Inbox

Saas Web Application
Product Design Lead

UX Strategy
Product thinking
Сustomer experience
Interactions design
Creative Direction
Leadership

Designed the Inbox feature to bridge the gap in two-way SMS communication by integrating with TransmitSMS, a legacy system set for unification post-migration. This feature enables users to seamlessly send, receive, and manage messages, enhancing engagement and usability. By simplifying SMS interactions, it improves the user experience, strengthens the product’s competitive position in conversational marketing, and drives customer acquisition.

Problem Statement

The existing product relied on email for SMS communications, leading to inefficiencies and user dissatisfaction due to:

Legacy TransmittSMS Inbox (Before)

Objective

Design and validate an intuitive inbox feature for BurstSMS & Conversr, streamlining two-way communication.

Project Duration

2 Months: Research to MVP 1 design completion.
6 Months Delay: Development phase extended.
Beta release launched. Post-Launch: MVP 2 design initiated, incorporating user feedback and product priorities.

Key Activities

🔍 Conducted competitor and user research to identify market gaps

- Reverse-engineered competitor workflows – Found reliance on email for operator handoff with minimal workflow transparency.
- Benchmarked against industry leaders – Compared Inbox with Intercom, Mailchimp, and MessageMedia to identify differentiation opportunities.
- Aligned UX with business strategy – Collaborated with the Product Manager to prioritise features that balanced user needs with revenue potential.

👥 Collaborated with engineering to integrate features into the platform.

- Led weekly cross-functional syncs – Align on priority features, ensuring scalable and reusable components for the design system.
- Balanced UX vision with technical constraints – Maintained strong user experiences while accommodating development limitations.
- Refined interactions & design system components – Partnered with front-end engineers to ensure seamless implementation, backed by user testing.
- Provided actionable UX recommendations – Delivered insights that shaped development, aligning with best practices and business goals.
- Optimised design-engineering collaboration – Reduced friction, accelerated feature integration, and ensured high-quality execution.

🏗 Led 4+ Rounds of User Testing & Iterative Design Enhancements

- Aligned user needs with business goals – Mapped insights from internal (Customer Success & Sales) and external (real users) research to refine product strategy.
- Defined a dual-interface strategy – Designed separate UIs for BurstSMS & Conversr based on distinct user needs.
- Validated cross-platform functionality – Ensured Inbox’s seamless usability across both platforms.
- Prioritised MVP for launch – Balanced must-have features with technical feasibility and business impact.
- Refined design through iteration – Conducted 4+ testing cycles, resolving usability challenges and optimising for B2B needs.

To test the idea early on, I shared a rough design mockup with the Sales and Customer Success teams. Their feedback gave us helpful insights into how potential customers might use the product inbox feature and whether it would bring real value. This helped guide our strategy toward scalable product growth for both TransmitSMS and Conversr. It also gave us a clearer picture of how the solution could be adjusted to fit different setups and work seamlessly for both platforms.

Research & MVP 1 Development

Designed and conceptualised an intuitive inbox experience for two SMS platforms, Burstsms (TransmitSMS) and Conversr, with a focus on clarity, efficiency, and actionable insights. The designs cater to distinct user needs while maintaining a cohesive and scalable interface.

Round 1

Method: Unmoderated remote testing (Zoom & Maze)

Users: 5 Conversr, 3 BurstSMS

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BurstSMS Inbox Design

Dual-Filter System: All & Unread – two primary filters to streamline message organisation:
By Sender ID: Displays messages grouped by the sender’s number (the number used to send the message).
By Recipient Number: Organizes messages based on the recipient’s number for easy tracking of conversations.
Message Count Indicator: Prominently displays the total number of messages received, ensuring users have a clear overview of their inbox volume.
Threaded Conversations: Each thread highlights the sender ID (outbound number) and the recipient’s number, providing context at a glance.

Conversr Inbox Design

Action Required Section: Introduced a dedicated section for messages flagged by the AI as needing human intervention.
AI-Powered Detection: The bot identifies messages that fall outside predefined conversational templates or protocols, flagging them for review.
User Prompt: Notifies users with a clear call-to-action (CTA) to respond, ensuring no critical messages are overlooked.
Seamless Integration: Maintains the triple filter system and threaded conversation view as Burstsms, ensuring consistency across platforms.

Key Findings & Recommendations

Inbox UI: Users expected a Gmail/Outlook-like experience → Add flagging, starring, and mark-as-unread.
Filtering: Preferred search input over filters → Improve search functionality (generic)
Templates: Users wanted duplication & categorisation → Enhance template management.
Action Required Label: Customers saw the "Action Required" section with a red dot as urgent.
Sender ID: Assumed as clickable → Refine sender display.

Round 2

Method: Unmoderated remote testing (Zoom)

Users: 4 Conversr, 8 BurstSMS

Designed an intuitive inbox experience addressing customer pain points and wishlist feedback from Conversr and BurstSMS users. Incorporated familiar message thread controls (e.g., Gmail/Hotmail) and linked actions in templates for Conversr.

Findings

Search vs. Filtering: Users overwhelmingly preferred text input over filters for locating messages.
Inbox Management Enhancements: Strong demand for message actions like delete, archive, and read/unread toggling.
Linked Action Confusion: Conversr Users needed clearer guidance on predefined actions in messages.
Inbox Integration: Users expected inbox to be a central part of workflow, not a standalone feature.

