Fractal: SaaS HR platform redesign

What is Fractal?

Fractal is an HR SaaS platform used by over 60,000 employees across Latin America. I was tasked with redesigning its core request system, which had been built without UX and caused confusion, errors, and a high support load for HR. I led the full UX process to restructure five key flows including vacation, medical leave, and shift changes into a desktop and mobile-friendly experience.

Understanding the problem

The original request system for Fractal was built without a product design team. As a result, employees experienced confusion, missing feedback, lack of guidance, and frequent errors that required support from HR.

Original Fractal interface for vacation requests.

Stakeholder interviews

To get a full picture of what was happening, I conducted multiple interviews with stakeholders from different sides of the product. I interviewed employees who used the platform every day, HR managers who managed the requests, developers who built the system, and the product manager who was in charge of the project. These conversations helped me understand the real pain points from both the user and business perspective.

What stakeholders shared

Heuristic evaluation

I reviewed the live product using Nielsen’s heuristics to spot common problems in the experience. Many of the issues I found, like missing feedback, unclear form errors, or missing document requirements, matched what users had already mentioned in interviews. This helped validate their concerns and gave the team clear reasons to prioritize certain fixes.

Heuristic evaluation results

Pain point prioritization

After gathering feedback from users and running a heuristic evaluation, I had a long list of problems that were affecting the experience. To help the product manager and development team know where to focus first, I organized and prioritized the issues using Nielsen’s severity scale.

🟠 Severity 3: Major Usability Problem (important to fix)

1. No feedback after submitting a request.

   → Users had no idea if their action worked, leading to repeated submissions or support calls.

2. No way to cancel or edit a request after submission.

   → Created user frustration and required HR to step in manually.

3. Form errors were unclear.

   → Users couldn’t tell which fields needed fixing, causing failed attempts and confusion.

4. Missing info about required documents per request type.

   → Led to delays, rejected requests, and support dependency.

   
   

🟡 Severity 2: Minor Usability Problem

5. Users had to remember their vacation balance or policy details

   → Increased cognitive load and made people unsure about their request.

🟢 Severity 1: Cosmetic Problem

6. Screens were cluttered or had unnecessary information.

   → Didn't block the task but made it less pleasant to use.

Designing the solution

How data was organized

To bring more clarity to the experience, I mapped out five key request flows that employees use most often in Figjam. These included vacation requests, medical leave, shift changes, extra hours, and license requests. Each one had different requirements and logic, so I organized them under a shared structure that made it easier for users to choose the right option and complete their request without confusion. It also helped the dev team by organizing the system.

Fractal platform sitemap.

User flow for request submissions

I traced the main steps employees follow when submitting a request. To make the experience smoother, I added a confirmation step and clear feedback at the end, so users feel confident that their request was properly submitted. If they spot a mistake, they can go back and fix it before sending.

User flow for submitting a request.

Wireframes

Once I had mapped the full user flow and prioritized the key problems to solve, I started sketching ideas on a whiteboard to address the pain points. My goal was to design a system that felt simple, clear, and familiar, even when handling different types of requests with different rules.