The Problem
Design and build an operating system for vertical farms - a greenfield industry with hundreds of unknown unknowns. A technical prototype needed to become a production-ready system serving plant scientists, engineers, and farm staff across multiple countries and languages, all managing complex growing environments in real-time.
Two interconnected challenges emerged: GTMS (Growth Tower Management System) needed to surface critical operational data without overwhelming users, while Eco (our design system) needed to provide consistent, accessible components that could scale across the entire platform and adapt to diverse user needs.
My Approach
As the sole designer, I took a dual-track approach: building Eco as the design system foundation while simultaneously designing and implementing GTMS as its first major application. This allowed me to validate design decisions in real-world contexts and ensure the system solved actual problems.
- Research & validation: Regular feedback sessions with plant scientists, farm operators, and engineers to understand workflows and pain points
- Design system first: Built Eco from scratch using Stencil.js to create framework-agnostic web components usable across React, Angular, and vanilla JavaScript applications
- Iterative development: Designed and coded components in tandem with GTMS features, refining based on usage
- Progressive disclosure: Created information hierarchies that show what users need to see, when they need to see it - not everything we could show
My Role
- Lead Product Designer - Sole designer responsible for all UI/UX decisions across the platform
- Design System Architect - Created and maintained Eco from concept through implementation, documented in Storybook
- Frontend Developer - Authored nearly 50% of the production frontend code, translating designs directly into functional interfaces
- Cross-functional collaborator - Worked directly with 3 product owners and developers across product, data, and research teams
The Solution
The interactive demo below showcases the GTMS interface built with Eco components. The system provides three focused views:
- Growth Jobs: Tower capacity, job state distribution (scheduled, running, harvestable, finished), and 7-day harvest forecasting
- Environment: Real-time environmental parameters (EC, pH, temperature, humidity, CO₂) with delta indicators and tank level monitoring
- Minimap: 54-slot tower visualization with color-coded states, progress indicators, and special markers for double-height/reserved slots
All components are built using Eco - from layout primitives (<eco-layout-body>, <eco-spacer>) to data visualization (<eco-stacked-bar>, <eco-progress>) to navigation (<eco-segments>). This demonstrates how the design system enables rapid, consistent interface development.
Impact & Results
- Design System Adoption: Eco became the standard design system across Intelligent Growth Solutions, used by multiple teams and products
- Development Velocity: Reusable components significantly reduced development time for new features - teams could build consistent interfaces without starting from scratch
- User Satisfaction: GTMS successfully served plant scientists and farm operators across multiple countries, providing clear visibility into complex growing operations
- Production Scale: System managed real vertical farming operations with 50+ towers, processing thousands of environmental readings and growth jobs daily
- Accessibility & Consistency: Eco enforced consistent interaction patterns, color contrast ratios, and keyboard navigation across the entire platform