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CASE STUDY

Sugar Modernization
Phase 2: Laying Groundwork
for the Future Vision

COLLABORATORS & PROJECT PEERS: Product Management, Engineering, UX Team Leads

& Executive Stakeholders 

The Challenge

"The Mockups Look Great!
When Can We Have it All in the Product?"

Turning UX mockups into reality requires patience and collaboration with product managers and engineers. Being flexible and embracing iterative refinement ensures that the user experience shines through in the final product.

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Iteration 1

Baby Steps

After collaborating with Engineering on how to break down the work, we decided on an intermediate step: shifting Sugar’s time-honored top “Mega Menu” to a vertical navigation on the left. This change helps users access key modules more quickly and efficiently.

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The Strategy
Audit, 
Screenshot, 
Paste in Frame, Repeat...

I needed a solution that would work seamlessly across SugarCRM’s nine products. To achieve this, I developed a framework the PM dubbed “The Floating Pane," which housed all existing content and sped up implementation. I conducted a thorough audit, capturing hundreds of screenshots to ensure each screen fit the new structure, making adjustments where needed.

The Challenge

"Rome wasn't
built in a day."

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Here are some alternative phrases:

  • “You can’t microwave a masterpiece.”

  •  “Even instant noodles take three minutes.”

  • “It took ages to train my cat, too.”

  • “Can’t rush a soufflé without a collapse.”

  • “Great things need more than one coffee break.”

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The Result

Nav Bar Iteration 2

More colors and micro-animations

We added more color to the navigation, the fly-out menu colors now match the module colors, which can be user-specified. We also added well-placed hover and click micro-interactions to the module selection to make navigation smoother, more intuitive, and a little more enjoyable—keeping users happy and productive.

The Final Countdown

The Launch

After months of development and close collaboration with the engineering team, the final design was successfully launched, unifying a previously visually fragmented suite of SugarCRM products.

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Kudos from the CTO 🎉

"We sat down with customers in 11 cities, and the things that we have done from a UX perspective​ absolutely are resonating with our customer base. When we showed them the stuff that is coming, there were cheers! There were people who are incredibly excited about the color scheme changes and changes to the navigation, and also the visual changes that have come along with it. All of this work is absolutely making a difference inside of our install base. And it is making our product more appealing to net new customers or prospects that we're working with on a daily basis. We get great feedback from the sales team. We get great feedback from our customers."

—Chief Technology Officer at SugarCRM

Key Takeaway:
​“You can't always get what you want.”

🏅

We didn't get everything we wanted in the first launch, for instance, we launched with only one theme: "Sugar Blue" but UX design is a balance of ideal experience and tight deadlines. It requires flexibility to prioritize key elements for the next release while ensuring core user needs are met.

🏅

Software development is ongoing, with many open tickets still in the queue, including focus drawer updates and various bug fixes, but I don’t ever let perfection get in the way of progress.

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