Yen Dang - Product designer

Boosting Internal Reach with Intuitive Content Distribution

This project focused on integrating the internal newsletter platform into the Staffbase suite to strengthen company-wide communication. By adding a new channel for reaching employees, we enabled our clients to implement a multichannel strategy to enhance information flow across their organizations. The project also empowered editors with advanced performance analytics, offering valuable insights into the impact of their content.

Background

Staffbase is a leading internal communication platform that enables employers to connect with every employee in an engaging and effective way. Employers are equipped with a powerful platform to create content, while employees can easily access it through a website or mobile app.

The intranet is the core solution of Staffbase, with Staffbase Studio serving as the management platform for communication teams. A key part of the Studio is the content section, which covers various topics. Our team is responsible for the news and pages features, including content creation, management, and monitoring.

Responsibilities

As a designer, I worked closely with the Product Owner to help create and set up discovery workshops. I participated in customer meetings to gather feedback, designed and tested hypotheses, and presented the results to the team. My focus was on brainstorming and testing new ideas, refining technical aspects with the team, and delivering polished design solutions.

Expand Reach Through Email Newsletters

Context: When Bananatag, an email editor startup, was acquired by Staffbase, our mission became clear: to integrate the two platforms and create a seamless user experience.

Approach

To kick off the project, I took the initiative to map the user journey for creating content across both platforms—posts and news in Staffbase, and newsletters in Bananatag. This journey map helped us identify overlaps, distinct workflows, and key opportunities for integration.

Our long-term goal is to merge the platforms into a unified system with a cohesive visual language and consistent user flows. This ambitious task not only involves revamping the interfaces of both products but also requires establishing a robust design system to ensure structure and consistency.

As a first step, we focused on an MVP feature: enabling editors to select posts created in Staffbase Studio directly within the email editor. This allows them to seamlessly integrate posts into email content and send them through the email platform, bridging the gap between the two systems and enhancing the user experience.

Approach

In the design process, I often rely on data to guide decisions. For example, while designing a panel for users to select posts to include in a newsletter, I considered Staffbase’s organizational structure, where posts are grouped by channels, and channels are organized within spaces.

According to the data we have, many of our big clients have more than 10 spaces and numerous channel. For this reason, the initial checkbox design for spaces and channels wasn’t scalable. To improve efficiency, I redesigned the panel with a search function and suggested selections, making it faster and more user-friendly for editors.

Outcome

The successful integration allowed the company to demonstrate its capabilities effectively, showcasing a seamless user experience and robust functionality. As a result, the company was better equipped to attract and secure new clients as well as upselling current clients.

Outcome

Enhancing Post-Performance Insights for Editors

Context:
Editors needed better visibility into how their content was performing, including which channels were driving the most traffic, to refine their publishing strategy effectively.

Approach:
I collaborated with the team to conduct user interviews and facilitate workshops, gathering insights into editors' specific data needs. We analyzed the available data and explored the most effective ways to present key metrics in a clear, actionable format.

Outcome:
The newly introduced feature provided administrators with meaningful insights, empowering them to make data-driven decisions and optimize their content strategy with greater confidence.

Building a Scalable Design System for Consistency

Context:
Without a structured design system, the platform lacked visual and functional consistency, making it difficult to maintain a seamless user experience and scale efficiently.

Approach:
As part of the team, I contributed to establishing the foundation of the design system by conducting a design audit across teams to identify inconsistencies. We defined essential design primitives, including font scales and color palettes, created a core set of reusable components, and established standardized naming conventions and design tokens. Additionally, we introduced documentation tools, collaborated closely with developers to ensure smooth implementation, and set up a governance process for future scalability. Existing designs were updated to align with the new system, ensuring a unified experience.

Outcome:
The newly established design system improved consistency across the platform, enhanced collaboration between designers and developers, and laid the groundwork for the successful redesign of the entire studio experience.

Designed and crafted by me