to create and manage design systems. As the system grew, I gave them tasks that made them use those skills, so they learned how to create, manage and maintain it.
I also set up internal systems to improve the whole delivery process. This helped everyone, from designers to developers, work together better and cut the time from idea to delivery. We did this through a series of workshops and brainstorming sessions throughout the project.
The result
After six months, the project wrapped up and we hit every target we set. A year after the project ended, the team was still managing, growing and using the design system and foundations I set up.I’m proud of the result and grateful for the hard work everyone put into this project.