Design and process improvements at a small software company

TALtech's industrial data collection software serves organizations from small labs to Fortune 500 companies. Initially hired for sales/admin support, I drove key modernization initiatives across documentation, web presence, and product interfaces that improved user experience and operational efficiency.

• Role: Design, Support, and Product Development

• Team: Solo designer working with VP of Sales and external contractors

• Duration: 2021-2024

Key outcomes

1. Designed next-gen product interface to address setup difficulties based on insights from support role

2. Modernized the company's web presence and assessed our technical debt

3. Reduced support call volume through improved documentation and support resources

1. Reimagining our flagship software based on customer support and design insights

A key initiative focused on enhancing WinWedge, our flagship data collection software. WinWedge's flexibility is a core selling point—users can customize dozens of settings for vast industrial needs—but my experiences with customer support revealed opportunities to make this flexibility more frictionless for new users.

I had previously made support guides and tutorial videos to aid the learning curve, but saw that the interface itself could visually guide users through setup, reducing the need for external help materials.

Key usability issues:

1. Navigation relied entirely on menu bars, with an unclear sense of progress through setup.

2. Setup steps were split across disconnected, single-view windows, making users lose context during configuration.

3. Technical terms and unclear labels made it difficult for non-technical users to understand basic functions.

The Port Analyze window was essential for testing COM ports and planning data parsing rules, but its isolation from closely related functions created confusion and increased support requests. This window highlighted broader usability challenges, too:

1. Technical terminology without clear explanations

2. Ambiguous data flow labels (e.g., "Input data", "output") creating confusion

3. Complex ASCII commands with minimal guidance

These issues frequently surfaced in support conversations with non-technical users.

Implementation and code considerations for the redesign

My design approach focused on evolving the interface while preserving WinWedge's powerful functionality:

• Studying successful patterns from similar utility software

• Aligning with familiar Windows design patterns

• Making extensive customization options more discoverable, especially for occasional users reconfiguring hardware setups (many users only interact with WinWedge when hardware changes necessitate reconfiguration)

To ground the design and reflect TALtech's emphasis on utility, I studied Microsoft's WinUI guidelines and OS-provided component library. This ensured the concept would feel like a natural extension of Windows and its systems. [1]

Inspiration from similar utility apps

For inspiration, I studied how modern utility apps handle complex data workflows. Node-based editors like Audio Hijack and Retrobatch offer compelling visual programming interfaces where features become connectable blocks in a clear automation workflow.

Then I pivoted a bit. I realized that WinWedge's linear data flow didn't suit a totally freeform canvas, leading me to Apple Shortcuts' single-column design.

This natural language approach—using fill-in-the-blank inputs within plain English descriptions—better matched how users expressed their needs: "I need to split the data using spaces into columns for the time, weight, and unit."

Single-window interface and object-oriented workflow editor

The resulting design unified scattered functions into a single window:

• A primary, persistent canvas showing the data workflow

• A sidebar organizing setup steps logically in tabs and collapsible cards

• Clear visual guidance through configuration

This approach allows users to plan data workflows while testing device commands, minimizing disorientation.

This approach offers:

• Visual clarity through connected actions, which make complex processes and relationships easier to grasp and debug.

• Intuitive editing of data workflows through additive, object-oriented interactions

• Progressive disclosure of advanced options through input flyouts

• Modular foundations for future feature expansions [2]

Some self-skepticism to explore if I were to continue iterating on this:

• How might we refine the block-based workflow? While fully rearrangeable blocks offer flexibility, many operations need to follow a specific sequence. What would it look like if we introduced more guardrails to this approach?

• How can we balance new and familiar patterns? While I removed the traditional menu bar to maintain focus on the guided navigation, we'd need to validate how this affects longtime users through testing. [3]

Improved copywriting, visual aids, and testing experience

I also refined the interface language to better guide users:

• Clarified technical terms with action-oriented labels

• Added contextual help and common command suggestions

• Reorganized features based on usage frequency

• Integrated visual cues for easier navigation

By addressing key usability challenges and observations from support interactions, these improvements have the potential to reduce customer's setup times and their reliance on support staff, while positioning the software as a more user-friendly solution compared to the competition.

