Comfy
Enhancing the Workplace Experience
MY ROLE
As Comfy evolved, it became clear that the product needed a strategic redesign to address both existing challenges and new user pain points. The goal was to create a more seamless and intuitive experience while aligning with business objectives. To achieve this, we took a structured approach—engaging stakeholders early, defining key problems, and iterating on solutions through testing and validation. Ultimately, this process helped establish a strong foundation for Comfy 2.0.
Stakeholder Alignment – Led discussions with key stakeholders to align business goals with user needs and pain points.
Problem Definition – Analyzed existing challenges while identifying new issues that Comfy 2.0 needed to address.
User-Centered Process – Defined a structured approach to problem-solving by researching user behaviors, mapping pain points, and exploring potential solutions.
Iterative Design & Testing – Developed and refined concepts through multiple iterations, conducting usability tests to validate solutions.
Strategic Vision – Helped establish a working direction for Comfy 2.0, ensuring that the redesign aligned with both user needs and business objectives.
PROJECT SCOPE
UX Design
UI/Visual Design
User Research
Workshop Facilitator
COLLABORATORS
Designer Manager
VP of Product Design
Product Manager
Engineering Team
OVERVIEW
Meet Comfy.
Comfy is a mobile-first, globally distributed application designed to enhance the workplace experience by allowing employees to interact with their office environment. Through features like temperature control, lighting adjustments, and more, Comfy enables users to personalize their workspace for comfort and productivity.
On the backend, Comfy leverages machine learning to provide space analytics, offering businesses insights to optimize real estate usage and uncover cost-saving opportunities through efficient space management.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Problem
Historically, The Comfy workplace experience app has evolved into a “Frankenstein” application, burdened by years of tech debt monolith and patchwork architecture that make it increasingly difficult to scale, maintain, and enhance. Over time, the platform has accumulated a mix of outdated and modern frameworks, inconsistent design patterns, and ad-hoc integrations, resulting in a tangled web of dependencies.
This lack of a cohesive design system and unified technology stack has led to inefficiencies in development, increased onboarding complexity for new engineers, and challenges in delivering a seamless user experience. As a result, every new feature or improvement feels like navigating a minefield of legacy code, further compounding the cycle of technical debt and limiting the platform’s ability to adapt to evolving workplace needs. Addressing these structural issues is critical to ensuring the long-term viability and scalability of Comfy as a workplace solution.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
A New Direction
As the pandemic reshaped workplace dynamics, our product team needed to anticipate how employers would adapt. While many companies transitioned to remote work, certain roles (e.g., IT, lab research) still required on-site presence. This emerging "Hybrid Workplace" model highlighted the need for a seamless way to reserve safe, dedicated office spaces.
To address these challenges and improve existing features, we introduced Comfy 2.0—a strategic overhaul designed to support evolving workplace needs while enhancing usability and functionality.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Goals & Objectives
Align with key stakeholders early to define business goals and user needs.
Identify existing and new user pain points.
Establish a clear process to define, iterate, and validate solutions.
Develop a working direction for Comfy 2.0.
USERS & AUDIENCE
Leveraging prior research, we identified three primary personas:
Workplace Admin – Manages office resources and space allocation.
Team Manager – Oversees team coordination and scheduling.
Productive Employee – End-user needing workspace reservations and office interactions.
Given the pandemic’s impact, we prioritized the Productive Employee persona, as they stood to benefit the most from feature enhancements and usability improvements.
Defining the Target User
PROCESS
The Approach
Since the there had already been research performed for another project already in flight, I was able to leverage the personas that we defined as a team with regards who our target users would be. In this case, we had a workplace admin, a team manager and productive employee. As a team, we decide to focus solely on the productive employee as it became apparent that majority of users who intend to be in the office would mostly benefit from any improvements and feature enhancements the pandemic.
PROCESS
Conducting a Design Workshop
With remote work in effect, we facilitated a design sprint using Miro, a collaborative whiteboard platform. Based on product requirements and user goals, we identified wayfinding improvements as a key opportunity. Enhancing the app’s navigation structure would:
• Improve scalability for future features.
• Reduce cognitive load.
• Decrease app abandonment rates.
I developed a hierarchical framework outlining primary, secondary, and tertiary navigation levels, mapping out user flows to minimize the number of taps/clicks required for key actions. This site map was translated into low-fidelity wireframes for early user testing.