Key Iterations

Enhanced inbox functionalities: starred messages, batch actions, and improved search
Streamlined template modal for better usability
Scoped out sender ID toggle for MVP but kept it in future iterations
Prioritised BurstSMS integration before Conversr due to business strategy alignment

R2 design was well-received, with strong usability and interaction, outperforming Gmail and Hotmail for most users. While many target customers favored it, some relied on existing workflows (e.g., Zendesk email integrations). Next steps: define MVP versions, align with tech, and streamline execution into minimal, manageable pieces.

Round 3 & 4

Validation of Revised Design & Funtionality

Method: Unmoderated remote testing (Maze)

Users: 8 Burstsms Customers

Unified Ecosystem Strategy for MVP 1

To establish a seamless multi-product ecosystem under one umbrella, we initiated the transformation with Conversr as the rebranded unified platform. However, Transmitt SMS, a legacy product with valuable yet complex functionalities, remained a key entry point for users. To avoid a fragmented experience while reviewing and receiving messages, we integrated the Inbox within Transmitt SMS, replacing the Quick SMS function. This approach ensured continuity while enabling a smooth transition. The new Inbox was designed to be easily extendable with minimal dev effort, allowing for seamless migration into the unified platform in future iterations.

Key Findings & Recommendations

Sender ID Confusion: Users didn’t understand "Sender ID" (a business term) and expected a phone number. → Changed to "From" for clarity. Validated with users, who understood it as the number or name they sent from.
Search Label Issue: "Mobile" was too vague; users weren’t sure what it searched. → Replaced with "Contact" to allow searching by name or number, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.

Inbox Flow Testing for Transmit SMS Legacy Integration

The legacy activity page links to inbox replies, showing full message history and enabling new messages.

Users were generally indifferent about clicking the New SMS button to navigate to the Send SMS page. While this is a temporary solution until the combobox is implemented within Inbox, the process worked smoothly for most users. They did not express significant discomfort with this interaction.

MVP 1

Led the first MVP iteration, structuring it around 7 key themes, each addressing multiple use cases including prepaid, postpaid, and white-label customers to drive scalability and adaptability across diverse user segments

Selected Message States
Empty States
Contact Management involves adding, editing, and saving contact names, with support for hover states, active input fields, and error handling scenarios.
Error Handling & API Failures
Loading & Pagination
Filters & Search Interactions
Character Limit & Input Constraints

Examples of iterations across these use cases

The Dove Design System was refined by the guild to create versatile components through user testing and design iterations. Key enhancements include:

Upcoming updates will feature:

Next steps include exploring AI-integrated messaging concepts while advancing new SMS functionality, with the latter on track for implementation

Inbox Enhancement & Scalability

Led the UX strategy for unifying and modernizing a legacy enterprise product, balancing usability, scalability, and brand consistency. After launching the MVP1 beta, the business pivoted to a full-stack migration, integrating existing capabilities into a cohesive ecosystem.

Key Initiatives

Redesigned the UI/UX navigation for a seamless transition from legacy to modern workflows, integrating the Dove Design System to enhance and replace the Transmit UI while preserving core features. This improved usability, reduced cognitive load, optimised development, enabled logo uploads for white-label customers, and ensured an intuitive, accessible experience through iterative testing.

Expanded Capabilities

MVP 2

For MVP2, enhanced UI for insufficient funds scenarios, improved sender ID visibility for received messages, added filtering for opt-out messages, and defined DLR (Delivery Status) & failure treatments. AI integration is now being explored for future iterations

A selection of design iterations highlighting key use case enhancements.

Outcomes

The enhanced Inbox feature in MVP 2 delivered a 30% reduction in response times, a 25% increase in user satisfaction post-upgrade, and a 15% rise in product adoption within three months. Additionally, reusable design components were introduced, streamlining future development, reducing design debt, and ensuring long-term scalability.

Future Roadmap (Q2 2025 & Beyond)

Future-Ready Omni-channel Integration – Concept Design & Strategy

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AI-Powered Search & Omni-channel Expansion

Building on the foundation of tested upgrades, the next evolution of the Inbox focuses on

AI-Enhanced Inbox: Smarter search, filtering, and messaging with combobox search.
Suggested Replys -Optimised Composer: Integrated AI boosts user efficiency in message creation.
Omni-Channel Framework: Future-ready for seamless cross-platform communication.
Strategic Alignment: Collaborating with Tech & Product to refine market fit, prioritise integrations, and drive scalable growth.

Reimagining the Future of the Ecosystem

As product and technology landscapes evolve, I led a strategic ideation session within the design team to envision the next-generation Kudosity platform. With legacy systems being phased out, we explored a modernised IA framework, AI-powered experiences, and a scalable, unified design.

Competitor Analysis – Identified industry-leading best practices to inform design decisions.
Onboarding & Dashboard Optimisation – Tailored experiences to different industries for enhanced user engagement.
Feature Interoperability Mapping – Defined a modular, plug-and-play ecosystem for seamless product integration.

This collaborative approach allowed stakeholders to align on a forward-thinking platform vision, prioritising AI, scalability, and an optimised user experience.