Super Deep Studios

Designing a Dual-Platform Ecosystem to Democratize Insights

A women-led team of design innovators working toward equitable systems.
My role: UX Research & Product Design
Duration: 5 months
Tools: Figma, Maze, Zoom, Miro, Notion

01. The Challenge

Super Deep Studios helps organizations listen deeply to the communities they serve.
However, the insights gathered from fieldwork were trapped in silos such as PowerPoints, Google Drive folders, and personal notes, making it difficult for leadership to engage with real human stories.

How might we democratize insights so everyone in an organization, from field researchers to executives, can access, share, and act on what communities are saying?

Project Goal:
Design an ecosystem that bridges two user groups:

  • Agency-facing platform (for researchers uploading data)

  • Client-facing platform (for decision-makers exploring stories)

02. Discovery Research

Methods:

  • 5 stakeholder interviews (Product Manager, Insights Director, Service Designer, 2 VPs)

  • Contextual inquiry on research workflows

  • Remote usability tests via Maze

  • Artifact review of existing insights documentation

Key Findings:

  • Internal teams needed to bulk upload and manage data.

  • Clients wanted a visual, story-driven interface, not spreadsheets.

  • Both groups sought connection: data that felt alive and human.

“We need something that feels like a magazine not a database.”
— Super Deep Studios CEO

03. Problem Definition

We reframed our challenge:

How might we transform disconnected research artifacts into a shared storytelling platform that unites internal and client teams around human insights?

We identified four key opportunity areas:

  • Accessibility: Centralize scattered insights into one searchable hub.

  • Humanity: Transform sterile data into engaging, editorial-style storytelling.

  • Collaboration: Enable shared notes and tagging to connect team feedback.

  • Efficiency: Streamline manual processes through bulk uploads and automation.

04. Mapping Multi-Path Journeys

We defined two interdependent user journeys that would inform parallel but connected product experiences.

Client-Facing Journey

  1. Log in → see personalized dashboard.

  2. Browse or search for stories.

  3. Save artifacts to boards.

  4. Share insights across departments.

Agency-Facing Journey

  1. Upload quotes, photos, videos.

  2. Tag and annotate data.

  3. Curate what’s visible to clients.

  4. Analyze engagement metrics.

Designing for these two journeys simultaneously introduced the complexity of multi-path interactions, permission levels, and content states.

05. Exploration & Wireframing

We began sketching how to merge storytelling and data structure.

Early Concepts

  • Hand-drawn wireframes explored three layout directions for the quotes library.

  • Card sorting helped define the information architecture.

  • Maze click tests guided navigation and labeling.

Low-Fidelity Insights:

  • Left-side navigation confused users → moved to top.

  • Grid view overwhelmed readers → replaced with scrollable “story slider.”

  • Search filters caused paralysis → simplified to predictive search.

Iterating on the quotes library from structure to storytelling.

06. Iteration Through Testing

Each prototype round introduced new layers of complexity and refinement:

  • Iteration #1 – Navigation Restructuring
    • Increased task success by 60% after simplifying the navigation flow.

  • Iteration #2 – Simplified Search Bar
    • Improved clarity and reduced misclicks by streamlining search options.

  • Iteration #3 – Editorial Layout Redesign
    • Drove higher engagement and emotional connection through human-centered visual storytelling.

Key Insight:
User feedback consistently emphasized the need to “make it feel more human.”
This became the guiding principle for the platform’s tone, hierarchy, and visual design.

07. Final Solution

🎨 Client-Facing Platform

  • Editorial layout with bold imagery and headline hierarchy.

  • Robust, dynamic search and filters.

  • Story “boards” for saving and sharing insights.

⚙️ Agency-Facing Platform

  • Bulk upload workflow for quotes, images, and video.

  • Notes + tagging for cross-team collaboration.

  • Integration with Google Drive / OneDrive.

Both versions share a unified design system, ensuring usability across devices and teams.

08. Results & Impact

Although the project concluded earlier than planned due to the onset of COVID-19, the team successfully delivered dual high-fidelity prototypes and validated the concept through multiple testing rounds.

These prototypes laid the groundwork for future development once conditions allowed, demonstrating strong potential for organizational adoption and scalability.

09. Reflection & Next Steps

While full implementation was paused, the research and design foundations remain highly transferable. The next phase would have focused on integrating AI-assisted tagging and voice-to-text capabilities to further streamline insight capture.