role-based photo management platform
Designed a responsive web application for 300+ admins, staff, and parents at a nonprofit serving children with autism, reducing photo-tagging time by 76% while improving user privacy and trust.
Every photo has a moment worth sharing, just not at the cost of hours of manual work.
PROBLEM
Camp Starfish supports children with autism and social-emotional challenges. Each summer, staff upload, label, and approve 1,500+ photos manually in Google Drive.
But as photo volume increased, the system became:
Time-consuming to use
Difficult to scale
Risky for privacy when sharing photos of minors
“How might we reduce staff effort 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
Improves photo organization and reduces tagging time by 76%
Ensures privacy through permissions and controlled access
Results & Impact
76%
faster photo tagging
300+
users supported across
4 roles
$3000+
annual cost savings compared to existing tools
My Contributions
Led user research, including competitive analysis, 10+ surveys, interviews, and usability tests across staff, admins, and parents
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
KEY RESEARCH INSIGHTS
Data from 6 Staff Interviews
As photo volume grew, the existing workflow broke down:
Disorganized storage
Inconsistent labeling and duplicate uploads made photos hard to find.
Manual tagging bottlenecks
Staff spent up to 8 hours/day labeling photos.
Privacy risks
Photos of minors risked being over-shared and violating user privacy.
Camp Starfish's Old Photo Management System
“We take so many photos at camp, but organizing and sharing them takes so much time that most never get seen."
— Staff Member
a key insight
Before user interviews, we initially assumed photos were primarily for families.
Research revealed staff also deeply valued revisiting photos as personal memories.
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
key design decisions
Once the user flows were defined, I focused on understanding why and how they should work, and visualized how they would be implemented. Throughout this process, I balanced trade-offs across usability, privacy, technical feasibility, and business needs.
Designing the Interface Based on Shared Features and Workflows
Instead of fully separate interfaces for each role, I organized the app around shared workflows and features with role-based permissions.
This reduced cognitive overload and avoided exposing users to unnecessary features
It also introduced more complex permission logic, but improves clarity and creates focused experiences for admins, staff, and parents
Parent Home Page
Admin/Staff Home Page
Staff & Parent Album View
Admin Album View
Manual Tagging + Approval (Over Facial Recognition)
We explored facial recognition for identifying and tagging campers, but I discovered risks around privacy, bias, and accuracy. After validating these concerns with stakeholders, I pushed for a manual tagging + approval flow that still significantly reduced staff effort.
This 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
Albums were structured to mirror how staff already worked in Google Drive: Year -> Program -> Day.
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
Sorting Albums by Year and Program for Easier Photo Navigation
Validation & Iteration
To validate the design and identify potential friction, we conducted live usability testing across all roles.
Key Iterations
Increased visibility of bulk action toolbar
Added direct navigation to “Pending Photos” after users struggled to find it
Refined album grouping to better scale for admins managing thousands of photos
DESIGN SYSTEM & ACCESSIBILITY
As complexity grew, I helped establish reusable components, WCAG-aligned color tokens, and responsive layouts aligned with Camp Starfish’s brand.
Accessibility was prioritized to support users with varying technical proficiency.
Typography and color palette based on Camp Starfish's existing brand to align with user expectations
Reusable Components in Figma
FINAL DESIGNS
REFLECTION & NEXT STEPS
This project reinforced that efficiency without trust is not good design, especially when working with vulnerable populations.
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
This would reduce rework and help keep both the team and me focused on solving the right problems at the right time.
