Hidden Gemz

Business Dashboard and Onboarding Redesign

Service

Web Design

Client

Hidden Gemz

Role

UI/UX Designer

Background

Hidden Gemz is a Calgary-based event booking platform which helps people discover their city in a unique way and plan unforgettable day trips. The service offers curated experiences including meal, entertainment and an ending treat from different local businesses, as well as provide the onboarded businesses the opportunity to grow their customer base.

Business Goal

Partner businesses using Hidden Gemz needed an easier, more intuitive way to sign up and manage their offerings. The existing onboarding process was cumbersome, and the dashboard lacked clarity, making it difficult for business owners to navigate their bookings and track performance. The team at Hidden Gemz would also often need to assist businesses manually during onboarding as well as with updating their profiles and managing bookings, which is not feasible as the platform continues to scale and onboard more businesses.

Solution

Create a user-friendly onboarding experience, complete with a walkthrough and design a comprehensive B2B dashboard for local businesses on the Hidden Gemz platform.

The solution aims to guide business owners through setting up their profiles and managing information seamlessly, eliminating the need for any manual help.

Approach

By synthesizing the research the platform had conducted with their existing onboarded businesses, we discovered several key usability issues which needed to be addressed in the redesign;

Multi-step onboarding, often leading to confusion and abandonment - sometimes requiring manual help.
Unclear structure and content within categories - users aren’t sure what’s inside each dashboard section.
Inability to edit store hours, days of operation, time blocks and key details needed for smooth operational flow.
No reliable system to monitor upcoming bookings or track arriving customers.
Missing tools to track and analyze essential performance data.
Lack of channels to engage with Hidden Gemz customers or access their ratings and reviews.
Inability to add more locations to an existing account to help streamline multi-location businesses.

Design Decisions

After identifying key user pain points in the existing experience, we kicked off the dashboard redesign by overhauling the information architecture - redefining categories and clearly organizing their contents.

The information architecture can be viewed here.

Low-fidelity wireframes were created as an early step in the design process to test key layout ideas, gather initial feedback and ensure alignment on the core structure and user flow.

During this stage, we also advocated for scalable design systems and usability best practices, laying the foundation for future design consistency and efficiency across the platform. The visual language was then created with the pre-existing logo and font selection, making sure to keep accessibility in mind.

Challenges

During the process of this redesign, we also ran into several challenges with the design team and the stakeholders;

1.

Challenge:

Coordinating a globally distributed team spanning five time zones, facilitating collaboration, aligning objectives and securing feedback and approvals within project timelines.

Solution:

Leveraged tools like Notion, HubSpot, Slack, Miro and Figma to maintain seamless communication, streamline collaboration and ensure high-quality outcomes exceeding stakeholder expectations.

2.

Challenge:

Differences within the design team on how to visually interpret the wireframes - such as layout hierarchy, style and interactions, as well as properly incorporating the feedback from the wireframe usability testing.

Solution:

After initially having differing opinions on how to visually interpret the wireframes, two versions of the high fidelity prototype were created to present to the stakeholders as well as test with end users. Through collaborative reviews, open discussions and usability testing, we combined the strongest elements from both to finalize a unified design.

3.

Challenge:

Experienced delays in aligning with onboarded businesses and had several no-shows, which impacted the scheduling of usability tests and iterative design updates.

Solution:

We reached out to prospective business owners, those not yet onboarded, to evaluate the dashboard’s intuitiveness and practical value. Their feedback not only revealed key insights into the first‑time user experience but also helped attract new customers by showcasing the platform’s potential.

The Process

As part of a cross-functional and agile design team for this project, I was responsible for structuring the project timeline, user flows, wire frames as well as a portion of the UI of the business dashboard. I created the project plan and set deliverables over the course of a month, along with my teammates.

For a more detailed look at the process, please click here.

The Results

• Faster and more intuitive onboarding, with new businesses now completing sign-up quicker.

• Increased partner satisfaction, with businesses reporting an easier experience managing their bookings.

• Improved user experience, enabling business owners to seamlessly manage and edit their information.

• Increased platform engagement with clear notifications and payout management features.

• Created visually consistent designs aligned with the overall Hidden Gemz branding.

Supporting Local.
Building Sustainable Cities.

This project supports the development of sustainable cities and communities by empowering local businesses to engage effectively with their customers through streamlined tools and reach new customers.