2. Improving our website’s design and navigability

Another key initiative focused on modernizing TALtech's web presence. The existing site faced several challenges:

• Inconsistent layouts that didn't work well on mobile

• Navigation that changed unpredictably between pages

• Technical content that wasn't meeting customer needs

• A deprecated CMS that made content and code updates difficult

Together, the VP of Sales and I streamlined the site structure. We…

• Reduced over 500 pages to a focused core set

• Reorganized information around common customer questions

• Created clearer product descriptions to address typical points of confusion

Working with our WordPress agency partner, I introduced wireframes to better express our unique product needs. These involved:

• Clarifying our desired structure with bespoke headings, groupings, and section priorities based on our customer knowledge

• Distinguishing product use cases on the home page, as our tech-based software names had often sent customers calling to ask

• Defining hero illustrations that would clarify each product's compatible hardware and potential integration setups

The agency's initial designs needed stronger alignment with our B2B and industrial user base. Within WordPress and Elementor's capabilities, I further polished the designs by:

• Shifting to a more professional color palette, balancing accessibility with visual appeal by adapting Tailwind's color system to maintain consistent saturation across lightness levels

• Enhancing layout consistency and responsiveness across the site

• Refining product illustrations for a more polished, trustworthy appearance

• Reframing technical descriptions to emphasize benefits over specifications and reorganizing feature comparisons for clarity

• Overhauling the support sections, including the creation of a step-by-step WinWedge Quick Start Guide and pruning of outdated articles

The WordPress plugin environment limited how much I could refine these features, but we achieved several meaningful outcomes:

• Reduced support call volume

• Increased engagement with key pages

• Smoother customer conversations thanks to better reference materials

Users could more easily navigate our offerings and grasp the value of our software, with a more polished presence that better reflected TALtech's capabilities.

3. Streamlining internal docs and support resources

Another critical effort was streamlining our scattered documentation and support resources. Product specifications, customer histories, and internal procedures were spread across various formats and locations, slowing down support response times.

I digitized the employee guide into a searchable Notion wiki, creating a central hub for procedures, templates, and troubleshooting guides. This improved organization helped us respond to customer needs more efficiently.

Their software tutorial videos from the 90s showed their age, with old Windows interfaces and unnecessarily lengthiness in explaining setup steps. Updating them would strengthen our image as a provider of modern, capable software. So I proposed and handled the complete production of new, focused tutorials—from writing support-informed scripts to recording voiceovers and creating animations.

The new videos:

• Broke down complex setup processes into clear steps

• Used clearer, professional voiceovers and modern screen recordings

• Served as both setup guides and product demonstrations

Reflections and leftovers

In my time here, I learned to spot and seize opportunities for improvement within constraints, from untangling scattered documentation to redesigning core software interfaces. My direct involvement in customer support and sales provided firsthand insights, helping me identify the most impactful changes needed.

These design projects have dovetailed with a new focus on defining requirements for upgrading our e-commerce, license management, and CRM integrations:

• Outlining data migration strategies from our current fragmented systems

• Working with the VP to prioritize features and aid developer hiring

• Designing a self-serve license manager to reduce operational burdens

Working through TALtech's constraints showed me how to make complicated systems better. I'm excited to take on bigger versions of these challenges.

Technical footnotes

1. I also considered the migration implications of the dated but widely-used Windows Dynamic Data Exchange system, which WinWedge uses for non-keyboard integrations. WinUI 3 may not support DDE natively, but Windows often allows mixing backend frameworks. I started to wonder if DDE could work in a WinUI "wrapper," but caught myself overengineering prematurely. This project was meant to be a guiding vision, so I refocused on creating a modernized, intuitive interface design.

2. WinWedge's evolution could include modular features that users just drag and drop into their workflows. Advanced blocks, monetized through add-ons or tiers, could enable flexible long-term growth guided by user needs.

3. Specific areas to test: Are object-oriented functions like "Get field" and "Save as variable" truly valuable for serial device data collection? How do users respond to losing menu-based navigation? These insights would help refine the balance between power and simplicity.