Designing an AI-powered platform for ecological restoration
Dendra’s mission is to scale sustainable restoration efforts to global levels by integrating the best of technology, science and people.
Upgrading the customer experience
I had previously led design of the new Dendra platform that helps organisations restore and protect large-scale ecosystems. The platform consists of multiple applications that enable customers to plan restoration activities (like drone seeding) and monitoring progress over time, with ultra-high-resolution maps and AI-powered insights.
The product team were tasked with redesigning the platform design to compliment a recent company rebrand, with the opportunity to upgrade the platform experience in support of sales growth and customer retention.
The problem
This case study focuses on just one slice of the project; the main navigation. With an inconsistent experience across the spatial hierarchy and negative customer feedback, this had long been an interaction ripe for improvement. The work was undertaken as part of a design sprint, ahead of implementation.
Outcomes
- Improved spatial orientation with immediate user feedback.
- Improved usability scores, receiving positive customer feedback.
- Navigation UI made consistent with new platform design.
- AI-assisted design increased prototyping speed by 4x.
Deliverables
Rapid prototyping with AI
The updated navigation (and broader platform upgrade) have been warmly received by internal and external users, with improved usability scores and customer feedback. Embedding the spatial navigation into the main navigation, also freed up vertical space to allow page content to breath.
Bringing AI-generated prototyping into my design process brought a 4x efficiency gain with faster test-learn-iterate feedback loops. Alongside Figma prototypes, the team and our testers are able to get a real feel for concepts at various fidelity.
Additional UI concepts can be viewed on Dribbble.