Complete wireframe designs with browser chrome and annotations
Complete product redesign from research to conception, visualization, and testing
Project Overview
Complete Pype products needed to be redesigned to better connect with its audiences, including building a more intuitive information architecture and developing a coherent visual language. The goal was to integrate SSO for seamless login, improve project creation workflow, allow users to sync projects with third-party software, automate email notifications, and seamlessly allow users to customize uploaded PDFs and generate turnover packages.
Lead UX Designer responsible for redesigning the entire product from research to conception, visualization, and testing. This included user research, competitive analysis, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, prototyping, and usability testing.
Successfully redesigned Pype's entire product suite, contributing to the company's rapid growth and eventual acquisition by Autodesk in 2020. The redesign improved user engagement, retention, and made the application faster and easier to use for construction professionals.
Research Phase
To better understand Pype's background, market space, and users, I conducted comprehensive research with specific goals and methodologies.
Pype has become the most popular solution for AutoSpecs (submittal log) and Closeout (turnover package) services in the construction industry.
Autodesk Construction Cloud, Procore, Bluebeam, Oracle Primavera, Aconex, and Fieldwork were identified as top competitors.
150 companies in the ENR Top 400 use AutoSpecs and Closeout on projects coast-to-coast to streamline processes.
These companies report higher levels of quality assurance, standardization, and efficiency in their construction workflows.
I conducted user interviews with 5 construction professionals between ages 30-55, 13-20 minutes each, asking open-ended questions to learn about their experiences with construction software solutions.
Using an affinity mapping exercise, I synthesized all findings from user interviews and identified common patterns across 6 key themes: Pain Points, Collaboration Needs, Workflow Issues, Integration Needs, Discovery Issues, and AI Recommendations.
I analyzed Pype's top competitors (Procore, Autodesk BIM 360, Bluebeam) to understand market trends, identify gaps, and discover opportunities for differentiation.
User Personas
Using insights from research, I created user personas that accurately represented who I was designing for. These personas guided design decisions throughout the process.
Project Engineer, Mortenson
32 years old
Senior Project Manager, Turner Construction
45 years old
High - Early adopter of construction technology, comfortable with cloud platforms, advocates for digital transformation on her teams
Thomas needs to be able to share projects with other people because he builds collaboration in identifying missing submittals.
How might we help Thomas share projects with other people to collaborate in identifying missing submittals?
Sarah needs to be able to track and collect closeout documents from multiple subcontractors because manual email follow-up is inefficient and error-prone.
How might we help Sarah automatically track and collect closeout documentation without endless email chains?
Thomas needs to be able to create a project and when the project is in process, should be able to switch to other projects for reference.
How might we help Thomas switch to other projects when project creation is in progress?
Thomas needs to be able to export submittals to external construction software without any submittals missing.
How might we help Thomas export submittals to external construction software without any submittals missing?
Sarah needs real-time visibility into closeout compliance status because she can't track what's missing across 40 subcontractors in spreadsheets.
How might we give Sarah instant visibility into closeout compliance across all her subcontractors?
Sarah needs automated reminder systems for subcontractors because manually following up with 40+ subs weekly is unsustainable.
How might we automate closeout document reminders to reduce Sarah's manual coordination burden?
The Innovation: AutoSpecs uses AI to automatically read and analyze project specification documents, extracting all submittal requirements in minutes instead of weeks.
The Innovation: Closeout provides a single platform for managing all closeout documentation with automated subcontractor outreach and powerful compliance tracking.
User Journey Mapping
To fully grasp the impact of our solution, I mapped out Thomas's complete journey both with and without Pype. This visualization made the value proposition crystal clear to stakeholders.
Without Pype AutoSpecs
With Pype AutoSpecs
From 2-4 weeks of manual work down to 1-2 hours with AI automation
Design Process
As the sole designer, I owned the entire design process from user research through implementation support. Here's how I approached these complex enterprise products.
Activities:
Key Insights:
AutoSpecs IA:
Closeout IA:
Created low-fidelity wireframes to validate structure and interactions before visual design:
Developed a comprehensive design system for consistency across products:
Conducted multiple rounds of testing throughout development:
Major Improvements from Testing:
Worked closely with engineering throughout development:
Wireframes & UI Design
I iterated through multiple design phases, starting with low-fidelity wireframes to establish information architecture and workflows, then progressing to high-fidelity designs with full visual treatment.
