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Case Study
Re-imagining an ERP and DRR Tool for Emerging Markets
Similie is a technology company based in Timor-Leste. In 2016 they began developing One, a customisable data management tool for organisations in emerging markets, which can be integrated with IoT devices to collect data and provide realtime analytics and reports. By the time I joined, One was already serving serious use cases: patient record data for a healthcare charity, the MVP for Timor-Leste's first multi-hazard early warning system, and monitoring the water supplies of rural communities.
Then in 2017 Similie were asked to build Personnel and Logistics Management systems for the Timor-Leste military on top of One. A platform that had grown feature by feature with little UX and UI direction from the offset was about to become the foundation for a national defence force's records. Re-imagining One's foundations ran alongside those projects, and underpinned them.
- My role
- Product Designer
- Contribution
- UX DesignUI DesignDesign System
- Duration
- 2018–2021
- Status
Shipped through the products built on One, including the F-FDTL platforms
Context & Challenge
One had grown feature by feature without design direction, and the user experience was hindering a platform whose use cases could hardly be more serious: early warning systems and community water monitoring are tools where confusion has real consequences. The users added their own constraints. Computer literacy varied significantly across the user base, the platform needed to support multiple languages, and everyone shared the same underlying need: to use these tools to increase efficiency at work, free up human resources and reduce error.
Approach
Understand the platform before judging it.
I used Miro to map out screenshots of the current flows within One and understand how the product held together. Then I ran a full UI teardown: I pasted the key pages into Keynote and annotated every element, noting what each one was and how it functioned in black, and ideas or problems in red. Only once I really understood why each element existed could I make decisions about what needed to change.
Study how others solve it.
I created free accounts for five data collection and management tools and ran a competitor analysis focused on design hierarchy (colour and typography), architecture, hints (when users are prompted to act) and interaction patterns like modals, popups and panels.
Create empathy for the real users.
We created three user personas to understand who would be using these tools and the challenges that presented, which is where the varied computer literacy, the multilingual requirement and the shared efficiency goals came into focus.
Find the structural insight.
Sketching through the architecture, I noticed the apps I had researched shared very similar navigation: three levels, which I categorised as global, local, and a toolbar for each page. Every one of them followed it except Pipedrive. The aha moment was realising One had been built on that same structure already — it just wasn't obvious in the UI, which is why the platform was hard to navigate. The redesigned information architecture made the levels explicit: user login at the top, station type as the global level, the individual station as the local level, and nodes at the toolbar level.
Systemise the interface.
The redesign was built on a responsive grid — 4 columns on mobile, 6 on tablet, 12 on desktop — so every layout decision had somewhere to sit.
On top of it, a component library covering the platform's recurring needs, so every product built on One could assemble from the same parts rather than reinventing them.
Stations, media and pickers Notifications
The denser patterns mattered most: forms with inline validation and rich text editing, file uploads, and the filtering and sorting builder that let users assemble grouped And/Or queries against their own data.
Collaboration
This was a side project in service of bigger ones. The teardown, personas and architecture work were done with the Similie team, and the redesigned foundations became the base that the F-FDTL Personnel and Logistics platforms were built on, meaning every structural decision here paid off twice.
Outcomes & Impact
- A re-imagined information architecture and design system for One, giving a platform that had grown without design direction a coherent structure to build on.
- The redesigned foundations directly supported the delivery of the F-FDTL Personnel and Logistics Management platforms, both built on One.
- The research (teardown, competitor analysis, personas) gave the team a shared understanding of who the platform served and why each element existed, replacing accumulated assumptions with evidence.
Reflection
The most valuable insight cost nothing to implement: One's structure was never wrong, its expression was. Recognising that the platform already matched the three-level pattern users knew from other tools meant the fix was clarity, not reinvention. Foundation work like this is invisible in a portfolio of screens, but it's what made the projects built on top of it possible.
Key Learnings
- Do the teardown before forming opinions. Annotating every element and why it exists turns redesign debates into evidence-based decisions.
- Conventions are user knowledge. The three-level navigation pattern wasn't a trend to copy; it was structure users had already learned elsewhere, waiting to be surfaced.
- Designing for varied computer literacy and multiple languages isn't an edge case in emerging markets; it's the core requirement, and it sharpens every other decision.
Testimonials
“I would put James on any problem that requires detailed thinking and systemic, organized design. Plus, he's just a likeable chill guy.”
Garrett Schultz
Creative Director & Art Curator
“James Newton lead the change in the way we designed products at Blockade Games.”
Kyle Chivers
Operations Officer at Blockade Games
“James excels at simplifying... complexities for users, with designs that both explain to and inspire the user.”
Benjamin Heidorn
CTO, Co-Founder at Blockade Games
“James is a practiced designer with a unique combination of skills and life experiences — a strong creative energy paired with a keen sense for aesthetic harmony. I would recommend James without hesitation.”
Adam Smith
CTO & Co-Founder at Similie
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© 2026 James Newton. Product Design
b1eb0d6 · 2 aug 2026 · colophon · design system