Product DesignSystems

Geotab

Incrementally modernising and scaling a complex, legacy platform without breaking customer workflows

MyGeotab operates as a large-scale enterprise platform used daily by fleets to manage vehicles, drivers, safety, and operations. The work focused on reducing cognitive friction, improving consistency, and enabling teams to ship safely at scale.

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Context & Constraints

MyGeotab operated as a fragmented ecosystem of legacy patterns, overlapping features, and distributed ownership. Small usability issues compounded across the platform, slowing users down, increasing support burden, and eroding confidence for both customers and internal teams. High cognitive load caused by inconsistent patterns created friction across a large surface area with deeply embedded workflows. No viable "big-bang" redesign was possible due to enterprise risk — and organisational complexity meant influence had to be earned without direct authority. Any progress needed to be incremental, defensible, and resilient to continuous change.

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Key Insights

01

UX debt was cumulative, not isolated

Small usability issues appeared minor alone but collectively created significant friction across the platform — increasing cognitive load and eroding trust at scale.

02

Inconsistency had a real operational cost

Inconsistent navigation and IA increased decision fatigue, onboarding cost, and support burden — problems that compounded as the platform grew.

03

Big-bang redesign was too risky

Enterprise-scale risk, distributed ownership, and mission-critical workflows meant change had to be incremental, defensible, and resilient to continuous delivery.

04

Design needed to shift from gatekeeper to enabler

Centralised design control had become a bottleneck. Teams needed to move faster without compromising quality — requiring a new operating model, not just better components.

Approach

Four high-leverage workstreams that improved quality, clarity, and delivery speed incrementally — without disrupting existing customer workflows.

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Platform Paper Cuts

Identified and addressed high-frequency, cross-cutting usability issues that appeared repeatedly across features and teams — surfacing systemic UX debt hidden from any single product view.

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Navigation & IA Consistency

Established flexible, reusable IA and navigation patterns that prioritised predictability without rigid uniformity — lowering decision fatigue and onboarding cost across teams.

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Dashboard & System-Wide Patterns

Defined shared patterns for high-traffic surfaces, aligning interaction models and behaviour across teams to reduce rework and increase long-term maintainability.

Role & Ownership

Design Lead

  • Led design execution across multiple high-impact initiatives while shaping how design operated at platform scale.
  • Enabled other designers and teams to make better decisions independently through shared patterns, guidance, and standards — moving design from gatekeeper to enabling infrastructure.
  • Cross-team influence and alignment across distributed ownership, with design ownership across critical platform surfaces and mentorship of designers as the platform scaled.

System & Capabilities Delivered

Workstreams designed to compound over time — each improving quality, consistency, and delivery speed across the platform.

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Platform Paper Cuts programme

Identified and resolved high-frequency cross-cutting usability issues, creating a shared quality baseline across teams.

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Navigation & IA patterns

Reusable, flexible IA and navigation components that reduced decision fatigue and supported consistent onboarding at scale.

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Dashboard & system patterns

Shared interaction models for high-traffic surfaces, reducing rework and improving maintainability across teams.

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Operating model & design standards

Redesigned how design operated — embedding shared standards that enabled teams to ship confidently without central approval.

Outcome & Impact

Incremental by design — compounding over time into platform-level improvement

Fewer issues driven by confusion and unpredictability

Reduced friction in day-to-day workflows without disruptive change to mission-critical customer processes.

Cultural shift toward quality and system thinking

Demonstrated that meaningful improvement could happen safely and continuously — shifting team norms around what "good" looks like.

Faster delivery through shared patterns

Teams could ship confidently without central approval, with clearer decision-making and less rework across surfaces.

Reduced UX inconsistency across the platform

Alignment across high-traffic surfaces and navigation reduced onboarding cost and long-term UX debt accumulation.

Improved ability to scale without increasing debt

Strengthened MyGeotab's ability to evolve as a coherent, resilient platform — supporting long-term growth without compromising usability or trust.