Survey Capture & Stakeholder Management UX Redesign
Introduction
The Greenlight Platform is a survey and data management system used by The Greenlight Movement, a collaborative network of more than 140 non-profits, social enterprises, and businesses operating across Africa. The platform supports the collection, management, and analysis of large volumes of social impact data used for programme evaluation, reporting, and evidence-based decision-making. The goal of the non-profit is to improve the quality of life throughout Africa, with a data-driven approach.
The Problem
While the Greenlight Platform remained functionally operational, years of inconsistent update cycles resulted in significant design debt. The system had not evolved alongside user needs or device standards, leading to a measurable decline in employee productivity and overall experience.
Critical usability issues were present across the platform, including broken aspect ratios, poor responsiveness, unusable touch targets, and the absence of a clear visual hierarchy for data. Navigation patterns were inconsistent, and simple workflows became unnecessarily time-consuming for daily users.
The platform also suffered from weak information architecture and cluttered layouts. Essential features were difficult to discover, significantly increasing onboarding time for new employees and partner organisations and reducing confidence in the system.
As these issues compounded, The Greenlight Office engaged Rosnium to conduct a comprehensive UX audit and deliver a strategic redesign of their survey capture mobile application, admin portal, and CRM platform. The decision was driven by our extensive understanding of social enterprises and a shared focus on building efficient, usable, and intuitive systems through our product design and enterprise management services.
Challenges
Stakeholder Constraints
The redesign needed to be highly cost-effective, focusing on targeted improvements rather than a full visual overhaul. Design decisions were required to reduce downstream development effort, as implementation would be handled by the organisation’s internal development team.
Additionally, the survey capture workflows were frequently used in remote villages with unreliable or limited mobile connectivity. The platform needed to account for low-signal environments to ensure uninterrupted data collection and prevent data loss.
Audit Findings
The UX audit identified multiple structural and usability issues that limited the platform’s effectiveness, scalability, and user adoption.
Visual Hierarchy Deficiencies
Key data points and actions lacked prioritisation, resulting in poor scannability and increased cognitive load during task execution.Information Architecture Gaps
Navigation structures and content grouping were inconsistent across the platform, leading to fragmented user journeys and difficulty locating essential features.Absence of a Design System
There was no established source of truth for design assets, patterns, or interaction guidelines. This resulted in visual inconsistency, duplicated effort, and increased maintenance complexity.Lack of Reusable Components
UI elements were implemented as static, one-off components, preventing reuse and increasing development and design debt.Responsiveness and Layout Issues
Interfaces relied on fixed layouts that did not adapt reliably across screen sizes, negatively impacting usability on mobile and tablet devices.Touch Target and Interaction Issues
Interactive elements failed to meet basic accessibility and usability standards, making precise interaction difficult, particularly in mobile and low-precision environments.
Our Solution
The solution was designed to directly address the constraints and UX audit findings identified during the discovery phase, with a focus on cost control, adoption continuity, and development efficiency.
Solution Implementation
Cost-Effective Redesign Approach
A full system rebuild was intentionally avoided to control cost and operational risk. Instead, targeted design changes were prioritised based on audit severity and frequency of use. This approach preserved existing workflows while addressing usability gaps that were contributing to reduced productivity.
Audit Findings Addressed:
Design and development debt (High)
Cost constraints with internal development ownership (High)
Fragmented update cycles (Medium)
Design System Implementation
A foundational design system was established to standardise components, layout patterns, and interaction behaviours. Existing interface structures were retained where possible to minimise adoption risk, while inconsistencies identified during the audit were systematically removed.
Audit Findings Addressed:
No single source of truth for design assets (Critical)
Lack of reusable components (Critical)
Visual inconsistency across screens (High)
Information Architecture and Layout Rationalisation
The information architecture was restructured to improve clarity and discoverability of essential features. Redundant screens and flows were consolidated, and layout density was adjusted to support clearer hierarchy and optimised user flows to make essential functions easier to locate and use.
Audit Findings Addressed:
Poor information architecture (Critical)
Lack of visual hierarchy (High)
Cluttered and inefficient layouts (High)
Wireframing and Prototyping
Wireframes were created to evaluate alternative layout and navigation structures before implementation. Interactive prototypes were then used to validate usability assumptions, allowing risks to be identified and addressed prior to development.
Audit Findings Addressed:
Fragmented and unvalidated user flows (High)
Layout and navigation assumptions not tested prior to build (Medium)
User Testing and Adoption Validation
Three structured rounds of usability testing were conducted with internal teams. Feedback from each round informed iterative refinements to navigation, hierarchy, and interaction patterns, ensuring alignment with operational workflows and supporting consistent user adoption.
Audit Findings Addressed:
Adoption risk due to workflow changes (High)
Low confidence in platform usability (Medium)
All design decisions were reviewed against audit findings prior to development handoff to ensure traceability and implementation clarity.
The Impact
The redesigned GreenLight Office platform delivered improvements across usability, adoption, and development efficiency, directly addressing the constraints identified during the UX audit.
User adoption during pilot phase
High levels of employee adoption were observed across all three pilot test groups, indicating improved usability and clearer workflows following the redesign.Task efficiency improvements
Clearer navigation structures and a simplified information architecture reduced task completion times by 27%, enabling teams to locate key actions and data more intuitively.Reduced development effort
The consolidation of redundant screens and flows reduced overall development time by 18% in development time compared to the previous implementation approach.Lower long-term development costs
The introduction of a scalable design system and reusable component library contributed to an estimated 25% reduction in development cost when compared with the organisation’s earlier portal build.Improved usability and focus
Decluttered layouts and clearer visual hierarchy reduced cognitive load, with user acceptance testing confirming improved task focus and perceived productivity across core platform workflows.Operational reliability in low-connectivity contexts
Survey capture workflows were updated to better accommodate intermittent connectivity by informing users of network status prior to data submission. These changes reduced dependency on continuous connectivity and supported more reliable usage in remote field environments.
This project demonstrates how strategic UX and UI design can function as core operational infrastructure, enabling non-profit organisations to scale impact while maintaining efficiency, usability, and cost control.
Client Testimonial
"The management and team has always provided great support for our technical operations, and their delivery standards with clear milestones exceeded our expectations. Rosnium significantly improved operational efficiency across our enterprise; our teams couldn't be more satisfied with the modernised platform."
The GreenLight Office
Chief Product Officer | Kristen Becker
