Building the map for enterprise data
Two platforms became five became one. I led the UX consolidation of AT&T's only internal metadata index — turning a fragmented set of tools into a single product data scientists could actually navigate.
AT&T’s platform and data are proprietary. All screens recreated from the originals — branding removed, data synthetic.
Role
Lead UX Designer, sole designer coordinating across 9 dev teams
Scope
5 platforms consolidated into one metadata index and discovery product
Outcome
60% task-completion improvement. 100% user growth in 2 years. 30% engagement growth
THE PROBLEM
Cryptic field names, no shared map
Analysts needed this metadata to do their jobs, but the tools to find it were fragmented and multiplying as the org reorganized. Data 360 made a technically rich but practically inaccessible data environment searchable — automation scraped it, ML explained it, and design made it scannable without oversimplifying it.
Metadata field names like "RLC_TFC_XYZ" meant nothing outside the team that created them. Data 360 used ML to generate human-readable descriptions at scale — and gave analysts a search layer built for a genuinely technical audience.
THE PIVOT
Five platforms, one nav
We tried…
Each platform kept its own entry point and its own logic as they were folded in one at a time.
Why it failed…
Users had to relearn orientation every time they crossed from one module to the next — five tools bolted together, not one platform.
Instead…
Built a true mega menu — nested, multi-level, built to scale — and held it as the one consistent navigation pattern across dev teams on different stacks as new platforms joined.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The index became the inventory
Once the metadata was fully indexed, a new opportunity emerged that nobody had scoped: group it into curated domain collections — finance, accounting, others — that analysts could browse and export directly into their own environments. The export is what closed the loop between discovery and actual analysis.
Designing alone at scale taught me to build my own calibration — and to fight for design to have a real seat at the table, because without one the work always ships less than it could.
THE PROOF
Outcomes
Shoppable, exportable data-product catalog — a new capability the consolidation made possible
100%
Cumulative user growth over two years
60%
Improvement in task completion (streamlined flows, fewer clicks)
30%
Engagement growth (previously hidden functionality surfaced)
13%
Monthly active user growth, tracked via click analytics
