Industry

Cloud-native CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering)

Company

Luminary Cloud

Design System

Building clarity and consistency for advanced CAE workflows

At Luminary Cloud, I designed a set of reusable UI patterns to bring clarity and consistency to our physics simulation platform. The existing interface was cluttered, inconsistent, and overloaded users with noise. Working under constraints of limited engineering bandwidth, legacy workflows, and rapid release cycles, I introduced structured layouts, alert hierarchies, navigation clean-up, and reusable components that improved scanability, reduced cognitive load, and supported decision-making — all without disrupting core simulation workflows.

Role

Lead Product Designer (Design Systems & Platform UX)

Time

Ongoing adoption

Team

Design team (4 designers including myself), front end team (3 engineers)

Problem Space

  • Workspace clutter: The central workspace for simulations lacked structure, burying critical actions.

  • Feedback noise: Notifications and system messages overwhelmed users without clear prioritization.

  • Navigation confusion: Deep workflows (geometry → setup → simulation → results) were disorienting.

  • UI inconsistency: Input components, cards, and lists varied across teams, slowing development.


Design Goals

  • Clarity: Make the workspace a structured, decision-supporting environment.

  • Consistency: Provide reusable patterns for navigation, lists, and alerts.

  • Flexibility: Support both automated defaults and precise manual overrides.

  • Scalability: Create a design system library to accelerate adoption across teams.


Solutions

  • Workspace Redesign: Introduced structured layouts, prioritized key actions (run, configure, review), and surfaced simulation status at a glance.

  • Notifications & Alerts: Established a hierarchy of feedback (background vs. critical failures), designed alert patterns that balanced urgency and signal-to-noise.

  • Navigation Clean-Up: Simplified deep workflows with clear hierarchy, contextual breadcrumbs, and consistent entry points.

  • Dynamic Controls: Built flexible input components for complex parameters (e.g., propeller motion, solver configurations), blending automation with manual precision.

  • List & Card Patterns: Standardized list and card layouts for simulations, jobs, and assets to improve scanability and enable contextual actions.

  • Reusable Patterns & Guidelines: Codified visual tokens, behaviors, and specs into a shared design library adopted across teams.


Problem Space

  • Workspace clutter: The central workspace for simulations lacked structure, burying critical actions.

  • Feedback noise: Notifications and system messages overwhelmed users without clear prioritization.

  • Navigation confusion: Deep workflows (geometry → setup → simulation → results) were disorienting.

  • UI inconsistency: Input components, cards, and lists varied across teams, slowing development.


Design Goals

  • Clarity: Make the workspace a structured, decision-supporting environment.

  • Consistency: Provide reusable patterns for navigation, lists, and alerts.

  • Flexibility: Support both automated defaults and precise manual overrides.

  • Scalability: Create a design system library to accelerate adoption across teams.


Solutions

  • Workspace Redesign: Introduced structured layouts, prioritized key actions (run, configure, review), and surfaced simulation status at a glance.

  • Notifications & Alerts: Established a hierarchy of feedback (background vs. critical failures), designed alert patterns that balanced urgency and signal-to-noise.

  • Navigation Clean-Up: Simplified deep workflows with clear hierarchy, contextual breadcrumbs, and consistent entry points.

  • Dynamic Controls: Built flexible input components for complex parameters (e.g., propeller motion, solver configurations), blending automation with manual precision.

  • List & Card Patterns: Standardized list and card layouts for simulations, jobs, and assets to improve scanability and enable contextual actions.

  • Reusable Patterns & Guidelines: Codified visual tokens, behaviors, and specs into a shared design library adopted across teams.


Problem Space

  • Workspace clutter: The central workspace for simulations lacked structure, burying critical actions.

  • Feedback noise: Notifications and system messages overwhelmed users without clear prioritization.

  • Navigation confusion: Deep workflows (geometry → setup → simulation → results) were disorienting.

  • UI inconsistency: Input components, cards, and lists varied across teams, slowing development.


Design Goals

  • Clarity: Make the workspace a structured, decision-supporting environment.

  • Consistency: Provide reusable patterns for navigation, lists, and alerts.

  • Flexibility: Support both automated defaults and precise manual overrides.

  • Scalability: Create a design system library to accelerate adoption across teams.


Solutions

  • Workspace Redesign: Introduced structured layouts, prioritized key actions (run, configure, review), and surfaced simulation status at a glance.

  • Notifications & Alerts: Established a hierarchy of feedback (background vs. critical failures), designed alert patterns that balanced urgency and signal-to-noise.

  • Navigation Clean-Up: Simplified deep workflows with clear hierarchy, contextual breadcrumbs, and consistent entry points.

  • Dynamic Controls: Built flexible input components for complex parameters (e.g., propeller motion, solver configurations), blending automation with manual precision.

  • List & Card Patterns: Standardized list and card layouts for simulations, jobs, and assets to improve scanability and enable contextual actions.

  • Reusable Patterns & Guidelines: Codified visual tokens, behaviors, and specs into a shared design library adopted across teams.