I designed Branch end-to-end, guiding the project from early research and stakeholder interviews through concept development, prototyping, and multiple rounds of usability testing. Beginning with an open brief, research uncovered a key insight: teams need more than brainstorming tools—they need structured guidance that helps them think more creatively without disrupting existing workflows.
The result is a validated AI-supported collaboration platform that makes creative problem solving more accessible, engaging, and actionable. The prototype demonstrates how guided activities, AI facilitation, and collaborative workspaces help teams generate stronger ideas, align around solutions, and confidently move from divergent thinking to implementation.
Teams are expected to think creatively, collaborate effectively, and solve increasingly complex problems, but...many existing collaboration tools focus on organizing work rather than guiding the creative thinking process. Brainstorming often lacks structure, ideas lose momentum, and facilitators struggle to keep teams engaged and aligned.
However, the biggest challenge uncovered through research wasn't a lack of ideas—it was a lack of confidence and process. Participants wanted support in how to think creatively, not just another place to capture their thoughts.
So... how might we help teams move beyond the first obvious solution and unlock more innovative thinking together?
Working Towards a Goal
I set out to create an experience that would help teams collaborate more creatively by providing structure without limiting flexibility. The goal was to empower participants to generate stronger ideas, support facilitators with guided activities and AI assistance, and create a collaborative workspace where every team member could confidently contribute from ideation through implementation.
With a question in my mind, I set out in search of answers.
I began with a competitive analysis, exploring existing creativity and collaboration tools to understand what solutions were available and where user needs were — or were not — being met. I examined how current products supported team ideation, problem solving, and collaboration, with a focus on identifying opportunities to improve structure, engagement, and creative confidence.
Throughout my research, analyzing platforms and tools designed for teamwork, brainstorming, and creative facilitation, several key findings emerged that helped identify gaps in the current experience:
While existing tools were providing useful tools for collaboration, there was nothing helping team members in completing their tasks, and the hand-holding of facilitating processes was still being left to the managers to handle on their own, using up precious time and resources in the work place.
Next, I conducted a set of research interviews, looking to gain more information from both key user groups- Managers and Team Members.
I interviewed 4 potential users- 3 managers across three different industries, as well as a team member who partakes in creative problem solving in the work place.
4 key patterns emerged across the interviews:
Having identified the key challenges teams face during collaboration and creative problem solving, I then shifted my focus to understanding which users had the greatest needs and where Branch could provide the most value.
I created empathy maps to explore the experiences, frustrations, and goals of different potential user types, helping clarify who I needed to design for. Through this process, I narrowed my focus to team members and facilitators as the primary users.
Team members — because they are the individuals actively participating in the creative process and need support overcoming common barriers such as idea generation, alignment, and confidence in sharing their perspectives.
Facilitators/leaders — because they are often responsible for guiding collaboration, maintaining momentum, and ensuring that diverse ideas are heard. Supporting facilitators creates a stronger experience for the entire team, while solving only for individual contributors would not address the larger collaboration challenges.
While alignment and efficiency were important challenges to address, research revealed that the deeper need was not just better organization, it was creating a space where teams could think creatively, communicate effectively, and confidently move ideas forward.
With my answer of who I was solving for in hand, I created persona profiles to help define the unique needs of each user.
For Rebecca, the team manager, I was looking for create a product that would support her team through the creative problem solving process, without being so reliant on her.
Managers need help supporting their team, without having to bare the mental load, thus removing tasks from their workload and freeing up their time and energy for more important tasks.
For John, the team member, I was looking to create a product that allowed him the freedom and flexibility to collaborate with his team, explore new ideas and partake in creative problem solving processes, without the added stress of needing to learn new skills, or feeling as though the burden is being shifted completely onto the team in an effort to free up the manager.
This was a delicate balance, but something I knew could be solved through a product that allowed for collaboration and communication, as well as simply and efficiently supporting users through the creative problem solving process.
This led to me to the question:
Since clarity and efficiency were important to both my user types, my next step was deciphering how I would organize the app, to ensure the users could rely on the product to support them with a minimal learning curve.
Throughout the user and task flows, I prioritized usability and efficiency while preserving the distinct responsibilities of managers and team members.
Competitive analysis revealed that many collaboration tools either blurred the boundaries between roles or separated them so completely that they felt like two disconnected products.
To strike the right balance, I designed role-specific dashboards and permissions for managers while maintaining a highly collaborative experience for team members. This approach kept both roles aligned, respected existing team hierarchies, and encouraged seamless collaboration across the platform.
The visual direction for Branch was designed to feel creative, approachable, and refined. Combining editorial typography, a minimal interface, and a warm, intentional colour palette, the design creates a workspace that inspires creative thinking while maintaining the clarity, trust, and structure expected of a professional collaboration platform.
For Branch to succeed, it needed to become a natural part of a team's daily workflow—not just another app sitting unused on the home screen. Achieving this meant designing an experience that balanced intuitive interactions, meaningful guidance, and seamless integration into existing team processes, making it easy for users to return to throughout their workday.
In order to ensure I was moving in the right direction at every stage, I relied heavily on Usability testing, which brought forward a lot of insight- first leading to important content additions, and later leading to a visual revamp.
I ran a series of Usability tests, first with my lo-fidelity frames with a strong focus on content, next as a mid-fidelity, with a focus on usability, and lastly as a high-fidelity product, focusing on collaboration and integration into the workplace.
My Usability Testing brought forward 7 main pain points- 4 critical.
