Domo Redesign Concepts

All screens in this article are the result of exploring ways to redesign Domo.

If you work on an app long enough, inevitably you'll run into some design fatigue. When this happens to me, I like to pause, forget everything I know, and start with a blank slate.

The purpose isn't to replace the existing app: there are paying customers and deadlines. Instead, it's an exercise to get your creative gears turning, start new conversations with decision makers, and ultimately free your mind from the framework you've been stuck in.

Domo was a fast paced environment with an ever evolving list of features. Sometimes things had to be designed around existing feature sets, and other times right over top of them. All of this was being done while the design team tried to reign in a solid internationalized visual language and a certified component library.

The whole point is consistency, right? Consistency in product design is a GOOD thing. Homogenized user interfaces and recycled UX paradigms allow for users to jump into your app and start using it without having to relearn the wheel.

And then there is the ugly side of consistency: you tend to start thinking inside of a box and just reuse what you've done. At the point you have your pattern library established, design can start to feel like copy and pasting with lego blocks.

If you feel like you're in this kind of rut, it might be time for you to go explore. Don't go into with it expectations. The goal isn't to find a solution. The goal is to be a thoughtful designer! Pick a part of the product you don't like and try to approach it with fresh eyes.

Sometimes you can do this with a single screen, and other times you'll want to rethink the core of the app itself.

This was one of my favorite explorations, rethinking the overall structure of Domo and treating it more like a giant Madlibs news digest.

Every once in a whileyou find a gem you can bring back from your off rails adventure.

The Domo Appstore was one such endeavour. After getting stuck in an infinite approval loop, I hit a brick wall and jumped into redesigning all of Domo. In that exploration was a new Appstore. A few screens were able to re-ignite the conversations with the decision makers, and the new designs ended up being implemented shortly thereafter. It all amounts to a lesson in process that can be summed up by the eloquent Marcel Proust:

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.