Areas of Improvement
PROCESS
One of the larger constraints I had to recognize was that our engineering team was operating very lean during this time. One of the questions I had to ask was, which idea would have the largest impact, the most confidence in executing and the least amount of effort? Circling back with the the team we agreed that our focus should center around the idea of adding a primary navigation which did not exist in the current Comfy app.
PROCESS
Prioritizing Ideas
One of the larger constraints I had to recognize was that our engineering team was operating very lean during this time. One of the questions I had to ask was, which idea would have the largest impact, the most confidence in executing and the least amount of effort? Circling back with the the team we agreed that our focus should center around the idea of adding a primary navigation which did not exist in the current Comfy app.
PROCESS
Addressing Engineering Constraints
Our engineering team operated with limited resources, necessitating a focus on high-impact, low-effort solutions. After evaluating different ideas, we prioritized introducing a primary navigation system, which was missing in the existing Comfy app.
Design improvements could only
Reorganizing content and adding primary navigation enhanced usability and feature flexibility.
Users preferred a calendar-style reservation interface, aligning with their mental models from similar apps.
PROCESS
Information Architecture
Three levels the user will need to access when wayfinding across the app.
PROCESS
User Research
Company size (1,001+ employees).
Roles (individual contributors and managers).
Office attendance before and after COVID.
To validate our approach, we conducted usability testing using respondent.io, recruiting candidates based on:
Key Research Questions
Key Research Questions
Participants were asked to complete tasks within Comfy 2.0, focusing on:
Room reservation & cancellation workflows.
Search functionality integration.
Content expectations within the app.
General navigation across various IA layouts.
PROCESS
What I Tested
I prepared variations of lo-fidelity wireframes to review with actual users, collect there thoughts, feedback and speak allowed how the would go about performing several key prompted tasks. I prioritized two versions of the app that focused on varied ways I outlined the navigation whether it was four or five primary navigation tabs or pages nested within another section of the app.
A five-tab navigation structure significantly improved task completion rates.
Reorganizing content and adding primary navigation enhanced usability and feature flexibility.
Users preferred a calendar-style reservation interface, aligning with their mental models from similar apps.
PROCESS
Measuring Success
Usability testing used task completion rate as a baseline, with 78% success as the threshold for acceptable usability. Research suggests well-designed systems typically achieve 70-80% success, with lower rates indicating usability issues.
Key Findings
A five-tab navigation structure significantly improved task completion rates.
Reorganizing content and refining primary navigation enhanced usability and feature accessibility.
Users preferred a calendar-style reservation interface, as it matched their expectations from similar apps.
Usability Benchmarks
Sauro & Lewis (2009): Most well-designed systems fall within 70-80% task success.
Nielsen's Guidelines: Systems below 78-80% should undergo major usability improvements.
First-Time Users: A 70-75% success rate may be acceptable due to learning curves.
Frequent Users: A success rate above 80% ensures efficiency and usability.
PROCESS: HI-FIDELITY SCREENS
Next Steps & Implementation
Building on initial findings, I:
Developed high-fidelity prototypes with refined UI components.
Integrated elements from a newly established design system UI kit.
Expanded testing to include desktop views for a more comprehensive user experience.Reorganizing content and adding primary navigation enhanced usability and feature flexibility.
Users preferred a calendar-style reservation interface, aligning with their mental models from similar apps.
PROCESS: HI-FIDELITY SCREENS
LOOKING ONWARD
Workplace Connect: The Evolution of Comfy 2.0
Development challenges with the original Comfy app led the team to explore an alternative solution. What began as Comfy 2.0 evolved into Workplace Connect—a streamlined version of the app designed for incremental feature additions without legacy design and engineering constraints.
While my focus returned to supporting the original Comfy app and its design system, several key Comfy 2.0 innovations were incorporated into Workplace Connect, including:
A primary bottom navigation system.
A horizontal scroll date picker for managing reservations.
By aligning with user needs, leveraging research insights, and addressing technical limitations, Comfy 2.0 laid the foundation for a more intuitive and scalable workplace experience, ultimately shaping the future of workplace technology through Workplace Connect.
Reflection
By aligning with user needs, leveraging research insights, and addressing technical limitations, Comfy 2.0 laid the foundation for a more intuitive and scalable workplace experience, ultimately shaping the future of workplace technology through Workplace Connect.