Overview
- Role
- UX Design Lead
- Team
- Cross-team, me as UX Lead, 2 UX apprentices + product + devs
- Organization
- Code the Dream
- Timeline
- 2025, shipped April 2026
- Live app
- app.vamosoutreach.org
- Tools
- Figma, Storybook
The Problem
Vamos is an outreach app used by organizations serving farmworker communities. The app had grown organically and accumulated usability issues. Navigation was confusing. Customization features that made the app flexible were buried and hard to find. The web and mobile versions were inconsistent. New users struggled to understand what the app could do, and experienced users worked around the interface instead of with it.
Discovery and Research
I ran 8 user interviews alongside stakeholder conversations and competitor analysis to understand how outreach workers and administrators used the app in the field and in the office.
Finding 1: Customization was the app's strength and its biggest usability problem.
The app offered flexible configuration tools for different outreach contexts. But these features were hidden behind unclear navigation. Users didn't know they existed or couldn't find them when needed.
Finding 2: Web and mobile served different users with different needs.
Field workers used mobile. Administrators used web. Both versions had the same layout and information hierarchy, ignoring the different contexts and tasks each group needed.
Finding 3: Onboarding was nonexistent.
New users had no guided path into the app. They landed in the interface and had to figure out what to do through trial and error or by asking a colleague.
Design Approach
I focused on making the existing app more usable rather than adding new features. Three principles guided the redesign.
Surface what matters
Instead of adding features, I focused on making existing ones findable. Hidden customization tools were moved into the primary navigation and given clear labels.
Design for two contexts
I restructured the information hierarchy differently for web and mobile, matching how administrators and field workers each used the app.
Build a system, not a set of screens
I initiated a design system to bring visual and interaction consistency across the app and make it easier for future designers to contribute.
Before and After
Team Leadership
I led a team of 2 UX design apprentices alongside developers and product stakeholders. I ran regular standups and weekly management meetings. When the team hit collaboration friction early on, I adjusted our processes to improve communication and handoffs.
I mentored the apprentices on design principles, Figma skills, and how to think through full user journeys rather than individual screens.
Results and Impact
Over the course of a year, I delivered a redesigned information architecture, simplified navigation, a consistent web and mobile experience, and a foundational design system in Storybook. The redesign shipped to production in April 2026 and is live at app.vamosoutreach.org.
The new design surfaces the app's customization tools, its core value, in the primary navigation instead of burying them behind multiple clicks. The restructured mobile experience matches how outreach workers use the app in the field rather than mirroring the desktop admin layout.
What I Learned
Leading a redesign on a live product serving vulnerable communities taught me that usability improvements have real downstream impact on the people being served. When an outreach worker finds the right tool faster, a farmworker gets better service.
Managing apprentices while running the design process pushed me to be more intentional about documentation and process. If I couldn't explain a design decision clearly enough for a junior designer to execute on it, the decision wasn't clear enough.