During the summer of 2024, I interned at Textron Inc. in Providence, RI as part of the Information Technology Leadership Development Program. My primary project involved redesigning the company’s internal mobile portal app, a tool that employees utilized daily only on the web.

As the sole user experience (UX) researcher on this project, I worked closely with internal IT teams and participating employees across various departments to completely reimagine the experience. My goal was to restructure the information architecture (IA) of the app to build an interface that aligned with the realistic workflows of Textron employees.

Understanding the Problem

Textron is an enterprise with technology built on legacy systems. The mobile version of the employee resource portal, once launched but quietly as an unlisted application, with no promotion to employees internally. The initial app offered a confusing and unfinished experience, for example, with the home screen featuring over a dozen unspecific navigation points. There was no clear visual hierarchy and interactions felt outdated and inconsistent.

Before any design work began, I sought to justify the need for a redesign to stakeholders who were unfamiliar with UX and product design methods. My challenge in this organization was not just to redesign a mobile interface. Tt was to introduce user-centered thinking to a culture not yet fluent in it.

Research & Discovery

To ground the redesign in real needs, I conducted qualitative interviews with employees from HR, Finance, and Legal. I asked each participant to walk me through how they currently access tools like pay stubs, benefits, or time-off requests, and what their pain points were.

Three consistent insights emerged:

• Employees often abandoned tasks because they couldn't find what they needed

• Users didn’t know the app existed and didn't believe it was useful

• A one-size-fits-all structure was not effective

This discovery shaped my work, defining a need for a flexible information architecture that aligns with multiple use cases.

Mapping the Information Architecture

I began by combing through the existing system and creating an application map (pictured below), which revealed the app’s chaotic structure. Over 14 separate navigational options were competing for attention on the home screen. Users had to scroll, guess, and backtrack constantly.

I reorganized the structure into six primary categories, plus a persistent settings area. These new categories were based on frequency of use and task importance, not internal business silos. I visualized the new IA in a simplified sitemap, then validated it with test users to ensure it matched their mental models.

Designing for Clarity: Visual and Interaction Design

With the architecture in place, I began designing the user interface in Figma, applying these principles:

• Gestalt principles to guide attention, emphasize grouping, and define visual relationships

• Visual communication principles such as hierarchy and space to improve clarity and consistency

• Interaction design principles to ensure each element had clear affordances, feedback, and constraints

  
  

One major focus was navigation redundancy. Employees approached the portal with different intended entry points, so I created multiple interaction paths for high-priority actions. For example, users could access
time-off requests either from the homepage quick actions or via the HR section depending on what made most sense to them.


Testing & Feedback

Textron required a significant security review before the prototyping and testing process could begin to respect internal constraints. After a 6-week security risk analysis, I was able to demo an interactive Figma prototype on an iPhone.


















I regularly presented progress to stakeholders, collecting feedback from both technical and end users. Feedback sessions helped refine flows, reduce unnecessary clicks, and confirm the new IA made sense to users unfamiliar with the old app.

By the end of my internship, I had created:

• A redesigned mobile portal prototype

• A restructured, validated app map

• A UI kit and design system for internal handoff

• A final pitch presentation delivered to Textron’s executive leadership team

In the final week, I presented my work to a cross-functional audience. Using a live side-by-side demo of the old and new app, I highlighted how well-intentioned information architecture and interaction design could directly improve usability and adoption. My stakeholders appreciated the new approach, with several expressing interest in continuing to apply UX processes to other internal tools. I even received a co-op opportunity with the HR Analytics team in Spring 2025 from this presentation experience!

This project wasn’t just about creating cleaner visuals, it was about changing the way Textron thinks about internal tools. I introduced a user-centered approach, backed by research and structured design systems, to build a mobile app that people actually want to use.

This case study represents my growing focus on product design, information architecture, and
task-oriented UX research, translating these skills into real business value.