Intro
Company/ OLobby
Role/ UI/UX Designer
Tools/ Figma, Miro, Trello
OLobby is a cloud-based office management platform built to simplify the chaos of modern work. It brings everything together in one place: workflow, file storage, communication, and task management.
Think of it as your team’s all-in-one digital desk. No more juggling tools or digging through tabs. Just one clean dashboard that keeps things moving.
The product is still in R&D, evolving quickly with user feedback and iteration. That is where I came in. As the in-house UI/UX designer, I led the design process from MVP to refined product experience. I focused on helping users manage tasks, files, and communication without the mess. 🧹
Here is how I approached it.
Juggling Too Many Tools 🤹♂️
Work often means jumping between different apps all day. Chat here, files there, meetings somewhere else, tasks on a different tool, and email everywhere. It gets messy fast. Screens clutter up, work slows down, and nothing connects well.
Big names like Slack and Zoom already exist. So... why build OLobby? Because people want simple. One place that just works without the hassle or cost of many apps.
To understand the real problems, the UX team looked closely at user feedback from these tools. They found issues like too many notifications, scattered files, and missed updates.
Using those insights, OLobby was built to fix what really matters.
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From Chaos to Control: Ben’s OLobby Story
I created a user persona named Ben to dig deep into the real struggles of small business managers. Seeing through Ben’s eyes, I uncovered the major pain points: juggling employee management, hunting for documents scattered all over, and dealing with chaotic scheduling.
To bring these problems to life, I handed the user insights off to a digital marketing agency to produce a clear, engaging explainer video.
Bonus: the founder actually used this video to get buy-in from investors who were interested in funding OLobby. That was pretty cool.
Laying the Foundation
The founder and I mapped out the core of OLobby. We kept coming back to the same question: how do we make project management less messy for fast-moving teams?
First step? Building the app structure. Figuring out what goes where and how it all connects.
It was a bit chaotic, but that’s part of the process. Yup... I was ready to get comfortable with the chaos. Sorting through the mess to make something that works.
I also set a simple color palette to guide the look, but kept things flexible. With no design system in place yet, I focused on usability first, knowing visuals would evolve through iteration.
Ground Up Design Work
I started from scratch, making sure the experience actually felt usable. The wireframes were rough, kind of messy, but they laid the groundwork for OLobby’s core features. They helped shape the MVP and move things forward.
I just had to trust the process and keep going. 🤞
Iterating on MVP
After the MVP, I went through several design rounds and landed on Mid-Fi prototypes. We ran these through lots of team feedback sessions to fine-tune things. Following ERP trends, I stuck with a minimal color palette and plenty of empty space to keep the interface clean and easy to use.
Let's call them Version A.
Balancing Design Vision with Stakeholder Expectations
So… this was one of those challenges that really hit me early on.
The founder wanted a "Version B" with bright, bold designs and a new colorful logo. He believed this would make the interfaces pop and feel more playful and fun. Not going to lie, it didn’t feel quite right to me as a designer. 💀
I’ve come to realize that working with leadership who don’t come from a design background will always bring challenges.
The takeaway? Not every stakeholder will think like a designer.
I followed the request but made sure to rely on user testing and feedback to guide the final decisions.
Version B:
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A fresh logo that fits with the platform’s new look.
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Added weather and time features to the header to boost usefulness.
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Each side menu icon now has its own distinct color for easier recognition.
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Tabs stand out more with different borders and background colors to help users know where they are.
User data picked the winner (That’s what mattered most)
Through A/B testing, we found that users clearly preferred Version A. The feedback showed how important negative space and a simpler color scheme are. These helped reduce distractions and made the interface easier on the eyes. It all came back to core UX principles, keeping things clear and easy to navigate.
Using that data, I took what we learned to improve and refine Version A even more.
Conclusion: The Struggle Was Real 😅
Designing Olobby wasn’t just about building screens. It was about navigating speed, vision, and uncertainty. The team pushed for quick iterations based on the founder’s vision. That meant I was often reworking earlier designs to stay aligned with our long-term UX goals.
Some days felt like two steps forward, one step back.
Olobby was still in R&D, so I focused on usability testing to guide each decision. I tracked task flows, watched user behavior, and collected feedback. The insights were clear. With every round, we got closer to a product that actually worked for people.
Lesson
In the midst of chaos, especially in a startup with a small team, iterating always helped us find a clearer path. Every round of testing and feedback brought us closer to what really made sense for users.
Working with non-design stakeholders meant I had to balance their ideas with what users really needed. The best solutions came when we found common ground and backed it up with data.
Ultimately, trusting user insights and staying flexible helped turn the chaos into clarity. That’s the biggest lesson Olobby taught me.
A simple implementation with one solution at a low cost
