Rule Builder Engine/Vertex/3 Quarters

Why Did Three Rebuilds Still Leave the Rule Builder Broken?

A business-critical rule-builder had already been rebuilt multiple times, inaccessible, poorly onboarded, inefficient to extend, and none of it stuck. I pushed for a proper fix, then led it from research through development.

01 Problem 02 Challenge 03 Process 04 Solution 05 Outcome
Toolbar Comparison
Current rule builder toolbar, dense and hard to scan Redesigned rule builder with the new affordance
01 / The Problem

This project didn't start with a brief. It started with me pushing for one.

The product had a rule-builder feature, letting users construct if/then logic without writing code, but it was inaccessible, had poor onboarding, and was inefficient to build on. It had already been redeveloped multiple times across the platform, and none of those rebuilds fixed the underlying problem. I gathered customer feedback, and advocated for a proper fix, building support from developers and PMs to get it prioritized.

02 / The Design Challenge

The core tension: this tool needed to support genuinely complex logic, nested if/then conditions, for an audience that mostly didn't think in those terms. Most precedent for logic-building comes from developer tools, not a great match for non-technical B2B users automating a workflow.

03 / Process

Several directions got brainstormed before converging on one to test. Synchronous studies and competitive research (deliberately looking beyond direct competitors, into coding tools) shaped a fidelity progression from pencil sketches to Whimsical to Figma, validated the whole way, never designed in isolation.

Early low-fidelity concept options for the rule builder
Fig. 1 — Early low-fidelity concept options
04 / The Solution

The final design let non-technical users build nested if/then logic through a guided, accessible interface, without needing to think in code. New custom components built for this fed directly into the broader design system.

05 / Outcome

User testing produced conclusive, strong results, the design was validated and ready to be componentized, a testament to designing for clarity and accessibility from the ground up, not retrofitting it later.