The Challenge

DotYeti needed a workspace for designers, admins, and clients to collaborate efficiently. The system had to manage tasks, feedback, revisions, and approvals, while ensuring security and timely delivery. I researched pain points from designers, QA testers, and clients to create a seamless, intuitive solution that bridged gaps, improved communication, and streamlined workflows.

Defining the Problem

Ticket Analysis

To understand the key challenges in DotYeti’s workflow, I analyzed internal support tickets and feedback from designers, admins, and clients. A recurring issue was the lack of a structured system for collaboration, leading to inefficiencies in task management, feedback loops, and project tracking. Designers often struggled to receive timely updates, clients faced difficulties in providing clear revision requests, and admins found it challenging to oversee multiple projects efficiently.

Competitive Analysis

To build a more seamless and intuitive workspace, I conducted a competitive analysis of other creative platforms and project management tools. I examined how leading design services handled task delegation, communication, and security, identifying industry best practices and gaps we could address. This research not only helped us differentiate DotYeti’s offering but also laid the foundation for a more structured and efficient design workflow.

User Interviews

To gain deeper insights into the pain points of DotYeti’s users, I conducted interviews with designers, admins, and clients who actively used the platform. My goal was to understand their workflow challenges, communication barriers, and expectations for an improved workspace.

Recruiting Participants

I reached out to internal designers and QA testers, as well as clients who had submitted multiple revision requests, to gather perspectives from all sides of the workflow. To ensure we selected the right participants, I asked key screening questions, such as:

• How do you currently manage project updates and feedback on DotYeti?

• What challenges do you face when collaborating with designers/admins/clients?

• How do you track project progress and revisions?

Key Insights and Opportunities

Through these interviews, I identified several recurring issues and opportunities for improvement:

• Lack of centralized communication: Users often relied on scattered messages, making it difficult to track feedback and updates.

• Unclear revision processes: Clients were unsure where to provide feedback, leading to miscommunication and delays.

• Security concerns: Designers wanted better file-sharing permissions to ensure assets were only accessible to the right people.

• Efficiency gaps: Admins needed a clearer way to oversee multiple projects without micromanaging designers.

These findings helped shape the foundation for redesigning the workspace, ensuring it addressed real user needs while improving efficiency and collaboration.

User Journey Mapping

After gathering initial insights from user interviews, I conducted a User Journey Mapping analysis to break down the end-to-end experience of designers, admins, and clients on DotYeti. My goal was to identify pain points, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement in the collaboration workflow.

Approach

I mapped out:

• Personas: Designers, admins, and clients, each with distinct needs and responsibilities.

• Goals: Ensuring smooth task management, clear communication, and efficient revisions.

• Scenarios: A typical project lifecycle, from request submission to final delivery.

• Steps & Pain Points: Tracking how users navigated the platform, where delays happened, and where clarity was missing.

Key Takeaways

This analysis helped me visualize gaps in communication, workflow bottlenecks, and areas where automation could improve efficiency. It became the foundation for designing an improved workspace that streamlined collaboration, ensured better task tracking, and enhanced the overall user experience.

Outcomes

The User Journey Mapping process revealed key opportunities to optimize the user experience on DotYeti. By analyzing user behaviors, challenges, and expectations, I identified actionable insights that guided my next steps.

Key Questions We Answered:

• What needs to be done? Improve task tracking, feedback loops, and file-sharing security.

• What are the biggest opportunities? Streamlining communication between designers, admins, and clients to reduce delays and confusion.

• How will we measure success? Faster project turnaround times, fewer revision cycles, and higher user satisfaction.

Beyond shaping the product, the workshop also fostered better alignment within the team. By having open discussions about user needs, we developed a shared vision that influenced decision-making. This deep understanding of user pain points became the foundation for designing a more intuitive and efficient workspace, setting clear priorities for our MVP.

User Flow

Wireframing

I started with a low-fidelity wireframe based on the team’s initial vision, but user research was needed to refine it. By mapping key interactions, identifying pain points, and validating the flow, I ensured a seamless and efficient workspace for designers, admins, and clients.

Building the MVP

Step 1: Task Overview for Designers

For the designer’s end, task management needed to be clear and efficient. Through surveys and user research, I discovered that filters were crucial for designers to quickly find, prioritize, and manage their workload.

The most important filter was task status, as it directly impacted how designers planned their daily, weekly, and monthly work. I introduced 11 status categories to reflect real workflow needs: New, Exceeded Deadline, To Design, In Progress, In QA, Revision Required (critical), Ready for Delivery, Client Review, Deadline, Delivered, and Paused.

Beyond status, I implemented additional filters to refine task management: participants, priority, category, plan and payment type, date and deadline, and client.

To ensure better task management, we decided to offer both table and Kanban views. Many designers were already familiar with Kanban boards from tools like Trello and ClickUp, making it an intuitive way to track tasks visually. Meanwhile, the table view provided a structured format for those who preferred a more detailed, data-driven approach.

These filtering and viewing options allowed designers to organize tasks efficiently, reduce confusion, and stay on top of deadlines, creating a seamless and structured workflow.

Step 2: Request and Task Briefing

To ensure clear communication and smooth collaboration, we structured the request and task briefing page with essential project details on the left and categorized sections in the main area.

Left Panel: Quick Project Overview

This section provides designers with a snapshot of key project details, making it easy to track progress and prioritize work. It includes:

• Type of project

• Project name

• Deadline and priority

• Client details, last activity, and published date

• Participants involved

Main Section: Organized for Efficiency

The main workspace is divided into four key categories:

• Briefing: Contains all essential project details, including references, project brief, required deliverables, source files, design dimensions, and assets to ensure designers have everything they need before starting.

• Messages: Facilitates direct communication between the designer and the client, keeping all discussions in one place for clarity and efficiency.

• Deliverables: A folder-based system similar to Google Drive, allowing clients to easily find and access final assets. This section also includes image and PDF annotation tools, enabling precise revision requests directly on the files.

• History: Logs all past actions and updates, ensuring full transparency on project changes and progress.

  
  

This structured approach streamlined task management, making it easier for designers to access information, communicate effectively, and track project progress without confusion.

Next Steps

Moving forward, we aimed to refine the workspace further by enhancing real-time collaboration features and improving task visibility across teams. We also explored AI-assisted task recommendations to help designers prioritize work more efficiently and integrated performance tracking tools to provide insights into workflow bottlenecks.

Additionally, we planned to optimize the notification system to ensure designers and clients received the most relevant updates without overwhelming them.

Reflection & Learnings

One of the biggest challenges in this project was balancing structure with flexibility. Designers needed a clear task management system, but it also had to accommodate different workflows and preferences. Through continuous feedback loops with designers and clients, we found that offering both Kanban and table views was key to meeting their needs.

A major takeaway from this project was the importance of early user research and iterative testing. By engaging designers, admins, and clients early on, we were able to uncover pain points before development and create a workflow that felt intuitive from the start.

This project reinforced the idea that the best solutions come from close collaboration with users—every feature we implemented was driven by real user needs, making the final product truly impactful.