SmartIntellect
Project Overview
Situation
The project’s business need was to transition the product from an MVP to a pre-launch version, increase the number of merchant stores applying for the product, and ultimately boosting conversion rates among potential paying merchants.
Task
As the UX designer, I was responsible for translating business goals into actionable design strategies. This involved identifying core design challenges through analysis of impact factors and insights from merchant interviews and competitive research. Based on these findings, I defined clear design goals and user-centered strategies aligned with business needs.
Action
Simplified workflows and improved prompts to lower the learning curve.
Expanded functionality to enhance product capabilities, such as the dashboard function.
Unified visual design through a component library and guidelines.
Impact
12% increase in Merchant satisfaction with features
The majority of merchants are satisfied with this update
48% decrease in time required for merchants to complete tasks
The time required for key tasks has significantly decreased
40% increase in merchant paid conversion rate
80% of trial merchants are willing to pay, 7 out of 9 potential merchants are interested in trying the product
Highlights
Create Event Analysis Report:
Add Analysis Report to Dashboard:
Identify the Problem
It's a good start
The product has successfully developed an MVP version and has passed market validation.
Since its inception, the SmartIntellect product has been committed to helping merchants increase sales and customer conversion rates in a smoother and more efficient way.
The challenge is:
The merchants' potential willingness to pay is not evident
Although most merchants acknowledge that SmartIntellect can bring value to their business, their intentions regarding future subscriptions and usage remain unclear, even as the product is about to enter the formal pre-sales stage.
Why happened?
We conducted user research to find out what was going on.
Fortunately, we gathered a lot of valuable feedback during the user interviews.
Insights from user research:
Low Product Usability
The product lacks clear feedback, has cumbersome processes and redundant information, resulting in high learning costs for users, low operational efficiency and a frustrating user experience.
Limited Features
Some merchants feel the product lacks key features compared to similar competitors and find its flexibility limited, making it harder to meet their specific business needs effectively.
Inconsistent Visual Design
The product's visual design feels inconsistent and cluttered in some areas, giving an unprofessional impression. Additionally, the product's iteration cycles are quite long.
Design challenge
How might we create a seamless and intuitive user experience by simplifying workflows, expanding essential features, and unifying visual design, ultimately increasing the conversion rate of potential paying merchants for SmartIntellect?
Define Design Direction
Target user analysis
To better understand how users interact with our product and the key tasks faced by different roles, we conducted an in-depth analysis of user personas and identified two key roles: Business Operator and Data Analyst.
By analyzing the tasks and needs of these two key roles across different scenarios and integrating previous research findings, I identified two key scenarios: Customer Management and View Analytics Reports.
Scenario analysis: User Scenario A
In Key Scenario A (Customer Management), the business operator is the primary participant. They focus on connecting customer data to SmartIntellect, as well as managing, viewing, and editing customer data.
I further analyzed the key stages of this scenario and mapped out the core tasks undertaken by the business operator within each stage:
Based on the core tasks and user pain points in this scenario, I identified opportunities, developed design strategies, and outlined the desired ideal user experience.
Scenario analysis: User Scenario B
In Key Scenario B (View Analytics Reports), the data analyst takes the lead. They are responsible for creating various reports based on business needs and extracting key data from these reports to support business decisions.
I further analyzed the key stages of this scenario and mapped out the core tasks undertaken by the data analyst within each stage:
Based on the core tasks and user pain points in this scenario, I identified opportunities, developed design strategies, and outlined the desired ideal user experience.
Design direction
Based on the above analysis, insights and design strategies, I have identified the following three design goals to ensure that our challenges can be solved.
The following showcases how I applied four design strategies to specific scenarios, aligning them with users' task flows to create practical solutions.
Achieve Design Goal I: KR 1
Make statuses clear, provide users with real-time feedback
What‘s the problem?
When first using the product, merchants must connect customer data from multiple channels.
In the MVP version, unclear connection status and missing feedback made this step confusing—often causing users to stall early and drop off before realizing the product’s value.
Solution
To address this pain point, I introduced a card-based UI that visualizes connection status in real time, offering immediate, step-by-step feedback on each data source.
01. On the list page — Display real-time connection status for each source channel
Differentiate between connection statuses and provide users with displays and feedback
Use the card-style design to display the connection status of different sources, and provide users with feedback based on each status.
Provide users with simple and efficient feedback through a lightweight design. Use commonly recognized alert colors to reduce cognitive load.
02. On the details page — Provide feedback based on this source connection status
When users click on a card to enter the details page of the connected channel, the system provides appropriate feedback based on the connection status of the source channel
For internal channel(The product developed by the company) connections:
For external channel(Like Meta, Google) connections:
Impact
This lightweight, real-time feedback and guidance design allows merchants to stay informed and confident throughout the data source connection process, improving transparency and fostering a stronger sense of control.
Achieve Design Goal I: KR 2
Optimize interaction flow and simplify cumbersome tasks
What‘s the problem?
When business operators create new customer segments, their top concerns are task efficiency and page clarity. In real-world usage, operators often need to set up multiple rules and conditions at once—driven by specific marketing campaigns, product complexity, or targeting needs.
Current workflow:
Although the current process allows them to fulfill the requirement of creating new customer segments, it is widely regarded as overly cumbersome. Operators often need to repeatedly make selections, leading to a prolonged process.
Current page display:
Structurally, all rules are stacked vertically in the order they’re created, without logical grouping. Even when rules differ in type, they are simply laid out in a flat, linear list. This forces users to scroll back and forth to review their setup, increasing both visual density and cognitive effort.