Early wireframes focused on core workflows and interaction patterns. These allowed rapid iteration and stakeholder feedback before investing in visual design.
Complete wireframes with Flaticon-style icons, browser chrome, and detailed annotations
Designed main landing page with project cards, progress indicators, filter tabs, and search functionality. Focused on quick access to active projects and visual status at a glance.
Created step-by-step wizard with multiple import options (Procore, Excel, Template). Drag-and-drop upload area and manual creation fallback ensure all user needs are covered.
Designed modal overlay for multi-company project sharing with team member management, search functionality, and expandable company listings with email badges.
After validating the wireframes, I created polished UI designs that aligned with Pype's brand while prioritizing usability and data density for construction professionals.
Production-ready screens with Flaticon-style adaptive icons and complete visual design system
Complete dashboard with gradient project cards, progress bars, and quick action buttons. Fully responsive sidebar navigation with Pype branding and Flaticon-style icons.
Visual integration cards with recognizable brand colors (Procore orange, Excel green, Pype blue). Drag-and-drop upload area with hover states and clear visual feedback.
Data-rich table interface with status badges, batch actions, and export functionality. Clean typography and proper information hierarchy for scanning large datasets.
Organized options into clear, scannable cards to reduce cognitive load
Used recognizable logos (Procore, Excel) for instant recognition
Persistent progress bar showing project setup completion (80%)
Left sidebar for navigation, main content for tasks
Design Decisions
As the sole designer, I made strategic design decisions that balanced user needs, technical constraints, and business goals. Here are some of the most impactful choices.
Decision: Show AI confidence scores and allow manual review of all extractions.
Why: Users were skeptical of AI accuracy in a high-stakes environment. By showing confidence levels and making everything editable, users gained trust while maintaining control.
Result: Higher adoption rates and positive feedback: "I love that I can see how confident the AI is and quickly verify the important stuff."
Decision: Hide advanced features behind progressive disclosure patterns.
Why: Construction professionals have varying technical skills. Core workflows needed to be simple, with advanced features available but not overwhelming.
Result: 90%+ of users could complete core tasks without training, while power users discovered advanced features over time.
Decision: Prioritize seamless export and integration with existing tools over building native features.
Why: Construction teams already use tools like Procore, BIM 360, and Excel. Rather than trying to replace them, we made it effortless to move data between systems.
Result: Pype fit naturally into existing workflows, reducing friction and accelerating adoption.
Decision: Design visual dashboards as the primary interface, not data tables.
Why: Project managers need to quickly communicate status to executives, owners, and team members. Visual dashboards tell the story at a glance.
Result: Users reported spending less time creating status reports and more time on actual project management.
Decision: Design subcontractor portal to require zero login or account creation.
Why: Subcontractors work with dozens of GCs. Requiring yet another account would create friction and reduce compliance.
Result: Higher document submission rates and positive feedback from both GCs and subs.
Decision: Allow users to quickly view original spec sections alongside extracted data.
Why: Users wanted to verify AI extractions against source documents without switching between multiple PDFs.
Result: Faster review process and increased confidence in AI accuracy.
Testing & Results
I conducted comprehensive usability testing to validate the redesign and identify areas for improvement.
Based on testing feedback, I made the following high-priority revisions to improve the user experience:
Improved document organization and added prominent search/filter functionality to help users quickly find uploaded documents.
Simplified the project creation workflow with clearer step indicators and contextual help to reduce confusion.
Enhanced the visibility of AI-generated submittal recommendations with dedicated sections and visual indicators.
Conducted follow-up testing to validate improvements, achieving near-perfect usability scores in subsequent rounds.
"Pype has allowed us to turn over the closeout package faster than our competition, and much faster than we've ever done in the past."
"I love the fact that I can identify quickly the important submittals via the specifications. This process also allows me to get this information quickly to my subcontractors."
"The time this software has saved me and my team has been countless hours."
Reflection
In retrospect, I feel this exercise wasn't exactly what the Stakeholder expected because I aimed towards thinking about the whole ecosystem instead of just the single product itself (and probably failed on communicating it sufficiently in the beginning).
Due to the flawless collaboration, after the workshops hardly any revisions were required, neither in information architecture nor in visual design.
Despite early communication challenges, the collaborative workshop approach led to excellent outcomes with minimal post-workshop revisions, demonstrating the value of getting alignment through structured activities.
This experience was formative in several ways: