ABOUT

Anaplan leads Connected Planning with its innovative Hyperblock technology, transforming how organisations plan collaboratively and intelligently. Replacing outdated spreadsheet workflows empowers enterprises to connect people, data, and processes for real-time planning and agile decision-making.

The redesign played a pivotal role in Anaplan’s success, culminating in its $1.71 billion IPO. This highlights the value of user-centric design in driving growth and market impact.

BRIEF

Our task was to design a next-generation connected planning software that balanced simplicity for occasional users with advanced features for power users. This included reimagining the platform’s next iteration, refining user interactions, and creating an AA-compliant visual design system.

TEAM & ROLE

Collaboration was central to this project, bringing together UX designers, visual designers, researchers, and front- and back-end engineers from the client’s team.

My primary contribution was developing an AA-compliant design system, ensuring components were production-ready with comprehensive states, interactions, and detailed documentation to support implementation.

CHALLENGES

Navigating Colour Accessibility in Data Visualisation. Designing an accessible colour palette for large datasets and complex charts was a standout challenge. This required rigorous contrast testing to ensure compliance with accessibility standards while catering to users with colour vision deficiencies. Through careful selection and testing, we crafted a palette that ensured clarity and distinction across all data representations, making charts interpretable for a diverse audience.

Accessibility. Given Anaplan's diverse user base, accessibility was a core focus of this project. This marked my first experience working on accessibility at scale, requiring a rapid understanding of WCAG 2.1 standards and their practical application. The result was a platform designed to accommodate users with visual and auditory challenges.

Theming. Anaplan’s dual ecosystem, separating the Designer interface from the end-user experience, required distinct themes to ensure intuitive navigation and interaction. This thematic distinction provided clarity and enhanced usability within both environments.

THE HUB EXPERIENCE

A key moment in the project came when our lead designer entrusted me with an additional responsibility beyond the main scope of Acrylic. Drawing on my expertise in interaction and prototyping, I was asked to create an early-stage demo prototype for the annual HUB conference in Las Vegas. With around 10,000 international attendees, this event was a significant opportunity to showcase our design concepts on a large scale.

The prototype wasn’t just for show—it was an interactive experience that allowed real users to engage with our ideas. This provided invaluable feedback early on, helping to validate our design decisions and highlight areas that needed refinement. Ultimately, this user-driven input played a crucial role in shaping the direction of the project.