KleverSuite
2024 - 2025 • Product Design
Context
Klever is an in-house project management platform with Wiki, Projects, and ToDo, serving as the central hub for collaboration, sprints, assignments, notes, and technical guides.
An earlier attempt to commercialize it fell short in speed, features, and user experience. With four engineers, no designers, and a four-month deadline to rebuild it for further investment, I joined the team to help realize its long-term vision and bring a stronger focus on productivity-driven design.
This case study goes over the project's research findings, an initial iteration of a new design, and a revised final design.
Problem
Klever lacked a centralized homepage and a consistent sidebar. Project managers struggled to efficiently navigate between instances since each app had their own unique home pages and sidebars.
This led to frustration and reliance on external tools such as their browser's bookmarks.
Research Findings
To confirm Klever’s major pain points, I conducted a speedy 2-week research project that included a screening survey, interviews, and usability tests with project managers within the company.
Users typically had 6-10 Klever instances opened at once on their browser.
75% of users experienced frustrations with Klever on a daily basis, 60% of which relate to navigation.
90% of users preferred their browser’s bookmark feature over Klever’s.
Key Insights
Klever's navigation does not align with how project managers actually work. Instead of moving fluidly between instances, they rely on browser bookmarks and multiple open tabs as a workaround.
Left to right: Wiki's Sidebar, ToDo's Sidebar, Project's Sidebar
Solution Hypothesis
A centralized homepage, persistent universal sidebar, and an accessible “Bookmarks” section would improve user efficiency, reduce context-switching, and streamline project and document management.
Additional Platform Requirements
Along with a new navigation structure, the sidebar had to contain a organization-switcher and support workspaces—groups within an organization that contains documents or tasks, depending on the app. Stakeholders also wanted to see less blue.
The First Iteration
Inspired by Figma’s sidebar navigation, I designed a multi-level sidebar with a static primary navigation and a dynamic, app-specific section.
Iteration 1 interaction: Opening a workspace's wiki in the sidebar
Iteration 1: Full page with an expanded sidebar and a Wiki document
What worked
Each app having a spot in the sidebar reduced navigation time, and contributed toward a universally consistent sidebar.
What didn’t work
A single sidebar limited future scalability, occupied the space intended for Bookmarks, and continued to confuse users since it was not an entirely consistent sidebar.
The Approved Iteration
This second and final iteration features a dual-pane sidebar, inspired by Apple Notes and Apple Mail MacOS apps.
What Changed?
This separation allowed the primary sidebar to remain fully focused on core navigation while the secondary sidebar could adapt to specific needs for each app, such as document trees, settings, and notifications.
Here, users experienced less clutter and more intuitive navigation across different apps. It also ensured a consistent, scalable structure for the future.
Final Iteration: Dual-pane sidebar, fully opened
Final iteration interaction: Selecting a Wiki
Final iteration interaction: Collapsing the dual-pane sidebar
Final Iteration: Full page with focused wiki sidebar
Use Cases
The secondary sidebar provided space for new features while remaining a consistent, reliable, and familiar element.
For example, the notifications panel allowed users to stay updated without disrupting their workflow, keeping alerts accessible while maintaining a clean and organized main workspace.
Final Iteration: Secondary sidebar opened with Notifications
Conclusion
User feedback confirmed the impact of the redesign—many found the new sidebar structure more intuitive, with clearer separation between navigation and workspace-specific tools.
They appreciated the improved organization and flexibility, noting that it made managing projects and documents more efficient. Overall, the redesign led to a more structured and user-friendly experience.