Building Minds - Schindler

Shaping scalable Design System and UX for a SaaS platform driving sustainability in real estate

Client:

Building Minds GmbH

Completed:

https://www.buildingminds.com

I spent 12 months designing clarity into complexity at BuildingMinds, a B2B SaaS company operating in the real estate sustainability space.

My role spanned platform-wide UI improvements, design system evolution, and the introduction of structured processes that improved collaboration between design, product, and developers.

Key areas of impact included:

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– Leading the UI rebrush of the core platform, refining layouts, spacing, typography, and color to improve clarity and usability

- Design new features and clickable prototype, including user testing sessions with PM and clients

– Evolving the Design System with modular, reusable components templates (e.g. multi-column form modules, dialog windows, filter panels, tables)

– Establishing a shared workflow via AzureDevOps boards, ticket templates, and regular feedback rituals

– Mentoring the junior designer through peer learning and hands-on guidance

– Writing UI usage guidelines to align design intent across designers and PMs

– Driving tech–design alignment through collaborative tech investigations with developers

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UI Rebrush & Cross-Team Design System Integration
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As part of the UI rebrush initiative, I was assigned to inspect the usability, visual consistency, spacing, and scale of all core components across the platform. Due to the platform’s modular nature—spanning multiple sub-pages and being built by various teams led by different PMs and developers—components had been implemented without a cohesive, cross-team design system or a single source of truth.

To address this, I initiated and led a platform-wide visual and structural rebrush of the component library.

This included:
– Introducing tech-inspection ceremonies to align dev leads around a unified implementation of the design system
– Setting up UI reviews between designers and QA for restyled components
– Creating feedback loops with CPO and sales to ensure business alignment
– Designing reusable UI templates for project managers, unifying patterns across tables, object pages, user actions, and data-rich widgets

During this collaboration I reworked core components like input fields, dropdowns, selectors, anomaly signals, and KPI widgets.
The result was not only a cleaner, more coherent interface—but also a significantly improved user experience and platform communication.

One product owner remarked:

“Caterina’s no-nonsense attitude made it really easy and fun to work with her.
We made decisions quickly without dragging out the ideation process. Her structured mindset and ability to hold the line on what matters—while adapting to business needs—was truly inspiring.”

- Chirill Cebotari

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Feedback from Junior Designed I mentored:

I greatly appreciate Caterina's open and honest nature. She possesses a wealth of
experience and a wide skillset as a designer. Caterina effectively leverages her
experience to optimize processes within the design team and improve cross-team
collaboration. Her skillset has also contributed to enhancing the quality of design on
our platform, as clearly demonstrated by the Rebrush project. Caterina's expertise has
had a significant impact on the success of the team.

- Catharina Börgert

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From design system growth to process-led collaboration, I helped BuildingMinds scale its platform with clarity, coherence, and speed.

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Key areas of impact included:

UI Rebrush & Cross-Team Design System Integration‍

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UI Rebrush & Cross-Team Design System Integration
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