004 INNOVATION Grants
UI DESIGN | CONTENT DESIGN LEAD
FIGMA, MURAL, SHAREPOINT
JUNE 2025 - OCTOBER 2025 (5 MONTHS)
CAR INDUSTRY | INNOVATION
01/ Overview
TIMELINE
The project had a five-month delivery window to design and launch an onboarding experience for a complex R&D funding application process.
TEAM & LANGUAGE
The team was composed of 1 business analyst and 2 UI designers.
I was the lead UX Designer on the project and worked together with one junior designer.
The language used in the team was German.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The organisation relied on a complex application process to allocate funding to R&D projects. Errors and missing information were frequent, resulting in applications being sent back for correction.The core application could not be modified within the scope of the project. The challenge was therefore not to redesign the product itself, but to design the experience around it: helping users understand the process, make better decisions and submit more accurate information before errors reached the application.
02/ PROBLEM & CONTEXT
USERS
Around 100 employees and external partners used the process, including engineers, innovation managers and other technical profiles.
BUSINESS IMPACT
R&D funding allocation was a critical operational step in a highly competitive industry. Errors in funding applications created additional review and correction work and could delay the allocation of budgets needed to support ongoing or future research. The opportunity was therefore broader than improving documentation. The goal was to reduce avoidable errors at the point where users learned how to navigate the process.
03/ RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
KEY RESEARCH METHODS
User interviews & Domain research
5 interviews with employees and external partners to understand how they experienced the application process.
Research with R&D specialists to identify where errors occurred most frequently and which parts of the process required additional clarification.
CRITICAL FINDINGS
Problem started before users entered the application
The application itself was only part of the experience. Users were already uncertain about the process, terminology and expectations before completing the first fields. Documentation transferred complexity instead of resolving it. The existing documentation provided information but did not sufficiently explain how to apply that information in context. Users were left to translate a complex process into actions themselves.
Complexity created avoidable errors
The process contained numerous steps, specific requirements and fields whose expected values were not always obvious. This meant that errors were not simply a matter of user attention. They were an indication that the system's complexity was not being adequately supported by the surrounding experience.
Users needed confidence, not more information
Adding documentation alone would have increased the amount of information without necessarily improving comprehension. The design challenge became: How might we turn a complex administrative process into a guided experience that helps users understand what to do, why it matters and what good completion looks like?
04/ DESIGN PROCESS
FROM RESEARCH TO SOLUTION
Rather than treating onboarding as a documentation problem, I reframed it as a behavior and comprehension problem. The experience needed to progressively answer three questions:
Where am I in the process?
What do I need to do?
How do I know I am doing it correctly?
Because the core application could not be changed, we created a complementary SharePoint experience around it.
This became a layered onboarding system combining:
process guidance
contextual explanations
visual examples
progressive information
interactive and gamified elements
video tutorials
The objective was not to make the process entertaining for its own sake, but to reduce uncertainty before users reached the high-risk parts of the application.
KEY ITERATIONS
Iteration 1 : From documentation to guided progression
Initial design: A conventional process overview based on existing brand guidelines and presentation materials.
Testing revealed: The interface looked clearer, but users still had difficulty understanding how to progress through the process.
Pivot: I introduced a more explicit journey structure, turning the onboarding into a sequence of steps users could follow. Gamification and visual storytelling were used to make progression visible and break a complex process into manageable stages.
Result: User satisfaction with the onboarding reached 85%.
Iteration 2 : From explanation to demonstration
Initial design: Gamified navigation and slide-based explanations were used to clarify the process.
Testing revealed: Some fields remained difficult to interpret. Users could understand the general process while still struggling with specific actions inside the application.
Pivot: We introduced short video tutorials demonstrating how to complete specific parts of the process.
This shifted the onboarding from telling users what to do to showing them how to do it.
Result: Error frequency decreased by 36%.
DESIGN DECISIONS & RATIONALE
Design around the user's decision-making process
Intervene before the error occurs & compensate for product constraints without hiding them
Use gamification as a behavioral design tool
05/ SOLUTION
FINAL DESIGNS
PROBLEM SOLVED
From documentation to enablement
Instead of asking users to interpret a static manual, the onboarding provided a structured path through the process. Users could progressively understand what was expected before reaching the corresponding parts of the application.
From error correction to error prevention
The redesign moved support earlier in the journey. By clarifying requirements and demonstrating difficult actions before submission, the experience helped reduce avoidable errors. The core application could not be changed. The project therefore demonstrated how UX can improve an end-to-end experience even when the underlying product is constrained — by identifying where another layer of the service can meaningfully reduce friction.
06/ IMPACT & RESULTS
METRICS & OUTCOMES
85%
User satisfaction.
-36%
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
Designing around constraints is a product skill
Old apps need modern onboarding approaches even more. Legacy systems often lack intuitive interfaces, making onboarding documentation critical. I learned to bridge the gap between outdated UX and user expectations by creating a separate, engaging learning experience that compensates for the app's limitations.
Playfulness with a clear behavioral objective
The gamified elements were effective because they were not the end goal. They gave structure and momentum to a process users already perceived as tedious. The broader lesson was to treat visual and interaction design as tools for changing behavior — not simply as ways of making an interface more engaging.
These projects are presented in an anonymised format due to client confidentiality. The visuals are illustrative, while the challenges, approach and outcomes reflect the actual work.