role-based photo management platform
Reduced photo-tagging time by 76% while improving privacy and trust for 300+ nonprofit users.
Every photo has a moment worth sharing, just not at the cost of hours of manual work.
the stakes
Camp Starfish takes 1,500+ photos every summer, but relies on Google Drive folders to manually organize and share them. This process is slow, insecure, and frustrating for both camp staff and families.
“We take so many photos at camp, but organizing and sharing them takes so much time that most never get seen."
— Staff Member
“How might we reduce staff effort in managing camp photos while ensuring families only see trusted, approved content?”
Solution
A Custom Role-Based Photo Management Platform
Collaboration friendly & adheres to existing staff workflows
Scales for increasing photo volume and camper enrollment
Ensures privacy through permissions and controlled access
Outcome
76%
faster photo tagging
300+
users supported across
4 roles
$3000+
annual cost savings compared to existing tools
My Contributions
Led user research & competitive analysis (10+ surveys, interviews, usability tests)
Owned end-to-end UX for role-based workflows in collaboration with product, design, and engineering
Designed album navigation, filtering, bulk actions, and upload flows
research insights
Data from 6 Interviews across Staff, Admin, and Parent Users
6/6 staff mentioned labeling photos was time-consuming
revealing photo tagging as the most tedious and time-consuming part of the workflow. One staff spent 8 hours labeling and organizing photos.
3/6 staff reported major parent frustration from delayed photo access
emphasizing the importance of improved and immediate photo visibility
4/6 staff struggled to find individual photos
the current process was disorganized and not scalable
the turning point
Before user interviews, we initially assumed photos were primarily for families. Research revealed something unexpected:
Staff deeply valued seeing photos too.
This shifted our product from a “staff-only upload tool” to a shared system where:
Staff could easily browse approved photos
Parents accessed only trusted content
Admins retained control and visibility
defining user flows
Many user actions overlapped across roles instead of mapping cleanly to a single role, so I organized key tasks into user flows to simplify interactions and identify shared workflows across admins, staff, and parents.
Mapping user flows in LucidChart
critical design decisions
Weighing the Risks: No Facial Recognition
We explored facial recognition for identifying and tagging campers, but I discovered risks around privacy, bias, and accuracy. With minors involved, the risks were too high. After validating these concerns with our stakeholders, I pushed for a manual tagging + approval flow that still significantly reduced staff effort.
Tradeoffs
Maintained user trust while improving efficiency
While the new workflow requires more user input, we avoided facial recognition risks for minors, maintained transparency, and reduced engineering overhead
Staff Tag Photos
Admin Manage Pending Photos
Navigation Based on Existing Mental Models
Photo volume increases every year, so instead of reinventing photo navigation, I mirrored staff’s existing mental model: Albums were structured to mirror how staff already worked in Google Drive: Year -> Program -> Day.
Tradeoffs
Faster onboarding and lower learning curve for new users
Potential reduced flexibility for future features
Supports intuitive photo navigation and browsing across all user roles and varying levels of technical proficiency
I initially explored a flatter structure with programs and dates displayed on a single album card. However, user testing revealed that this structure was harder to navigate, particularly as photo volume increased. To maintain scalability, we chose a more chunked hierarchy that adhered to existing user mental models in Google Drive.
Refined album grouping to better scale for admins managing thousands of photos
Validation & Iteration
Due to users’ busy camp schedules, we ran:
Asynchronous task-based usability tests
Live Zoom prototype testing sessions
Key Iterations
Increased visibility of bulk action toolbar
Added direct navigation to “Pending Photos” after users struggled to find it
DESIGN SYSTEM & ACCESSIBILITY
As complexity grew, I helped establish a lightweight design system aligned with Camp Starfish’s brand. We focused only on components we needed to ship within the 3-month timeline to balance polish with feasibility. Accessibility was prioritized to support users with varying technical proficiency.
Design & Style Considerations
Reusable components in Figma
WCAG-aligned color tokens & accessible typography
Responsive layouts
Typography and color palette based on Camp Starfish's existing brand to align with user expectations
Reusable Components in Figma
FINAL DESIGNS
reflection
My first full end-to-end product experience in a cross-functional team reinforced that strong product design balances impact, trust, scalability, and human emotion.
With more time, I would:
Observe real-world usage post-launch
Validate the full workflow from upload → approval → parent access
Expand admin permission management and profile settings
What I would do differently next time:
Align with cross-functional partners earlier
Explore more ideas through low-fidelity sketching and rapid iteration
Prioritize validating end-to-end user flows before investing heavily in UI polish
