01
The Problem
Thousands of photos. Hours of tedious work. Staff at Camp Starfish manually manage 1,500+ photos each summer using Google Drive. This process was inefficient and frustrating, to say the least.
02
Impact at a Glance
My Role
Owned UX for key staff and admin workflows, including album navigation, filtering, and approvals.
Developed interview plans and facilitated user interviews and usability tests.
Partnered with PMs, designers, and engineers on privacy, scalability, and technical tradeoffs.
Impact
76%
faster photo tagging
300+
users across 3 roles
$3000+
estimated annual savings
Tagging time measured in usability testing. Annual savings estimate based on subscription cost of an alternative tool Camp Starfish was considering.
03
Research Insights
6 staff interviews revealed three recurring problems:
Tagging was the biggest bottleneck
6/6 staff called it time-consuming.
Photos were difficult to find
4/6 struggled with inconsistent labeling and nested folders.
Photos reached families too slowly
3/6 cited delayed access as a major source of parent frustration.
Access mattered beyond parents
Interviews revealed that staff also wanted access to camp memories, reframing the product from a purely administrative tool into a shared viewing experience across user roles.
"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
04
The Solution: A Custom, Role-Based Workflow
One system, 3 experiences
Each user's role shaped how we structured the system and design.
Staff
Upload and bulk tag photos
Admin
Review and approve
Families
Securely view
Mapping User Flows
To align our team, I mapped each role’s goals, actions, and permissions according to how users would see functionality only relevant to them.
05
Key Design Decisions
Trust Over Efficiency: Why We Said No to Facial Recognition
Facial recognition allowed faster tagging but introduced privacy, bias, and accuracy risks with minors. I advocated for a bulk-tagging workflow with admin approval instead that required more upfront staff input, but had lower privacy risk and less engineering complexity.
Staff Tag Photos
Admin Manage Pending Photos
Familiarity vs. Flexibility: Navigation That Adheres to Existing Mental Models
I initially explored a compact album card that combined programs and dates, but the condensed layout made photos harder to find and filter. Albums were reorganized to mirror the structure staff already used in Google Drive: Year → Program → Day. This traded some flexibility for faster onboarding and more predictable navigation as the photo library grows.
Refined album grouping to better scale for admins managing thousands of photos
Validation & Iteration
Due to our users’ busy schedules, we ran a mix of asynchronous task-based usability tests and live Zoom prototype sessions.
Increased bulk action toolbar visibility
The original placement mirrored Adobe Lightroom's bulk management toolbar, but our users were camp counselors with no Lightroom familiarity, not professional photographers.
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.
06
Final Experience
Staff Upload & Tag Photos
Admin Review & Approve
Families (and staff :) Securely View
07
In Hindsight
The platform is in continued development and plans to launch after an additional scheduling feature is integrated.
Next Steps
Observe real-world usage post-launch
Validate the full workflow from upload to approval to parent access
Looking back, I would…
Bring up technical constraints earlier. Some implementation constraints surfaced after flows had already been refined, creating avoidable rework. In future projects, I'd involve engineering during early concept exploration to evaluate feasibility alongside user value.
Document decision rationale as the product evolves. With multiple designers and engineers contributing, documenting key decisions earlier would have made tradeoffs easier to revisit and reduced context loss during handoff.
Overall, we successfully made the photo management process easier for Camp Starfish, but the real value was seeing the impact we made.
"Working with the team at Hack4Impact has been amazing, and I’m so impressed with their work. Being able to share photos of smiling campers means everything to our families."
