✨ The Details
- Client: 3SSENTIA - German pre-seed wellness tech startup
- Role: UX/UI Designer (Contract)
- Timeline: May 2022 to January 2023
- Tools: Figma, Google Meet, Loom, WhatsApp
- Skills: UX/UI Design, Prototyping, Mockups, Design System
🔎 Overview
3SSENTIA was an early-stage Chrome plugin aimed at helping remote professionals maintain mental and physical well-being during the Covid era. As the sole designer, I was brought in to redesign the plugin’s UI, build a modular design system, and produce high-fidelity prototypes for product testing, marketing, and investor demos.
🧰 Role & Responsibilities
- Rebuilt the design system from the ground up to ensure consistency across all screens and assets.
- Created clickable prototypes in Figma to test ideas before development.
- Worked closely with the CEO and a solo full-stack developer.
- Designed new features, onboarding flows, and customization panels for reminders and notifications.
- Helped clarify product direction through iterative visual exploration and rapid prototyping.
🎯 Project Goals
The project aimed to clarify the product’s structure and presentation as the team sought product-market fit. My core focus was cleaning up inconsistencies in the plugin and giving the team tools to rapidly test ideas, improve visual coherence, and streamline dev handoff.
🎨 Design System Highlights
When I joined, there was no real design system—just scattered components, mismatched typography, and unclear flows. I restructured everything within Figma using a clean stylesheet, brand kit, and atomic components.
Key improvements included:
- Refactored buttons, cards, and CTAs to be modular and predictable.
- Defined consistent spacing, layout grids, and interaction states.
- Prioritized accessibility and clarity for the Chrome extension UI.
Above Image: Screenshot from the 3SSENTIA Figma Workspace: Onborading and Pop Up Interface
🛠️ Process
I used Figma exclusively for UI design and prototyping, while Loom helped facilitate async feedback and demos.
Highlights:
- Built polished interactive prototypes for the platform's features, as well as flows for onboarding, settings & preferences, and pop up notifications & reminders.
- Used async tools (Figma comments, Loom) to keep collaboration efficient.
- Worked on a handoff basis, though I would have preferred more real-time iteration with devs.
🔁 Challenges & Lessons
Main challenge: Lack of structure in how work was assigned or reviewed. There were no defined sprints, priorities, or cut-off points, just ongoing, often opinion-based revision loops.
Mistakes & reflections:
- I didn’t push early enough for project sprints or scope definitions.
- Handoffs were clunky — screenshots in long Google Docs instead of developer-friendly specs.
- In hindsight, setting protocols early and establishing working rhythms with the founder and dev would’ve reduced friction and improved outcomes.
- Each of these I see as vital in remote working environments.
🚀 Outcome
All design system updates and UI flows were successfully implemented into production while I was there. 3SSENTIA used my work to onboard users, run marketing demos, and refine new features.
Despite this, the improved design system helped reduce dev ambiguity, weed out poor feature ideas before development, and maintain a more polished brand image for users and investors.
🧠 Reflection
This project was a lesson in how a design system isn’t just a style guide; it is a communication tool. It keeps teams aligned, improves handoff protocols, and provides a shared language across the team.
Since then, I’ve become a stronger advocate for structured collaboration and communication. Great design does not happen in isolation. It’s forged through consistent dialogue between design, development, and leadership. Without that, quality and motivation quickly unravel.
🌐 Link