As our company prepared to launch a self-service version of our campaign orchestration software, we needed a brand-new interface tailored to non-technical marketers. This required a deep understanding of user workflows before formal requirements were established.
The original request was for a process where internal users can create campaign templates, and self-service marketers can use those templates. To understand the current way these templates are used and created, I created a service blueprint or swim lane diagram to help discover what each user needed to configure.
Soon after, the product was descoped and I was able to simply focus on how the marketer was going to launch a campaign. I learned that the marketer, Sam, needs:
Our internal users managed messaging orchestration for clients, so we involved them in participatory design research on their roles and workflows to shape the tool. We asked them to build a common customer journey, defining each step as they went. This hands-on approach helped us understand key steps, ensure clarity, and design a flexible yet simple system that accommodates different use cases.
The Abandoned Cart journey built by an Epsilon Sales Support Tech.
Through service blueprints and participatory design research, I uncovered several key insights:
• Marketers think in terms of flows, not rules or exclusions.
• Effective data is essential, but many users lack the necessary inputs for advanced automation.
• Drag-and-drop simplicity was crucial, with marketers building highly detailed journeys for maximum effectiveness.
• Reporting needs differ from building needs—a clear distinction had to be made in the UI.
A white board that helped shape the early design.
Due to the technical limitations and unique use case of the application, I was able to take a lot of creative liberty and ownership of this project. I was able to break away from stereotypical design system components, because there were many situations where the component did not address the orchestration use case. The major technical challenge was working within Camunda, a third-party orchestration tool with rigid technical constraints.
Despite facing serious pressure to treat the orchestration as a standard form with a step wizard, I wanted the user to get started in the canvas immediately. I compared this setup to using a Figma file as a designer. If I had to fill out all my settings before starting my designs, I would go mad! I won the battle with the help of product, sales, and industry research.
Instead, I added settings to the toolbar to streamline campaign setup, allowing users to initiate orchestration instantly. I grouped similar functions, introduced intuitive icons, and implemented tooltips for clarity. Collaboration with our UI team ensured the toolbar seamlessly integrated within our existing design system.
Every active journey has a working draft so the user can edit the journey without losing sight of what has gone live. Note the toolbar at the top with action buttons.
Journeys can be incredibly complex and many nodes depend on each other. This led to extreme complexity in terms of validation and error handling. I worked with our UI team to come up with a visual way to present states: complete (green), incomplete (grey), and error (red). I also designed a validation interaction where the user can check for errors in the canvas before launching, and they will be nicely organized in this drawer.
This validation drawer organizes all error messages so the user can easily see what they need to fix before activating.
I had an opportunity to do a huge overhaul into how simulation of a journey worked. In the old tool, it required a highly technical user to create code - something a marketer would never do. I worked closely with product to push back on engineering to discover that we can automate a lot of that work and hide it from the marketer. I came up with this design to allow the marketer to actually visually preview how a real user will go through a journey based on that user's actual attributes.
The user can preview the journey on behalf of a real customer to see if it behaves as expected.
Seeing the need for version history in this product, I worked with another design team member to do an audit of all of our applications to see how "versions" were handled. Surprise - every application handled them differently! Some versioned up on a draft, some on a live version. After the audit, I proposed we collectively version up on the running version, and proposed this new way to handle versions where a visual representation really mattered.
I designed a version history panel so that the user can see the design of previously ran versions.
The "monitor" tab was proposed by me so that the user could see how customers actually flowed through a running, or previously run, journey.
The user can monitor key metrics on this screen in order to see how the campaign is performing.
PrototypeInitially, our designs were poorly implemented due to a lack of front-end expertise on the engineering team. To address this:
• I facilitated collaboration between UX Developers and product engineers, aligning our sprint schedules.
• I introduced a structured design review process, ensuring quality before code was pushed.
• I pioneered a Figma branching workflow, preventing mid-sprint design changes from disrupting development.
With multiple dev teams across different time zones, I built strong relationships through responsiveness, reliability, and proactive communication. This fostered trust and streamlined implementation, leading to a polished final product.
What was handed off (original).
What was coded (first iteration).
What was built after I improved handoff practices & held countless agile sessions with developers.
By anticipating user needs, facilitating cross-functional collaboration, and advocating for a seamless handoff process, I helped shape an intuitive customer journey orchestration tool. The result? A more accessible, scalable, and effective platform for marketers to engage their audiences with confidence.
