ExpressConnect
I helped design and componentize the new version of our data center equipment management portal.
Role
Product Designer
Team
Design, Engineering, Product Management
Timeline
10 Months
Company
Service Express
Background
ExpressConnect v1 was built in 2018 by an outside software firm on a tight deadline. It shipped, but design took a back seat. There was no component library, no shared design language. Every screen looked a little different, and as the team added features over the years, the inconsistency compounded.
The portal worked. It just didn't feel like one product.
The redesigned ExpressConnect portal showing three views of the modernized interface with consistent design language and improved navigation.
Understanding the Users
I interviewed the different user groups and built out personas to map their daily workflows. Pretty quickly it became clear that a one-size-fits-all portal wasn't cutting it. Different roles had fundamentally different needs, but the portal treated everyone the same.
User persona documentation showing profiles of different ExpressConnect user groups with their roles, goals, pain points, and usage patterns.
Three things stood out from the research:
No shared language meant constant guessing. Without a component library, developers were eyeballing spacing, colors, and patterns. Every new feature drifted further from the last.
Migrating to Figma was a chance to start fresh. The Sketch files were a mess: incomplete, disorganized, no naming conventions. Porting them over as-is would have just recreated the same problems in a different tool.
Different users needed different things. Persona interviews showed that user groups had very different daily workflows, but the portal gave everyone the same generic experience.
ExpressUI
We built ExpressUI, a full design system and component library in Figma, as the foundation for everything going forward. We moved away from the generic Material Design palette and chose colors and typography that matched the Service Express brand.
ExpressUI, the branded design system and component library built in Figma.
Brand-aligned color palette and typography system, shifted from generic Material Design defaults to Service Express brand colors.
Building it meant auditing every screen in the old Sketch files and cataloging what existed. Most of it was unusable: inconsistent naming, duplicate symbols, components that only existed in one place. We rebuilt everything from the ground up using atomic design principles. Buttons, inputs, cards, tables, nav elements, all as reusable components with proper tokens and variants.
Applying the System
With ExpressUI in place, we redesigned the portal itself. The layout got cleaner, navigation got simpler, and data presentation became much more readable. It finally felt like one cohesive product.
On top of that, we designed Customer Insights, the most-requested feature from our user interviews. It gave users real visibility into their equipment metrics and service request trends, something the old portal never offered.
The redesigned service ticket screen, a key workflow in the portal rebuilt with the new design system.
What Shipped
The design system became the foundation for all future ExpressConnect work. Customer Insights launched as the first feature built entirely on ExpressUI. For the first time, the team had a shared language to design and build from, which made every feature after it faster to ship.