As a result, users struggle to quickly locate, compare, or edit specific rules. The lack of visual hierarchy and grouping not only impacts readability, but also increases the time needed to complete segmentation tasks.
In short, the current flow slows down the segmentation process, introduces unnecessary friction, and reduces overall usability—especially for users managing complex segments.
Solution
Based on this usage feedback, I designed a clearer, more modular customer segmentation interaction method.
Optimized workflow:
Optimized page display:
Impact
The original five-step process was streamlined into three, allowing users to configure complex rule sets more quickly and clearly. Page readability and information clarity were significantly improved, reducing cognitive load—especially for merchants creating detailed segments. The redesign made the experience faster, more intuitive, and less frustrating.
Achieve Design Goal Il: KR 1
Enhance the existing page to support additional data displays
What‘s the problem?
During our research, many merchants told us that the customer profile page didn't seem to contain much information.
Before
When a merchant selects a customer on the Customer List page, the system displays the Customer Purchase Path Timeline. However, for merchants, merely presenting this information is insufficient.
Insight: Merchants want to see more comprehensive and multidimensional customer data.
Solution
Based on research and competitor analysis, I identified five key data dimensions most valued by merchants, and redesigned the information architecture of the customer detail part to make it more comprehensive, clear, and actionable.
After
Allow users to view more dimensions of information about the customer, forming a more comprehensive user profile.
Prioritize actions based on user expectations and competitive analysis, displaying them from high to low frequency.
Enabled on-demand loading for each tab to avoid performance lag from loading all data at once, ensuring a smoother and more seamless browsing experience.
This “segment-to-individual” linkage enables seamless switching between group-level and individual-level analysis.
Impact
This upgrade significantly enhanced the completeness and usability of the customer list feature, enabling merchants to better understand their user base and ultimately increasing feature adoption and user engagement.
Achieve Design Goal Il: KR 2
Add key features to help users quickly analyze and compare data
What‘s the problem?
In early-stage research, one of the most consistent requests from merchants was the need for a centralized workspace to manage and compare analysis reports. Users frequently expressed frustration with statements like:
“Every time I want to compare charts, I have to click back and forth across multiple pages.”
“There’s just too much data—it’s overwhelming.”
Some even asked directly: “Other platforms already support custom dashboards—why don’t you have one yet?”
User pain points
Dispersed Data, Low Analysis Efficiency
Due to the lack of a unified data visualization tool, users must switch between multiple reports to gain a full picture, increasing integration complexity and reducing analytical efficiency.
Lack of Real-Time Data Feedback, Slow Decision-Making
The current system only supports historical data review, lacking real-time monitoring. Users are unable to respond promptly to market changes, which delays decision-making.
Lack key Features, Reduced Competitiveness
While competitors offer customizable dashboards and multi-dimensional analytics, our product falls short. This impacts user experience and market competitiveness, with existing clients voicing dissatisfaction.
Based on this situation, we conducted a competitive analysis to explore how other products address these issues.
Solution
I led the design of the SmartIntellect Dashboard MVP, aiming to give users a more intuitive and flexible way to organize and analyze key charts. The design focused on flexibility, smooth interaction, and customization—ensuring both scalability and alignment with core user needs.
01. Add dashboard feature
This interaction flow was designed to ensure management efficiency while enhancing reversibility and feedback transparency—delivering both ease of use and operational efficiency.
02. Add or remove different cards to the dashboard
Design thinking: Place all required inputs in a drawer-style sidebar to reduce user steps
Why choose this design method?
This “clear feedback + visible status” mechanism significantly enhances user trust and reduces operational anxiety—especially in data-intensive workflows that require frequent adjustments and quick validation.
Impact
From a product perspective, this module closes a key gap in data visualization capabilities compared to competitors. From the user’s perspective, it directly addresses frontline needs for improving analytical efficiency and reducing cognitive load—helping merchants access key insights more quickly while enhancing the product’s sense of professionalism and overall appeal.
That said, the dashboard is a system-level feature with a long functional chain, so we made strategic trade-offs in the initial release.
Achieve Design Goal Ill
Improve the product's visual presentation, strengthen market competitiveness
SmartIntellect product users operate in markets with audiences from the UK, USA, and China, primarily serving key account (KA) clients with brand and user operations needs. For them, efficiency is the highest priority.
Color
The primary colors are dark blue (#07012F) and purple (#664EFD).
In certain cases, text buttons, navigation links, and general alert and message notifications should avoid using the brand color and instead utilize blue (#356DFF). Blue serves as a standard, universally recognized color in the interface, providing clear meaning. Replacing blue with non-blue tones in these elements could introduce additional cognitive load for users.
Typography
Rounded Corners
To align with design trends and improve display on low-resolution screens, the new components and page elements feature larger rounded corners.
For single-line components like buttons, input fields, labels, and toasts, both ends use fully rounded corners.
For other elements, rounded corners follow a 4px increment, such as:
16px corners are widely used for page card elements
12px corners are used for elements nested within cards, like messages
Spacing
Most spacing follows multiples of 8px, while the spacing between titles and descriptions is set to 4px.
Design System
I led the creation of the product’s initial design component library, modularizing common UI elements and interaction patterns. The final output included 23 core UI components along with corresponding usage guidelines.
Impact
The component library unified the product’s visual style and improved team efficiency, cutting design and development time by ~50%. It also enhanced the user experience, making the interface clearer and easier to use.
Data Validation
The product is currently in the MVP stage and has been released to a few merchant users for beta testing and trials. Data has been collected through internal testing and usability assessments.
Ultimately, 80% of potential merchants showed interest in the redesigned product and expressed a willingness to pay, compared to only 3 who had clearly indicated a willingness to pay before.
