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Garrett Chan leads the Product Design Team at Journal Technologies.
Q: I think it’s fair to say that while our eSeries products are known for powerful capabilities, the user interface hasn’t always been a major focus. What’s changed to make this a bigger priority now?
GC: Our user interface (UI) and broader user experience (UX) haven’t historically had a team dedicated to improving them. Our developers have done some nice work where they can, but the lack of an overarching strategy is noticeable.
As part of JTI 2.0, a set of initiatives to ensure we embody a modern software company and better serve our customers, our focus is no longer solely on our feature set. We’ve now built a dedicated Product Design team to focus on improving the user experience.
Q: Before we continue, I want to ensure readers understand the distinction between UI and UX.
GC: The user interface (UI) is the visual layer: buttons, colors, fonts, layouts, icons, spacing, and more. It’s everything the user interacts with directly. User experience (UX), on the other hand, is the overall journey: how easy, intuitive, smooth, or frustrating a system is. Great design isn’t just about how things look, though that certainly impacts usability – it’s about how things work.
Q: Makes sense. How has this shift to more intentional design played out in the development process thus far?
GC: The Product Design team is now involved early and often throughout the development process, whereas in the past, design wasn’t considered until later. This change allows our team to be part of shaping and optimizing user experience from the outset.
We’re currently working on a project to modernize existing UI, as well as a larger, long-term project to revamp the UX for our overall eSeries platform.
Q: How is the newly formed Product Design Team structured, and what role does it play in product development?
GC: Our design team works closely with Product Management and Development to ensure design is valued throughout the development process. We are a growing team (by the time people read this, likely a team of five) with expertise in interaction design, graphic design, accessibility, and more. Our job is to apply user-centered design principles to ensure our software is intuitive, accessible, and visually cohesive.
Q: Sounds like a lot of work. When will our customers see results?
GC: Over the past year, there’s been considerable work put into the following: 1) adjusting business processes to accommodate us, 2) helping with new features, 3) building a cohesive design system to streamline implementation, and 4) ensuring compliance for end-users with disabilities.
Right now, we’re creating a new default theme with modern colors, improving the left navigation for better usability, and ensuring consistent icons, spacing, and typography across applications. These updates will create a cleaner, more polished UI while keeping the user experience familiar.
Q: You mentioned a focus on usability and accessibility. How do those factors guide your design decisions?
GC: In addition to just being the right thing to do, our customers are often legally required to offer systems that are accessible to end-users with disabilities. We follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and have been auditing our software to publish Accessibility Conformance Reports.
Accessibility is built into every step of our design process; it’s not an afterthought. We are prioritizing clear navigation, readability, keyboard accessibility, and support for assistive technologies. By focusing on accessibility, we’re also improving usability for everyone.
Q: We often hear that “good design should fade into the background”. What does that mean in practical terms?
GC: When usability is done right, you don’t even notice it; you think about the task, not the tools. In practical terms, it means buttons are clearly labeled, controls are where you expect them, and workflows follow a natural sequence. It means consistency.
Q: If there’s one message you hope our customers take away about this new UI/UX initiative, what would it be?
GC: We’re investing heavily into modernizing and improving UI and UX at Journal Technologies, but this work will undoubtedly take time before it’s widely noticeable. These improvements will be rolled out in phases, balancing quick wins with long-term enhancements to ensure a seamless transition.
Our goal is to make the software more intuitive, accessible, and efficient, and we’ll get there with a thoughtful, user-centered approach.