Organized Living

First Professional Experience

I started working at Organized Living in May 2020 as a UX/UI Designer. This was my professional UX job after graduating from Miami University.

I worked closely with the CEO, the visionary behind the company, to bring his ideas to life through interactive prototypes. I also collaborated with multiple development teams, including one based locally and another in Vietnam, gaining experience working across distributed teams. In the following sections, I outline the specific projects I worked on and the key learning opportunities that shaped my growth as a designer.

Background

Organized Living is a storage solution company that provides builders all the tools they need to complete projects. We worked with large scale builders that would complete projects such as apartment renovations. Also there were builders who worked along with families to renovate garages, bedrooms closets, etc. These different types of projects were classified as Multifamily (large scale) and Singlefamily (small scale).

The Process

I learned when working here how to work directly with the customer (the CEO in this case), who is not tech-savvy, doesn't know exactly what they want, but knows the big picture ideas. The process of bringing their ideas to life went like this:

Requirements

All projects began with a detailed requirements document that outlined the key information essential to the design. These requirements were typically presented to me by the Project Manager or the CEO, who were responsible for documenting the initial vision and goals. After receiving the document, we held follow up meetings to review the requirements in detail and address any questions or concerns.

From there, I distilled the information into a phase one or MVP product. Many of the requirements included long term ideas that were not feasible in the short term, so this step helped us focus on the most critical functionality first. Once the scope and MVP were clearly defined and aligned, we moved into the next phase of the process, ideation.

Ideation

The first step in the ideation phase was creating rough sketches. I found this approach especially effective when working in person, as it allowed ideas to be explored and communicated much more quickly than starting with a low fidelity mockup.

These sketches were then reviewed with the Project Manager or the CEO. These discussions were highly valuable, as they allowed us to walk through each detail together and iterate on the concepts in real time.If the feedback required larger structural changes, such as a full rework of a page layout, I would revise the sketches after the meeting and return with updated concepts for confirmation.

Once the sketches were approved by stakeholders, I moved forward with creating low fidelity mockups.

Mockups

Creating mockups was my favorite part of the process, as it allowed me to bring my sketches to life in ways that were not possible earlier. I began by designing low fidelity mockups for each page from the approved sketches. Using Adobe XD, a tool I was already comfortable with, I was able to move quickly and produce low fidelity mockups for large workflows within a matter of days. Throughout this stage, I ensured that all designs remained consistent with established brand guidelines.

Once the low fidelity mockups accurately reflected the requirements discussed in previous meetings, I scheduled a review with stakeholders. These sessions were similar to the sketch reviews but took on more of a presentation format. I walked stakeholders through each workflow, pausing at key moments to gather questions and feedback for iteration. At the start of these meetings, I set expectations that feedback should focus on layout, structure, and overall workflow rather than fine details, which would be addressed later in the prototype phase.

The outcomes of these meetings mirrored the sketching phase. Larger structural changes required additional revisions and follow up meetings for confirmation, while smaller adjustments could be addressed quickly without another review. Once I received stakeholder approval to move forward, the next step was transforming the low fidelity mockups into a high fidelity prototype.

Prototyping

Unfortunately, I am unable to share examples of these prototypes, as they are company property. However, prototyping was where I felt I truly excelled and it became my favorite part of working in Adobe XD. I built complete workflows with detailed interactions that closely simulated the experience of using the final product. While this phase required more time than earlier stages, the investment consistently paid off. When presenting prototypes, it was rewarding to see stakeholders react with excitement as their ideas became fully realized.

Like the earlier stages, prototypes went through an approval process. At this point, feedback focused on finer details, which I addressed through iterative revisions before returning for review. Once stakeholders were satisfied, I partnered with the development team to review the product at a high level and break the workflows into development tickets that aligned with their process.

From there, I effectively stepped into the role of stakeholder. Developers reached out as tickets were completed, and I reviewed each workflow and interface to ensure it matched the approved prototype. After all tickets were finished, the development team presented the final product to stakeholders in a separate server environment, allowing for hands on review and final feedback without creating unnecessary rework.

We continued refining the product by returning to the prototype for any updates, which helped streamline the developer workflow while allowing me to collaborate directly with stakeholders until final approval was reached.

Takeaways

This being my first post-college role as a UX/UI Designer, I was able to learn and grow immensely. Here are some of my key takeaways:

Translated ambiguous, non-technical stakeholder vision into clear, actionable product designs through structured requirements, questioning, and validation.
Defined and defended MVP scope by balancing long-term ideas with short-term feasibility to keep projects focused and shippable.
Used rapid sketching as an effective collaboration tool to explore ideas quickly and align stakeholders early.
Led phased design reviews by setting clear feedback expectations, ensuring input matched each stage of the design process.
Built end-to-end workflows using low- and high-fidelity prototypes that significantly improved stakeholder understanding and alignment.
Partnered closely with developers by using prototypes as a source of truth, validating implementations, and reducing rework.