User Experience Designer

In early 2021, Phantom FX approached me for freelance work on their internal project management tool. After exploring the product and its impact on workflows, I saw an opportunity to make a deeper impact and joined full-time as a UI/UX Designer.

The tool was critical for managing 400+ VFX artists and 15+ managers across projects with 10,000+ tasks each. But it was slow (10+ minute load times), confusing (inconsistent UI, poor information architecture), and nearly unusable (SUS score <10).

My Role & Approach

• Led user research across departments to uncover pain points in workflows and tool usage
• Reframed the problem from a UI facelift to a full UX and system redesign
• Simplified information architecture with role-based dashboards, subtasks, and modal-based task views
• Streamlined data handling to reduce load times dramatically
• Added visual metrics, Gantt charts, and dashboards to make progress, budget, and schedules easier to understand
• Established a design system with dark mode (the studio’s working environment), consistent icons, and clear feedback states

The Impact

• Turned a failing tool into a reliable daily driver for 400+ artists and 15+ managers
• Improved usability across departments, aligning tech with real workflows
• Boosted the System Usability Scale score from below 10 to 90

This project showed me how much a well-designed system can transform not just usability, but also collaboration and morale in a high-pressure creative environment.

Snaps: