Avanquest, Claranova
Form 2021 to 2025, I had the pleasure of working with the amazing people at Avanquest. The company publishes a variety of popular software, including Soda PDF, PDF Creator, inPixio and the Adaware suite. I was initially hired as of a UX/UI Designer and then transitioned to a Product Designer role.
My work first centered on optimizing user acquisition and retention; from marketing and landing page design, to retention and subscription renewal. I then started helping with improvements for the main website and its service pages experience on desktop and mobile. I also acted as the lead advocate for greater use of UX practices within the company, particularly user testing. I had the opportunity to collaborate cross-team with marketing, engineering, support and product management and experience the company's end-to-end process.
I also led the redesign of Soda PDF and the company's electronic signature platform, in an effort to modernize and better integrate the different service offerings.
Soda PDF
Soda PDF is a SaaS that enables users view, create, and edit Portable Document Format files. It was originally developed as a standalone application by LULU Software (now Avanquest) in 2010, Montreal, Canada.
Why I liked this project
Redesigning Soda PDF helped push me further as a designer not just when it came to the technical aspects of the craft, but also in terms of interteam communication and collaboration. The project thought me much about the end-to-end process. It was immensely rewarding to release it successfully and see the reception.
Involving engineering early in the design process is crucial, especially for complex projects. Asking developers the right questions, is even more so. For example, the initial redesign featured a context-aware floating toolbar that would appear when the user clicked to edit an object in their document. Seeing the initial mockups, developers confirmed that it won't be a problem to create. However, in the later stages of the project, they estimated that it'll take three months of engineering time. This did not fit the planned schedule and the feature had to be axed in favor of a more traditional solution in order to save dev time.
Combining the "what" of quantitative data with the "how" and "why" of qualitative data is key for creating a better product. Overreliance on the quantitative approach was a company culture issue that proved challenging to overcome, but was absolutely worth the effort.
AI can be a great accelerator, when used judiciously. This project was the first time I made major use of AI, notably for parsing, summarizing and synthesis of thousands of support tickets and user feedback from multiple sources. AI also helped with analysing user interview transcripts, enabling quick comparison against my own findings. While that saved a lot of time, I found that it helps to think of AI as an incredibly enthusiastic intern and generally use it under the "trust but verify" principle.
Click here to see the case study.
E-Sign
E-Sign is Avanquest's electronic signature solution. It enables easy self-signing of documents, as well as legally-binding signing of business contracts between two or more parties. From anywhere, on any device.
Why I liked this project
Work on e-Sign reinforced for me the value of timely cross-team communication. It also demonstrated how one can discover many aspects of a product they may not be aware of - and how those could effect design even if they are not visible from a design standpoint.
Discoverability is key. Having amazing features matters little matter if users are unaware of their existence.
Including developers early in the process was a huge time saver, crucial in defining technical and legal limitations.
Nothing is as effective as communicating directly with users and observing them interact with the product.
Click here to see the case study.
PDF Architect Admin Portal
Effortlessly manage users an optimize license administration of Avanquest products, no matter the size of your organization.
Context
Avanquest's PDF products had found place in a few major companies and institutions, but growth in that area had stalled. One of the main reasons was the inability to easily manage installations and licenses across large user groups. The current solution we had worked alright for small teams, but became unwieldy when an administrator had to deal with more than a few installations within their company. It was time to create a proper management tool, one that could in the future grow to support more than our main product and be instrumental for our B2B market.
Challenges
- create a fully-fledged license management portal from scratch
- start the project with no PRD
- consolidate the expectation of multiple existing large clients into a single coherent product
My role
- research user and license managements systems, and outline the needs of those running them
- prepare a wireframe presentation of what the the down-the-road fully-featured vision for the administration tool could be
- interview representatives from the companies currently using PDF Architect to confirm their current needs, see what we've missed in out first initial concept, as well as get their opinions on features we were thinking about including in the future
- create a high-fidelity prototype for the initial release, containing the prioritized features according to the needs of our clients
- finalize the XD file and collaborated with the developers during the development process
Why I liked this project
This was my first major project at Avanquest. It necessitated exploring and working across more teams than usual and led me to discover much more about how the company worked. I found to be a really educational and satisfying experience.
Summary
During my time with Avanquest I had the pleasure to:
- Optimize user acquisition and retention; from landing page design, through in-app experience, to retention and license renewal
- Improve the SodaPDF.com website and service pages experience on desktop and mobile
- Advocate for greater use of UX practices within the company
- Collaborate with an international team spread across numerous timezones
- Mentor junior designers
- Update the visuals and flow of the Soda PDF Chrome extension
- Conceptualize and design a user management panel for our B2B clients
- Design the next iteration of the Soda PDF app
- Help set up and contribute to the Soda PDF design system
- Redesign the E-Sign service