Naa Ayeley Ayettey

Project

SmartUp Inventory Management

Year

2023

Industry

Retail / SaaS

Role

UX/UI Designer

Collaborators

1 Front End Dev, 1 Backend Dev, Product Manager

Company

Detosphere ltd

About

SmartUp Storefront is a cloud-based retail management platform designed to help businesses—both large chains and small storefronts—manage their operations on the go.

Smartup

Context /
Challenge

The challenge was that existing SmartUp Retail users could only access the system on web/desktop, limiting flexibility and efficiency.

Task

My task was to design a mobile solution that enabled users to access critical business data anytime, anywhere, without sacrificing simplicity or usability.

The Goal

To design a functional, intuitive mobile experience that allowed retailers to:

Manage inventory and sales data

Oversee staff and performance

Track reports and analytics

Access point-of-sale functionality

The Result

The project resulted in a functional prototype that met both user needs and business goals. Seeing users test the prototype and immediately ask when they could start using it was really rewarding, and it showed that the design met a genuine need

The prototype was also used internally for partnership and funding discussions, helping stakeholders visualize the app’s potential impact on retail operations.

This project demonstrates my ability to simplify an information-heavy product without sacrificing its core functionality and also my ability to own an end-to-end design process.

The
Process

Given the project’s unique challenges, my process was an iterative journey of discovery and design, with collaboration at the core to ensure a successful outcome.

Discover

I began by reviewing documents and feedback from SmartUp’s existing users and running a few short interviews with 3 active users. The main insight was that they couldn’t manage operations efficiently while away from their store. This early phase helped me identify where user needs and business goals aligned and where potential conflicts might arise.

Define

I mapped out key journeys, flows and created an information architecture to define the product direction that balances usability with business requirements. These helped me explore how best to reduce cognitive load without oversimplifying.

Design

I created wireframes in Figma, prototyped key flows, to validate the experience in real time and make necessary adjustments before moving to high-fidelity work. This iterative process allowed me to spot usability issues early, refine spacing, hierarchy, and interaction details.

Wireframing

Align

Throughout the design process, I collaborated closely with the project lead and technical lead to ensure smooth integration with existing backend systems. There were regular check-ins and design reviews that kept the team aligned and helped balance usability with technical feasibility. A major turning point came when we realised maintaining two separate apps — Control Panel for managers and POS Lite for employees — would be inefficient and confusing. I led the effort to merge these into one unified app, ensuring that the solution worked for both audiences while reducing redundancy and complexity.

Deliver

I created high-fidelity mockups that reflected the product vision and validated the flows created earlier. Every design decision resulted in a mobile design that was professional, approachable, and easy to use. To ensure scalability and coherence, I developed a style guide inspired by SmartUp’s existing design system but adapted for mobile.

The mockups below represent the approved designs by business before development.