Making Teknovo's Website Actually Usable
In 3 months as an intern, I redesigned the core user experience—fixing navigation, expanding search, and bringing visual consistency across 15+ pages. The result? Users could finally find what they were looking for.
TL;DR for recruiters
- Role
- UI/UX Design Intern
- Timeline
- 3 months (Mar-May 2022)
- Tools
- Figma, Miro
- Project type
- Internship — shipped to teknovo.com
Outcome
Navigation moved from heuristic severity 4/4 to 0/4. Filter options expanded from 2 to 7 across a 50+ product catalogue, and 20+ reusable components were standardized across 15+ pages.
As an intern with no analytics or budget for user testing, impact estimates are based on heuristic evaluation, comparative review, and informal feedback rather than tracked product metrics.
The Challenge
Teknovo, a small IT services company, had a website that was hindering growth. Potential clients couldn't find what they needed, damaging credibility and losing business.
- Navigation was hidden behind a desktop hamburger menu.
- Inconsistent design across every page.
- Product filtering was nearly non-existent (2 options for 50+ products).
- The site provided no user feedback (hover/active states).
- 3-month internship timeline.
- No analytics or baseline metrics.
- No budget for user testing.
- Qualitative success criteria ("better UX").
Uncovering the Issues
With no research budget, I used Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics to systematically audit the site, identify problems, and prioritize fixes based on impact and feasibility.
Evidence: Desktop site used hamburger menu—forcing users to remember what's in menu instead of seeing options. Competitor analysis showed no B2B software sites use hamburger on desktop.
Impact: Users likely abandoning before finding services.
Evidence: No indication when clicking nav items, hovering, or loading pages. No hover states on interactive elements or active states showing current page.
Impact: Users uncertain if site is responding.
Evidence: Homepage, product, and article pages had different layouts. 5 different button styles, 3 header designs, and varied typography hierarchy.
Impact: Site felt unprofessional, damaged trust.
Evidence: With 50+ products, only 'Category' and 'Price' filters were available. No way to filter by industry, technology, or deployment type.
Impact: Users overwhelmed, unable to find relevant products.
Evidence: Pages were overloaded with competing elements, too many CTAs, inconsistent color use, and insufficient whitespace.
Impact: Cognitive overload, key content lost in noise.
Design Process & Solutions
My strategy focused on high-impact, low-effort improvements to deliver maximum value within the 3-month internship.
The desktop hamburger menu was a critical usability issue. After getting feedback from developers that a mega-menu was too performance-heavy, I implemented a simple, effective solution: a traditional sticky navigation bar with dropdowns.
Impact: This fixed a critical (4/4 severity) heuristic violation. Based on industry research, this likely improved navigation task success rate by 30-50%.
Learning: Always validate with developers early. A beautiful design is useless if it can't be built. Simpler often wins.
With 50+ products but only 2 filters, users were lost. After informal testing revealed that 10+ filters (like competitors) was overwhelming, I consulted the sales team to identify the 7 most critical filter options prospects actually ask for, increasing filtering capability by 250%.
Impact: Estimated 40-60% improvement in product findability.
Learning: More isn't always better. Quick, informal testing with colleagues can prevent major design mistakes.
To fix the site's inconsistent look, I created a simple design system with a typography scale, color palette, spacing rules, and 20+ reusable components (buttons, cards, forms) documented in Figma.
Impact: For users, it created a predictable, trustworthy experience. For the team, it enabled faster design and development cycles. The system remained in use after my internship ended.
Learning: A design system is a practical tool that scales. It improves user experience and internal efficiency simultaneously.
Visual Design: Before & After
Homepage Transformation
Before
After
Product List & Filtering
Before
After
Results & Impact
While formal analytics were not tracked, the redesign led to significant estimated improvements in usability and efficiency.
| Area | Change | Estimated Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Navigation | Heuristic severity 4/4 → 0/4 | +40% Task Success |
| Search & Filtering | Filter options +250% (2 → 7) | +50% Findability |
| Visual Consistency | Standardized 20+ components | +40% Professionalism |
Reflection & Learnings
This project taught me that good design is about solving problems systematically. Constraints like a limited budget and timeline force you to be creative and prioritize ruthlessly. Heuristic evaluation proved invaluable for identifying high-impact issues without formal user testing.
Key Learnings:
- Heuristic Evaluation is Powerful: When you don't have a research budget, heuristics provide a research-backed framework to systematically identify usability issues.
- Design Systems Create Scale: Investing time in reusable components pays dividends by improving consistency and speeding up future development.
- Always Advocate for Metrics: My biggest regret is the lack of before/after data. Even basic analytics would have helped quantify the impact of the redesign.