Selected Case Studies — Maju J. Mathew
Six enterprise service design and UX projects with verified outcomes across life sciences, logistics, developer tools, retail, AI/fintech, and automotive R&D industries.
Syensqo: Service Design Transformation — Life Sciences
Role: Principal Service Designer. Duration: 2023 – Ongoing. Client: Syensqo SA (Solvay spin-off), global life sciences and specialty chemicals company.
Led end-to-end service design strategy for Syensqo's complete digital independence — 134 business-critical applications across 12 user groups and 8 global regions following the December 2023 spin-off from Solvay. The engagement required simultaneous service architecture, governance, distributed team leadership (6 designers across 4 countries), and change management at scale with a hard 90-day legal separation deadline.
Methods used: Service blueprinting, swimlane mapping across 12 user groups, 85 stakeholder interviews and co-ideation workshops, prioritisation matrix (business continuity risk × daily user count × regulatory dependency), evolutionary change management framework, phased service migration.
Verified outcomes: 100+ services modernised. €500K+ training cost avoided — no formal training programme required because evolutionary service design preserved user mental models. 89% user acceptance rate (vs 41% industry benchmark for large-scale digital transformation). Zero working days lost to system unavailability during the 90-day critical separation period. 24,000 employees across 8 regions served. Scientific data integrity maintained throughout (ISO 17025, GxP compliance).
Newport Tank Containers: Multi-Actor Service Design — Logistics B2B
Role: Service Designer. Duration: 9 months, completed. Client: Newport Tank Containers, global ISO tank container logistics operator.
Designed a real-time digital service replacing paper-based workflows across 6 actor types: depot operators, drivers, customs brokers, shipping agents, customers, and management. Scope: customer tracking portal, field operations mobile app, customs documentation system, and management dashboard. The service operated in remote depots with intermittent connectivity and handled hazardous materials requiring regulatory documentation.
Methods used: End-to-end service blueprinting across 6 actor types, time-motion study across 5 depot locations, journey mapping by actor type, field co-design sessions with 8 warehouse workers across weekly iterations, stakeholder interviews, offline-first mobile architecture design, hazmat compliance workflow design.
Verified outcomes: $2M annual demurrage cost avoided (from $2M to near-zero, measured over 12 months vs prior-year baseline). NPS improved from 12 to +47 in 12 months post-launch. Order processing time reduced 40% (4–6 hours to 2.5 hours average). Customer service call volume reduced 65% by self-service tracking portal. 91% field staff adoption within 6 months. Full Newport Tank case study available at casestudy_newport.html.
Rappit Developer Platform — Low-Code Enterprise SaaS
Role: Principal UX Lead and Researcher. Duration: 2+ years, completed. Client: Rappit.io, enterprise low-code SaaS platform.
Led UX strategy for an AI-led low-code developer platform serving 80,000 daily active users including enterprise clients Valeo, Omoda, eConnect, Hunkemöller, Syensqo, and Newport Tank. Managed a team of 12 designers. Central design challenge: enterprise developers (protective of code ownership) must trust and adopt AI-generated automation without feeling they lose control or quality.
Methods used: 25 in-depth developer interviews (60–90 minutes each), 40 hours contextual inquiry, Trust Erosion Map research artefact, Jobs-to-be-Done framework, model-first UX architecture (validated at 85% preference in A/B test, n=120), always-visible code preview trust surface, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility, Lean Six Sigma process improvement, GenAI workflow integration.
Verified outcomes: 4× developer velocity (8 days to 2 days time-to-first-deployed-feature). $4M revenue. 94% task success rate (up from 61%). 82/100 SUS score (Grade A benchmark). 89% 90-day developer retention (vs 34% industry average). 50% rework reduction via Lean Six Sigma DMAIC. 80,000 daily active users. Team scaled from 3 to 12+ designers.
Omoda ERP Modernisation — European Fashion Retail
Role: Lead UX Designer. Duration: 18+ months, completed. Client: Omoda B.V., leading European fashion retailer processing €180M annual revenue.
