The brief was a desktop port. Research found six jobs.
On a phone, people checked a number, asked, filtered, acted, got alerted and shared, in the minutes between meetings. I designed for those six jobs.
Problem
A phone is not a smaller desktop.
The brief: shrink desktop analytics onto a phone. There you could look at a metric, but any change waited for desktop.
The notes behind this
- Nine months to keep enterprise depth without copying desktop.
- I ran discovery before designing anything.
What I found
Six jobs worth a phone.
An anonymous public survey drew 23 responses, then seven customer interviews, from CEOs and CFOs to their analysts. They broke the desktop-port assumption.
The notes behind this
- Follow-up sessions with customers and internal stakeholders tested the flows.
- Check. See in seconds whether the numbers I own moved.
- Ask. Get an answer without typing.
- Filter. Narrow a number without losing the answer.
- Act. Change what I watch without waiting for a desktop.
- Alert. Hear when a number moves, without checking.
- Share. Get an insight to the people who need it.
What I decided
Act on the number before the meeting ends.
The watchlist was view-only, so every edit waited for desktop. I put the check and the action in one flow, within thumb reach.
What it cost
Thumb reach also puts delete within easy reach, so recovery became a product requirement.
Proof
Shipped as the default Watchlist screen with trend-aware KPI rows.
The notes behind this
- Open on pipeline, SEO traffic, and conversion, each with its trend.
What I decided
If the system is thinking, say so.
Between meetings, asking out loud beat typing, but only if people could see every state. I took progress and recovery through more than 30 rounds.
What it cost
The states hold up, but voice got more iteration than its daily use justified.
Proof
Shipped as five distinct progress and recovery states.
The five voice states
- No single spinner standing in for every state.
- Idle. Before a query starts. The microphone is ready but not listening yet.
- Listening. Capturing speech, with visible feedback that it hears you.
- Thinking. Working on the answer. It looks different from listening, so nobody mistakes it for a stall.
- Success. The answer, with a way to act on it.
- Error. It says so plainly and offers a way back. No silent failure, no endless spinner.
What I decided
Narrow the question. Never lose the answer.
I compared page, modal, and hybrid filters. The hybrid won because the result stayed on screen while the question changed.
What it cost
Filters and results each get less room.
Proof
The hybrid layout shipped without a full-screen context swap.
What shipped
Six jobs, one native app.
Shipped on iOS and Android, and won Best in Mobile Cloud Solution at the 2023–24 Cloud Awards, a product and team award.
Monthly use
Team-reported, after the release, at product level. Not a controlled study.
New installs
Team-reported, in the release window. Dates and baseline aren’t published.
See the store listings, before and after
App Store, before.
App Store, after.
Google Play, before.
Google Play, after.
In these screenshots the App Store rating rose from 2.9 to 4.9 (28 ratings), and Google Play shows 4.8 (39 reviews). The samples are small, the listing was renamed and I left as the redesign wrapped up, so I don’t credit the rating to the redesign alone.
Looking back
Next, I define failure before launch.
Next time I’d write down the goal, signal and guardrail before launch, budget 100 ms for feedback and 400 ms for flow, and document contrast, focus order and a screen-reader path from day one.
Beyond the brief
I went to customers and analyst communities before design started, and what I found changed the brief. I also took on the store listing and launch material, because the listing is the first screen a potential user sees.