Collabwriting Knowledge Management App Development

Collabwriting is a knowledge management app

that helps users highlight and share snippets

online. Users save snippets in a specific topic

or the inbox for sorting them later. They can upload and save PDFs in their reader

library as well, for creating, saving, and sharing

highlights from their PDFs.

Users struggled with:

Stiff dashboard – no retractable navigation, cluttered CTAs, heavy toolbar.

Broken Reader – PDFs opened in full overlay (desktop) or not supported (mobile).

Abandonment – low activation rates, especially among mobile-first users in law & research.

As the sole UX/UI designer, I conducted internal qualitative and quantitative research, gathering key user pain points and studying competitors to gain insight into current trends in the knowledge management domain. My primary research channels were direct user feedback through the Sleekplan app and through communication with team (enterprise) plan users. With our extreme ownership policy, I decided which new feature would be developed, backed by thorough research.

Feedback showed frustration with the navigation, the PDF feature & snippet clutter.

Analytics: activation peaked at 25% but averaged 14.5% from February to May

The legal industry (mobile-first users) had zero engagement with the Reader.

Zen Inbox – clean, task-focused, gamified entry point.

New Dashboard – retractable nav, breadcrumb menu, decluttered snippets.

Reader Refactor – PDFs inside topic frame, retractable menu, zoom + search.

Empty States – mascot “Jerry” added for personality & delight.

After a few rounds of iterations and feedback from the user qualitative research, the third and final design was prototyped and made. The user opens a new menu through the inbox by clicking the top-right icon. When the Zen mode opens, he is presented with all of the unsorted snippets. He has 4-5 most used topics at his disposal that are AI-suggested. Through the snippet comment, by simply typing /topic_name, the user can select a custom topic. All of the other functions were kept the same.

In an edge case where the user would have 50-100+ topics, an AI bulk select of snippets that are similar would be added in the form of a CTA, but that is left for further testing and iterations.

Given the app’s “bubbly” nature, redesigning the dashboard was a clear opportunity. The snippet panel was rounded, the toolbar integrated more seamlessly, and new elements improved orientation.

The new Reader solved many of the previous PDF issues on desktop and mobile simply by adding:

PDFs integrated into the dashboard

Retractable navigation

Breadcrumb menu

Recent PDF uploads

PDF zoom options and search

After decluttering, the app risked feeling lifeless. To add character, I created Jerry, a cat mascot inspired by our startup’s cat CHO. He became the loading animation and empty state companion, giving the app personality. Yes, I use him as my mascot as well because he is the dearest of all of my original design children.

After launching all of the dashboard and PDF refactoring, the registration-to-activation ratio began steadily rising, peaking at a 20% increase compared to the lowest point at the start of 2025, with a steady 23% activation rate average.

Improved clarity and task focus.

Reduced visual clutter across dashboard & snippets.

Breadcrumb menu

Legal users re-engaged with PDFs on mobile.

Internal team feedback: “10/10 – huge improvement in usability.”