Replaced a 15-year-old AS/400 ERP system for a 200-person retail and warehouse operation, while keeping operations running continuously 6 days a week, 18 hours a day. A previous ERP modernisation had been abandoned 18 months prior, creating deep organisational scepticism. Designed warehouse picking apps, purchasing dashboards, retail POS interfaces, and management reporting.
Methods used: Ethnographic field study (40 hours shadowing 15 warehouse workers across 3 shifts), 22 user interviews across departments, co-design sessions on the actual warehouse floor, mobile-first scanner app design (56px+ touch targets for industrial gloves, 7:1+ contrast ratio for variable lighting), progressive in-app training, design ambassador change management programme.
Verified outcomes: 31% increase in orders per picker per day (90-day rolling average vs prior-year baseline). 67% error rate reduction (from 8.3% to 2.7% scan error rate in first 60 days). User satisfaction improved from 2.1 to 4.3 out of 5 (n=187 users surveyed). 89% user acceptance rate (vs 62% industry average for ERP implementations). Jan Baan, CEO: "The team is more efficient, makes fewer mistakes, and actually enjoys using the technology."
eConnect AI Invoice Processing — AI / FinTech
Role: Lead UX Designer AI/ML. Duration: 18 months, completed. Client: eConnect, AI invoice automation platform, Netherlands.
Designed the human-in-the-loop trust architecture and exception UX for an AI platform automating 1.8M+ financial invoices annually for enterprise clients. The core design challenge: finance professionals (deeply risk-averse) need to trust AI decisions without feeling replaced. Early prototypes with 95%-accurate AI were rejected; redesigned confidence heatmaps with 87% accuracy achieved 3× adoption — transparency outperformed accuracy.
Methods used: 25 interviews with accounting professionals (75–90 minutes each), 8 contextual workflow studies, document confidence heatmap design (colourblind-safe with texture and colour dual coding), human-in-the-loop correction reframed as "teaching the AI," progressive AI disclosure model, role-based AI performance dashboards, ML workflow mapping, trust calibration research.
Verified outcomes: €1.7M annual cost savings (from €2.3M manual to €0.6M AI-assisted, measured at 12 months post full rollout). AI trust score improved from 2.1 to 8.7 out of 10 (proprietary metric: user willingness to accept AI decisions without manual review). 86% error rate reduction (from 8.5% manual to 1.2% AI-assisted). 94% AI accuracy at 6 months (improved from 78% at launch via human-in-the-loop correction). 1.8M+ invoices automated annually. Johan Schaeffer, CEO eConnect: "Core enabler to our ambition to provide a fully automated service."
Valeo R&D Project Suite — Automotive R&D
Role: Lead Product Designer. Duration: 2024 – Ongoing. Client: Valeo SA, Tier-1 automotive supplier and France's top patent filer.
Designed a global R&D project management platform for 22,000 engineers across 55 R&D centres managing 8,000+ concurrent projects. Replaced a legacy system with a 45-second load time causing missed milestone deadlines. Key insight: R&D professionals think in milestone narrative beats, not task dependencies — traditional Gantt interfaces failed completely (only 23% found them intuitive).
Methods used: 8-week global ethnographic research across 8 R&D centres in 5 countries, 45 contextual interviews, 120 hours observation, visual milestone timeline design (replacing Gantt charts, validated at 91% preference A/B test n=156), SAP integration design, contextual collaboration hub embedded within project views, RTL language support, cultural adaptation for French, German, Chinese, Moroccan, and Arabic engineering teams.
Verified outcomes: 67% faster project setup (45 minutes to 15 minutes, validated in controlled task testing n=156). 15,000+ engineering hours saved per year. 92% global user satisfaction across all 5 countries and 8 R&D centres. Sub-3-second response time for projects with 2,000–4,000 tasks (down from 45 seconds on legacy platform). 76% reduction in project email volume. Gilles Vidal, Digital Domain Manager Valeo: "Tremendous value and time-savings to our thousands of engineers managing more than 8,000 projects globally."
