Codename: TED

My agency client decided to undertake building a custom software package to address a problem they were having in the video project/production space: lack of a solid project management software, tailored to meet their requirements. Salesforce, Basecamp, MS Project none met their specific industry needs.

They came to me with a set of primitive, generally referential wireframes, and a challenge to re-create the user experience using a more professional approach while simultaneously creating the visual design. In their words, "make this garage full of tools feel more like a swiss army knife. We don't want to 'Apple-ize' it and remove or bury useful features just for the sake of simplicity, but we want the experience to be more pleasant than working in Excel."

They added, "Ultimately, you're the UX expert, with freedom to use your own respected judgment. Our primary goals are simply that it's easy to use and train others to use, and that it's as friendly and approachable as reasonably possible. We want 'TED' to be an assistant, and never an obstacle."

With my client's complete trust, I led them through my creative process of market research, color palette exploration, mood boarding, and the unconventional (and not recommended) "UX-during-design" approach, delivering the system of screens at left. I designed the entire system in Illustrator, with all assets generated as .SVG also easily rendered via code. This also makes for an efficiently-rendered GUI on the backend. Flat before flat was cool. :-)

The client was thrilled with the end product, expressing that it exceeded all of their needs and desires.