Redesigning From the Structure Up, Not the Surface Down

When Pankaj joined as a UI/UX designer, there was a lot expected of the role from day one — and the project he points to as most representative of that is a full portal redesign for a client whose care managers were fighting the software just to do their jobs.

The Challenge: The portal, used daily by care managers, had real usability problems — scrolls nested inside other scrolls, button placement that didn't match how care managers actually worked through their tasks, and flows that hit dead ends mid-task.

The Approach: Rather than starting with visual design, Pankaj mapped every core task from scratch and restructured the information hierarchy and flow first. The visual redesign came only after that structural work was done, because the underlying problem wasn't cosmetic — it was structural, and no amount of visual polish would have fixed it.

The Outcome: Care managers could move through the portal quickly, without fighting the software to get their work done. For Pankaj, it's the project that most lived up to what was expected of him in the role — not because it was the flashiest redesign, but because it solved the actual problem underneath the surface one.

“The mess wasn't just cosmetic, it was structural.”