Disciplines

UX Strategy
Product Design
UX & Research
Figma Development
Design System

Challenge

Design a modern, lightweight community platform that replaces the dense, outdated 2022 forum with a cleaner, faster, and more structured experience. The goal was to create a space that feels approachable yet professional, balancing clarity, discoverability, and engagement across multiple Ubiquiti product lines. It had to unify discussions, tags, and navigation within a minimalist aesthetic, while improving scanability, readability, and responsiveness. All within a scalable design system that preserves familiarity for long-time users but meets modern UX and performance standards.

UI / Visual Challenges

1. Modern Minimalism vs. Legacy Density

   • The 2022 version had tighter spacing, dense rows, and smaller elements.

   • The new version embraces white space, larger padding, and reduced visual noise — challenging balance between clarity and information density.

2. Consistent Visual Hierarchy

   • Reworking typography scales (thread title, tags, metadata, user info) to ensure easy scannability despite lighter weights and more open spacing.

   • Maintaining contrast and readability on a pale, low-contrast background.

3. Component Simplification

   • Converting old list rows (mixed icon styles, colored badges, hover borders) into uniform card-like containers with subtle dividers.

   • Designing flexible containers that adapt across tags, categories, and thread types.

4. Neutral Color System

   • Transition from strong brand blue accents to a refined neutral palette — requiring careful attention to hover, selected, and active states without losing affordance.

UX / Structural Challenges

1. Content Scanning Efficiency

   • The older layout showed more threads per view but felt crowded; this redesign prioritizes legibility and calmness, so preserving scan speed was a UX challenge.

2. Navigation Simplification

   • Consolidating multiple side and top menus (categories, filters, search) into a cleaner dual-column layout without sacrificing discoverability.

   • Balancing between “forum” familiarity and modern app-like behavior.

3. Contextual Filtering

   • Introducing tag-based filters and category chips (Network, UniFi, etc.) directly in the thread list — needing an elegant visual hierarchy so they don’t dominate.

4. Cross-Product Navigation (Right Panel)

   • Designing the product selector grid (Network, Protect, Door Access, etc.) to feel like part of the forum flow, not an external switcher.

Interaction / System Challenges

1. Responsive Behavior

   • Translating this clean two-column grid to mobile while maintaining filtering and product context.

   • Ensuring quick visual adaptation between screen sizes without losing interaction clues.

2. Performance vs. Aesthetics

   • The smooth shadows, rounded corners, and higher DOM complexity needed optimization for fast load and scroll performance.

3. User State Logic

   • Integrating “follow,” “pinned,” and “last activity” filters into a unified toolbar while keeping it intuitive and non-intrusive.

4. Scalability & Consistency

   • Creating a reusable design system for new product communities (like Talk, UniFi..) while ensuring every tile and thread item fits the same logic and grid.