GreenWave
Digital Tools for Regenerative Ocean Farming
UX/UI Design for a Multi-Platform Digital Ecosystem
2020-2024
GreenWave is a nonprofit organization that supports ocean farmers in regenerating marine ecosystems through sustainable practices. Their digital ecosystem includes three connected products: the GreenWave Hub (an educational platform), Seaweed Source (a marketplace for ocean-based goods), and the MyKelp App (an operational management tool for farmers).
While all three products shared the same brand foundation, each platform served a different audience with unique functional needs. This required the development of interconnected but customized design systems — maintaining visual consistency while tailoring UX and UI solutions to the specific context of each product.
My Role
As a UX/UI Designer on the multi-platform team, I collaborated directly with the Senior Product Designer throughout the project.
My contributions included implementing and adapting design systems in Figma for each platform, creating scalable UI components (buttons, forms, navigation elements) tailored to the unique needs of each product, defining typography hierarchies, color systems, and design tokens, supporting UX improvements in search, filtering, and operational task flows, and ensuring a consistent brand experience while optimizing functionality for different user groups.
The Challenge
Designing across three distinct but related platforms presented specific challenges.
We needed to balance brand consistency with functional flexibility, ensuring users could feel a unified brand presence without forcing identical UI patterns where they didn’t make sense. At the same time, we had to tailor user flows — such as search (GreenWave Hub), product filtering (Seaweed Source), and task management (MyKelp App) — to match expectations in very different usage contexts.
Finally, we had to build modular, scalable systems that would allow each product to grow independently while staying visually aligned.
Design Process
Design System Implementation
We built interconnected component libraries in Figma, adapting the core visual identity to suit each product’s needs.
This included:
Buttons, form fields, navigation patterns, iconography.
Modular design tokens for typography, color, and spacing.
Documentation to support scalability and developer handoff across different teams.
Rather than enforcing a rigid system, we focused on modularity and flexibility — creating systems that felt familiar across platforms, but functionally tuned to their audiences.
UX Flow Improvements
I contributed to UX improvements in several critical areas:
GreenWave Hub: Helped refine the search functionality to simplify access to educational resources.
Seaweed Source: Supported the design of the product filtering flow to improve marketplace navigation and user satisfaction.
MyKelp App: Assisted in structuring operational task management flows to better support farmers' day-to-day activities.
Across all platforms, I helped optimize button placements, navigation clarity, and mobile responsiveness to enhance overall usability.
Collaboration and Delivery
Throughout the project, I maintained active communication with the broader product and development teams via Slack and asynchronous reviews. I delivered detailed prototypes and adaptable design system assets, which helped accelerate development cycles and improve handoff efficiency. All major design decisions were documented to ensure scalability, consistency, and ease of maintenance across teams as the products evolved.
Outcomes
The project resulted in the successful launch of customized, scalable design systems across three different products, each adapted to its user audience while remaining visually cohesive. Usability improvements were made to critical flows like search, filtering, and operational task management, leading to a better experience for both general users and internal teams. The clarity of documentation and modular structure of the design systems significantly accelerated developer workflows. Positive feedback from stakeholders highlighted both the improved user experience and the flexibility built into the design systems for future growth.
Key Takeaways
This project strengthened my ability to design for complex digital ecosystems, balancing consistency with adaptability. It reinforced the importance of building modular design systems that serve real-world user needs rather than prioritizing visual sameness. Working across GreenWave’s platforms sharpened my skills in UX problem-solving, cross-functional collaboration, and strategic system thinking — essential capabilities for scaling user-centered digital products.