Situation
A customer portal rebuild with a fixed launch date
Eastman holds the premium position in its market. Its customer-facing analytics portal is part of how it defends that position, and the company was rebuilding it against a fixed launch date.
Developers were already mid-build when the project hit a gap. The team had no design lead available for a critical month.
The old portal left customers with questions. Many leaned on Eastman's technical team to interpret their own analysis results.
What the rebuild had to solve
- Customers needed to understand their results on their own.
- Users needed a more valuable customer experience than they could get from Eastman's competition.
- Developers needed design decisions while the build was in progress.
- The team had to hit the launch date.
Need design leadership to keep the build moving?
We can help.
Sketch embedded a product and UX lead directly into Eastman's team to handle the UX so Eastman's developers could write the production code quickly.
1 - Start from what's already built
Design tokens for color, type, and spacing were extracted from the running application. A component library then showed every component's current and proposed version. Because everything matched what Eastman already ships, developers could adopt the work without translation.
2 - Test directions before committing
Sketch produced three directions for the benchmark chart and tested them with Eastman's subject-matter lead, who selected a winner.
The landing page followed the same path. Sketch offered three directions, and Eastman chose one.
3 - Hand off designs developers can build from
Each handoff was detailed enough for Eastman's developers to build from directly:
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Landing page design in the chosen direction, with a developer guide
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Benchmark chart as a working, data-driven prototype with a developer guide
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Main report screen prototype on the new design tokens, showing the system working
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Compare route that takes a customer from a single result straight into the benchmark comparison
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Contact Us page with signed-in and signed-out states and a reply-time promise
4 - Leave a plan for launch
A current-state assessment documented 24 evidence-backed findings, opening with what the rebuild had already fixed. Each finding went first to the person who owned that part of the work. A sequenced plan then mapped the remaining design work against the launch date.
How the engagement ran
- Embedded work and a written progress update every Friday meant the team didn't need to sit through a status meeting.
- Accessibility contrast measurements came directly from how the pixels actually rendered.
- Every screen was tested across all device types: phone, tablet, and desktop.
Looking for something similar?
If your product team needs UX leadership that keeps developers moving, we're happy to talk. The first few hours of consultation are always free.