2023 • Risk insights tool
Climate Risk
Overview
The climate risk analysis tool focuses on environmental impact—helping teams evaluate a company’s transition risks (policy, legal, technology, market shifts, investor sentiment) and physical risks (heat waves, flooding, sea-level rise, drought) to project potential financial exposure under extreme conditions.
I joined the product development team as the UX/UI designer, with business a analyst, PM, and engineering, to lead a new Project Summary experience. Initial discovery revealed that our primary users—analysts—work non-linearly, often together, cycling through data uploads, parameter setting, validation, and reporting. It became clear that my role was to reframe the interaction model, align the information architecture, and establish a clear visual language that orchestrates awareness and action—without disrupting flow.
Team
Business Analyst, Project Manager, Tech Lead, Engineers
Role
UX/UI, Product design
Core contributions
Interaction model overhaul — Dedicated, card-based Project page with inline editing (replaced linear modal flow).
Status architecture — Token, color, and icon system (incl. progress ring) for glanceable validation/run states.
Information architecture — Clear Clients → Projects → Runs model with permissions-parity views.
Systemized UI — Cohesive iconography, typography/spacing rules, and brand-aligned palette across screens.
Prototypes & validation — Clickable flows tested with analysts; dev-ready specs that minimized backend change.
Please continue to explore my case study below. Feel free to contact me for a more in-depth review of my work. Note: Due to NDA, detail is limited.
Challenge
The initial ask was to improve the project status system and deliver a new Project Summary. The existing design featured a linear, step-by-step modal that struggled to contain work that was collaborative and ongoing. Despite being mid-project with a tight turnaround, the team welcomed a fresh audit and a plan to rebuild confidence with stakeholders. I clarified three foundations: what a “project” is (its components and lifecycle), how projects relate to clients (hierarchy and navigation), and how the app should structure projects. From there, I set goals to connect status from the client’s project list through to the new Project Summary, establish a glanceable status system (color, shape, text, and action-aligned icons—each icon also serves as an action), and reduce steps so common tasks feel natural.
Opportunity
The original flow moved from a client list to a client page to projects that opened in pop-ups. Inside each project, users upload raw datasets, set parameters, validate, run analysis, and publish reports and live dashboards. The request for a “Project Summary” exposed the real need: once basics are set, work rarely stays sequential; multiple contributors dip in and out, and most projects don’t have a clean end date. We needed a dedicated project space that surfaces status (especially data validation and execution) at a glance and supports parallel work. Objectives included minimizing development effort for editable vs. read-only states, lowering interaction cost via role-based permissions, keeping a cohesive project tracker that corresponds to main-table actions, and designing interdependent modules that make project management seamless.
Solution
I replaced the modal flow with a directly editable, card-based Project page—a single home where people work in context. Editors and viewers share the same layout (permissions gate actions, not understanding). Status is visible instantly through clear labels, lightweight iconography, and brand-aligned color; empty and error states point to the next right step. I refreshed the client list and client detail page to mirror this model, and treated essentially every icon as a purposeful verb. Typography and spacing carry hierarchy, so the UI reads as calm. Importantly, we focused on interaction logic to keep backend impact light: tie status → stage in process → available/needed action, express it through consistent, action-oriented UI modules, and minimize touchpoints while prioritizing signal.
Reflection
This was a growth moment in my UX/UI practice: joining mid-stream, learning fast, and iterating a concept that matched real behavior. By centering the experience on users and co-designing with analysts, we earned adoption, shipped within constraints, and raised the quality bar across adjacent tools. The outcome was tangible—faster time-to-insight, fewer dead ends, and a reusable pattern library that now supports the suite. Most of all, we reframed the product around how people truly work, so the interface felt effortless.