Client

Hilma

Date

June 2024

Timeline

6 month project

Platform Revamp for Easier Onboarding

Business Impact

Reduced onboarding friction

Reduced onboarding friction

Improved retention potential

Improved retention potential

Operational efficiency

Operational efficiency

Conversion readiness

Conversion readiness

How I turned confusion into an easy new user experience

When I joined Hilma, new users were getting lost before they even began. The platform had powerful features but lacked clarity, its purpose was hidden behind an overwhelming interface. My goal was to bring focus, consistency, and ease to the experience so that users could feel confident from the very first click.

Background

Project Overview

The product

The product

Hilma is a B2C digital coaching platform that helps users craft clear, story-driven presentations by guiding them through questions about purpose, audience, and message, focusing on what to say rather than how slides look.

When I joined, Hilma already had its core features in place, but new users felt lost. The app’s purpose wasn’t obvious, interactions were unintuitive, and the interface lacked visual cohesion.

My Role & Team

My Role & Team

I led UX and UI design, defining the overall structure, feature organization, and visual direction.

  • 1 Frontend Developer

  • 1 Backend Developer

  • The CEO (main stakeholder)

Constraints

Constraints

  • 6-month timeline from brief to implementation

  • Small development capacity

  • Fragmented codebase and style inconsistencies

  • Limited time for user research, required heuristic-based design direction

Users & Audience

Users & Audience

Primarily first-time users, especially managers and leaders who regularly hold presentations for their teams. These users needed a tool that felt clear, structured, and easy to learn from the first click.

Tools Used

Tools Used

  • Figma – mockups & components

  • Freeform (iPad) – early sketches & wireframes

  • Miro – workshops

  • Notion – documentation & design rationale

  • Dovetail – usability testing

The Challenge

No active user base meant limited access to real user feedback early on.

No active user base meant limited access to real user feedback early on.

Visual inconsistency — no component library or design system, causing frequent mismatches between design and code.

Visual inconsistency — no component library or design system, causing frequent mismatches between design and code.

Stakeholder alignment — balancing the CEO’s vision of a “more exciting” product with practical, time-bounded UX improvements.

Stakeholder alignment — balancing the CEO’s vision of a “more exciting” product with practical, time-bounded UX improvements.

Ongoing development — the team needed to continue building features while I redesigned the existing experience.

Ongoing development — the team needed to continue building features while I redesigned the existing experience.

Process

Figuring out ground zero

To compensate for the lack of early user data, I conducted a heuristic evaluation, stepping through Hilma as both a free and premium user. I mapped usability issues around clarity, hierarchy, and navigation, confirming that users’ main pain points were confusion and cognitive overload.

These findings formed the foundation for the redesign plan, focusing on structure, flow, and onboarding clarity.

Feature Scoping & Analysis Framework

To handle complexity, I broke the app into feature scopes and ran a 7-step analysis pipeline for each:
Vision → Situation → User Needs → Purpose → Opportunities → Strategies → Revision

This helped me link each design decision to user needs and stakeholder goals, keeping the redesign strategic rather than aesthetic.

Feature Highlight · The Goal Form

Feature Highlight · The Goal Form

Designing with Progressive Disclosure

When I began redesigning Hilma’s workspace, my main focus wasn’t on polishing visuals, it was on reducing cognitive load. I wanted users to feel guided, not flooded with information. That meant designing the product so that complexity appeared only when it was needed.

I used the principle of progressive disclosure as the foundation for every design decision, and the Goal Form became the perfect example of how this approach played out in practice.

Before: Goal form when I joined

After: How the goal form was introduced during onboarding flow

Originally, the Goal Form was presented as a long text summary connected to a modal of seven questions about the presentation’s purpose, topic, and audience. While the content itself was valuable, its layout and visibility made it feel dense and disconnected from the user’s flow.

Translating principles into design:

Key questions were grouped by intent to make the process more conversational.

Key questions were grouped by intent to make the process more conversational.

Supporting details were hidden behind tooltips and expandable sections to keep the interface light.

Supporting details were hidden behind tooltips and expandable sections to keep the interface light.

