01
Problem & Context
The Problem
Camp Starfish takes 1,500+ photos each summer but relies on a manual Google Drive workflow for uploading, tagging, organizing, and sharing content.
This process was time-intensive for staff, inconsistent in organization and labeling, difficult to scale as photo volume increased, and challenging to manage privacy across different user roles.
Why it Matters
For families, photos are critical reassurance that their children are safe and having a positive experience. But since staff often spent hours manually tagging and organizing photos, sometimes up to 8 hours for a single batch, this resulted in delays, many photos never being shared, and lots of frustration.
“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 design a scalable photo management system that improves efficiency while maintaining trust and privacy for families?
02
Solution
A multi-role photo management system that enables staff to bulk upload and tag photos, admins to review and approve content, and parents to securely access photos based on permissions.
Design Principles
Ease of use: Fits existing staff workflows
Trust & privacy: Controlled access and permissions
Scalability: Supports growing photo volume
Impact
76%
faster photo tagging
300+
users across
4 roles
$3000+
annual savings
My Role
Conducted user research across 10+ interviews and surveys
Collaborated with designers, engineers and product managers on end-to-end UX for role-based workflows
Designed navigation, bulk actions, filtering, and upload flows
03
Research & Insights
Complexity with Multiple User Roles
We started by understanding who would be involved with this product and identified three distinct user types:
Camp Admins
program directors who review, approve, and control what gets shared
Staff & Volunteers
counselors and activity leads who take and upload photos daily
Parents
families who access only approved photos of their own children
Designing one platform for all user roles without friction was a main challenge.
Key User Pain Points
We interviewed 6 staff, admin, and parent users to learn more about their specific frustrations and problems.
Tagging was the biggest bottleneck
6/6 staff mentioned labeling photos was time-consuming. One staff spent 8 hours labeling and organizing photos.
Delayed photos frustrated parents
3/6 staff reported delayed photo access as a major source of parent frustration
The disorganized system made photos hard to find
4/6 staff reported struggle finding individual photos due to inconsistent labeling and nested folders
A New but Valuable Insight
Before user interviews, we assumed photos were primarily for families. After synthesizing our interview notes, we discovered something unexpected:
Staff deeply valued seeing photos too.
"We can only see photos if they're printed or posted online. It limits us from being able to see all of the memories we have made."
— Volunteer & Staff Member
This reframed the product from a staff tool into a shared system where all users could view meaningful moments, with role-based access.
04
Design Process
Defining User Flows
User actions overlapped across roles, so I unified them into shared flows that guided all design decisions. Designing around features and workflows rather than roles let engineers reuse the same page structure with permission-based toggling and reduced cognitive load for users who'd never see irrelevant features.
Mapping user flows in LucidChart
Critical Design Decisions
Efficiency vs. Trust: Why We Said No to Facial Recognition
To reduce manual tagging time, we explored facial recognition for tagging campers, but after researching the privacy, bias, and accuracy risks (especially with minors), including use cases at other camps, I advocated for a privacy-first tagging framework that replaced the proposed facial recognition system. After validating these concerns with our stakeholders, we landed on an alternative tagging and 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
Familiarity vs. Flexibility: Navigation That Adheres to Existing User Mental Models
Photo volume increases every year, so instead of reinventing photo navigation, we 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 on a single album card, but testing showed it became harder to navigate as photos scaled, especially when filtering across multiple programs at once. So we shifted to a more structured hierarchy aligned with users’ Google Drive mental models.
Refined album grouping to better scale for admins managing thousands of photos
Validation and Iteration
Due to our users’ busy schedules, we ran a mix of async task-based usability tests and live Zoom prototype sessions.
Key Iterations
Increased bulk action toolbar visibility. The original placement mirrored Adobe Lightroom's bulk management toolbar, but our users weren't professional photographers; they were camp counselors with no Lightroom familiarity. The unfamiliar placement, combined with low color contrast, made the toolbar practically invisible. We moved it to a more prominent position and increased contrast, which resolved discoverability in testing.
Surfaced "Pending Photos" in the main navigation. Users weren't just struggling to find the page, they didn't know it existed. We hadn't made it clear in the UI that photos needed approval before families could see them, so users had no reason to look for it. Adding it to the main navigation made the workflow visible from the start.
Design System & Accessibility
As the product grew, I helped establish a lightweight design system aligned with Camp Starfish’s brand. We focused on components we needed to ship within the 3-month timeline to balance polish with feasibility.
Design & Style Considerations
Reusable components in Figma
WCAG-aligned color tokens & accessible typography
Responsive layouts
Reusable Components in Figma
05
Main Workflows & Features
06
Takeaways
This project showed me how important it is to balance impact, trust, scalability, and human emotion in design. By doing so, we reduced operational workload for staff, increased photo visibility for families, and improved overall system scalability for Camp Starfish.
Next Steps
Observe real-world usage post-launch
Validate the full workflow from upload to approval to parent access
Expand admin permission management and profile settings
What I would do differently next time:
Collaborate with engineers earlier in the design process. I thought the designs had to be "ready" before sharing with tech leads, but their constraints and early input would have helped speed up decisions and prevent late rework.
Validate end-to-end flows at low fidelity before investing in polish. We caught the pending photos navigation issue during user testing, but earlier flow validation would have surfaced it before it was built into high-fidelity screens.
Document design rationale and the "why" behind key decisions to improve cross-functional communication and alignment. When the reasoning only lives in your head, it might not survive handoff.
Overall, we successfully made the photo management process easier for Camp Starfish, but the real value was seeing the impact we made.