ReloPortal Redesign
Phase 1: Scope and Research
ReloPortal Redesign
Phase 1: Scope and Research
ReloPortal Redesign
Phase 1: Scope and Research
Cox Automotive | Connected Dealer Administration
Designing a scalable administration model for users, access, permissions, settings,
and AI-assisted workflows across a complex enterprise ecosystem.
Strategic models and interface examples have been reconstructed and sanitized for portfolio presentation.
A unified administrative experience connecting users, organizational access, and permissions across enterprise products.
Principal Product Designer | Enterprise Platforms & Administration
Platforms: Web, Enterprise SaaS | Systems Design | AI-Assisted Workflows
Overview
Dealer administration spans users, organizations, product access, permissions, settings, and lifecycle management across a broad enterprise ecosystem. My work focused on understanding how these systems connect, identifying where fragmented experiences created
administrative friction, and defining a more coherent platform model that could support scalable workflows across products.
The Challenge
The challenge extended beyond redesigning individual settings screens. Administrators needed to understand relationships between users, organizational membership, product access, permissions, and configuration while working across systems with different terminology and interaction models. Fragmented setup increased cognitive load and made it difficult to understand what access a user had,
why they had it, and what would change when administrators took action.
Role & Approach
As Principal Product Designer, I worked across discovery, information architecture, systems modeling, workflow design, interaction design,
and prototyping. I partnered with Product, Engineering, design, and domain stakeholders to understand existing administration models,
identify dependencies, evaluate prior concepts, and translate findings into reusable experience patterns and prototype directions.
Understanding the Ecosystem
Before designing workflows, I mapped the relationships between identity, organizational structure, product access, permissions, settings, and user lifecycle. Making these concepts explicit helped separate what should be shared across the platform from what needed to remain product-specific.
A simplified administration model connecting identity, organizational context, product access, permissions,
settings, and lifecycle management.
Mapping these relationships revealed that identity, membership, product entitlement, permissions, and configuration were connected but fundamentally different concepts. Separating them created a clearer foundation for administration while identifying which experience patterns could scale across products.
Research & Platform Strategy
Discovery combined stakeholder conversations, existing-product analysis, workflow review, and architecture learning. Research exposed recurring issues around fragmented administration, inconsistent terminology, access visibility,
and product dependencies. These findings shifted the work from isolated interface improvements toward
a connected platform model built around shared administrative concepts and reusable interaction patterns.
I used structured workshops and user feedback sessions to surface competing assumptions, separate validated direction
from open questions, and assign ownership before translating decisions into design.
Research translated recurring administrative challenges into a connected platform strategy.
Designing the Permissions Experience
Permissions became a detailed test case for the broader platform strategy. I structured the experience around a context-first decision model that progressively reveals complexity while preserving user, organization, product, and access context.
A progressive permissions workflow moves administrators from context to configuration and confirmation
without losing visibility into access relationships.
Designing with Interstate
The Interstate design system provided the foundation for translating platform strategy into consistent production patterns. Established patterns for navigation, tables, forms, search, selection, status, and feedback allowed the design effort
to focus on workflow clarity rather than component invention.
Interstate patterns supported consistency, accessibility, and scalability across administrative workflows.
Metadata & Agentic AI Opportunities
As the platform model evolved, structured metadata emerged as potential connective infrastructure for administrative relationships, governance, and intelligent workflows. I explored how that context could support future AI and agentic capabilities to explain complex access, detect inconsistencies, recommend configuration, preview impact,
and assist with repetitive lifecycle tasks while preserving human oversight.
Structured context creates opportunities for explainable, assistive, and agentic administrative experiences.
Outcome & Reflection
The work established a clearer model for administration across identity, membership, product access, permissions, and settings. It also reinforced that complex enterprise UX rarely begins with the interface. By understanding the underlying relationships first, I could simplify the experience, create reusable patterns,
and establish a stronger foundation for future AI-assisted workflows.