Visual cues guided users step-by-step, creating a sense of momentum rather than overwhelm.

Visual cues guided users step-by-step, creating a sense of momentum rather than overwhelm.

This micro-redesign of a single feature reflected the broader transformation of the platform itself:

A shift from everything at once to exactly what you need, when you need it.

When the new Goal Form concept came to life, users could finally see a clear path forward. What used to feel like a wall of text became a guided journey, one that built understanding step by step.

Establishing Consistency with a Component Library

As the project progressed, it became clear that the lack of a shared component library was slowing us down. Designs weren’t implemented as intended, and visual drift was constant.

I led the evaluation of libraries compatible with our tech stack, and we ultimately based our new system on Radix UI. Its solid accessibility foundations and prebuilt primitives gave us a reliable starting point, but it also meant that flexibility in visual language was limited. We could configure color, typography, and scale to a degree, but deeper customization would have required heavy overrides.

Some examples of the component library being used in app feature context

This trade-off allowed us to deliver a consistent, maintainable interface quickly, a shared visual language that improved implementation quality without overburdening development. Despite those constraints, I emphasized brand expression through spacing, layout rhythm, and illustrations to preserve Hilma’s personality within Radix’s framework.

Outcome

Results

The platform revamp transformed Hilma from a confusing interface into a structured, welcoming experience.

Clearer visual hierarchy and intuitive navigation

Clearer visual hierarchy and intuitive navigation

Progressive disclosure reduced overwhelm

Progressive disclosure reduced overwhelm

Improved onboarding flow — users now understood what to do on first entry

Improved onboarding flow — users now understood what to do on first entry

Qualitative usability test results improved from 1/5 → 4/5 new users finding the app easy to use

Qualitative usability test results improved from 1/5 → 4/5 new users finding the app easy to use

A scalable foundation for future features and visual evolution

A scalable foundation for future features and visual evolution

Reflections & Learnings

This project reminded me that clarity isn’t about simplifying visuals, it’s about designing intentional experiences that meet users where they are.

Heuristic analysis can go far, but even a few early user tests could have accelerated alignment and validation.

Heuristic analysis can go far, but even a few early user tests could have accelerated alignment and validation.

Progressive disclosure matters — revealing the right amount at the right time turns complexity into clarity.

Progressive disclosure matters — revealing the right amount at the right time turns complexity into clarity.

Less is more — users don’t need every feature at once; they need breathing room to learn.

Less is more — users don’t need every feature at once; they need breathing room to learn.

A shared component library isn’t just visual hygiene — it’s the bridge between design intent and development reality.

A shared component library isn’t just visual hygiene — it’s the bridge between design intent and development reality.

Business Impact

While quantitative analytics were limited at this stage, qualitative usability testing and team feedback revealed improvements that align directly with business outcomes:

Reduced onboarding friction: 4 out of 5 first-time users completed all test tasks without guidance, signaling faster activation and clearer time-to-value.

Reduced onboarding friction: 4 out of 5 first-time users completed all test tasks without guidance, signaling faster activation and clearer time-to-value.

Improved retention potential: Users reported greater confidence and comprehension, lowering the likelihood of early churn.

Improved retention potential: Users reported greater confidence and comprehension, lowering the likelihood of early churn.

Operational efficiency: Introducing a shared component library reduced visual inconsistencies and improved design–development efficiency, shortening iteration cycles.

Operational efficiency: Introducing a shared component library reduced visual inconsistencies and improved design–development efficiency, shortening iteration cycles.

Conversion readiness: A clearer onboarding story and interface made Hilma’s value proposition more apparent, setting the stage for stronger conversion from free to paid users.

Conversion readiness: A clearer onboarding story and interface made Hilma’s value proposition more apparent, setting the stage for stronger conversion from free to paid users.

Together, these outcomes not only improved the user experience but also strengthened Hilma’s position for long-term growth and scalability.

One-Sentence Outcome

Hilma evolved from an overwhelming interface into a cohesive, guided experience — helping new users quickly understand, engage, and create with confidence while laying the foundation for sustainable business growth.

Selected works

Selected works