Intro/Background
PortX is building a digital banking platform called PortX Cloud, which currently includes a suite of three flagship products: Integration Manager, Payment Manager, and Data Manager. Each product supports multiple layers — for example, Payment Manager includes Wires, ACH, and FedNow, while Integration Manager includes tools for Design, Development, and Deployment.
The Problem
PortX had no unified or intuitive way for users to navigate between its core products. Each product team had either implemented or proposed its own localized navigation, resulting in a fragmented and inconsistent experience across the suite. Early decisions included housing all products in a top-left menu using dropdown, tree view, or accordion menus. However, A/B and usability testing revealed that these options felt hidden and inconvenient — especially when the cursor wasn’t already near that corner of the screen.
PortX had no unified or intuitive way for users to navigate between its core products. Each product team had either implemented or proposed its own localized navigation, resulting in a fragmented and inconsistent experience across the suite. Early decisions included housing all products in a top-left menu using dropdown, tree view, or accordion menus. However, A/B and usability testing revealed that these options felt hidden and inconvenient — especially when the cursor wasn’t already near that corner of the screen.
From a business perspective, the CEO was concerned that PortX’s product suite wasn’t immediately visible — particularly during sales demos and stakeholder presentations. Hiding key tools behind a 9-dot or hamburger menu limited both discoverability and perceived value.
The challenge was to create a single, scalable navigation system that worked across the entire product suite. It should also require balancing business visibility with the flexibility to support each product’s unique flow and structure.
My Role
Sole UX/UI designer
Conducted internal interviews and gathered input from product, engineering, and C-level leaders
Mapped the current navigation inconsistencies across product teams
Designed a scalable navigation system for cross-product switching and future growth
Created Figma prototypes and presented proposals for feedback and iteration
Led A/B and usability testing, along with user surveys, to guide and refine the final navigation approach
Tools: Figma, reMarkable, Miro, Jira, PowerPoint, Zoom
Sole UX/UI designer
Conducted internal interviews and gathered input from product, engineering, and C-level leaders
Mapped the current navigation inconsistencies across product teams
Designed a scalable navigation system for cross-product switching and future growth
Created Figma prototypes and presented proposals for feedback and iteration
Led A/B and usability testing, along with user surveys, to guide and refine the final navigation approach
Tools: Figma, reMarkable, Miro, Jira, PowerPoint, Zoom
Challenges + Learnings
Supporting all three flagship PortX products as the sole designer came with big challenges. Each product team had its own PMs and engineers — but no dedicated UX/UI designer. This meant that I had to juggle sprint planning, design requests, reviews, and implementation across multiple workstreams. Keeping the UI consistent across the suite required constant coordination and vigilance.
Supporting all three flagship PortX products as the sole designer came with big challenges. Each product team had its own PMs and engineers — but no dedicated UX/UI designer. This meant that I had to juggle sprint planning, design requests, reviews, and implementation across multiple workstreams. Keeping the UI consistent across the suite required constant coordination and vigilance.
This experience reinforced the value of scalable design systems. I had to think modularly and anticipate how design patterns could adapt as new features and sub-products were added. One of my biggest strengths is the ability to see the big picture — not just what’s needed now, but what will scale later. This project pushed me to translate that thinking into tangible systems the team could actually build on.
Throughout the process, I grounded the design in core usability heuristics. The 3-column system improved recognition over recall by making all product tiers visible at a glance, and reduced the need to memorize where tools lived. By keeping the structure consistent across the suite, it supported user control and predictability — especially important for enterprise users working across multiple tools. Iterating through placement, text/icon combinations, and interaction patterns also helped address efficiency of use and aesthetic minimalism, making sure the nav was useful but never overwhelming.
There were also moments where ideal UX had to take a backseat to engineering constraints. For instance, my proposed version of a dynamic, sliding navigation was ultimately cut due to timeline and resource limitations. It was a good reminder that strong UX often requires pragmatism — knowing when to push, when to adapt, and how to collaborate across teams to get to the best possible outcome.
Impact/Results
✅ Improved discoverability across the product suite with a unified, scalable nav system
✅ Improved discoverability across the product suite with a unified, scalable nav system
✅ Enabled consistent integration across products by creating a shared experience model
✅ Streamlined navigation across PortX Cloud, making it faster to switch between products
✅ Received strong internal adoption — dev teams used my system as the standard for all new products!
