Branding & User Research · 2025
ZorosAI
Helping a startup establish a professional brand identity and set the framework for future UX/UI — paving the way for investor confidence and a user-centered product.
Role
Visual + Product Designer
Toolkit
Illustrator, InDesign, Excel
Date
Jan 2025 – May 2025
Responsibilities
- Brand identity
- Logo design
- Visual guidelines
- User research & interviews
ZorosAI accelerates the future of construction through AI-powered estimation, tackling the inefficiencies and costly errors of manual processes. As the first designer on board, I focused first on establishing a strong brand identity to secure funding, then transitioned into UX/UI to shape the digital platform.
The Problem
Business goals
Understanding business needs & goals
The first phase involved in-depth discussions with the directors to define business goals and constraints, establishing a strategic framework to guide the project.
- Provide a service-driven platform for AI-powered construction estimates.
- Target market: subcontractors initially, expanding to builders and developers.
- Create a staff platform to streamline estimation, so internal teams can refine AI-generated estimates and guarantee accuracy.
- Offer a client portal where users upload projects, track progress, and receive estimates.
Priority stages
A staged roadmap
With the goals defined, we sequenced the work into four priority stages — starting with the brand and funding, then building out the platforms.
Establish brand & secure funding
Develop the staff platform
Develop the client portal
Maintain & improve both platforms
Stage 1.0 — Branding
Creating the brand
A brand built on precision & trust
Kicking off as their Visual Designer, I developed the logo and visual guidelines so the company appeared professional and legitimate when pitching to investors.
The emphasis was on conveying precision, trust, and innovation. ZorosAI differentiates itself with a productised service — combining the power of AI with expert human oversight for accurate estimates, rather than merely selling off-the-shelf software. The goal was a brand that is both reliable and forward-thinking, revolutionising the critical estimation stage of the construction lifecycle.
Impact
Established credibility
A professional, cohesive brand identity that enhanced the company’s legitimacy.
A foundation for design
A strong visual identity to guide future UX/UI work, keeping brand consistency as the platform evolves.
Stage 1.2 — Research & Discovery
User research
Grounding the pitch in real pain points
Any effective design process begins with a deep understanding of the problem. In this foundational phase I used a mix of quantitative and qualitative research to uncover key user pain points — supporting the first goal of securing funding.
Secondary research
The numbers behind the problem
Desktop research uncovered quantitative data that began painting a picture of the current problems and trends within the industry.
Competitive audit
Finding the gap in the market
To identify market gaps, refine the product strategy and validate design decisions, I ran a competitive audit using SWOT analysis. It confirmed the company’s value in addressing a clear market need. Across the two main competitors we found:
- Focusing on a different user market.
- Accuracy issues due to a lack of human oversight.
- Still showcasing underdeveloped software despite a head start.
Surveys & interviews
Hearing it in their own words
A survey and a series of phone interviews built a clear picture of potential users — their characteristics, goals and pain points. The qualitative data helped narrow down the key issues.
There was a small object in the drawing that represented a retractable awning which I completely missed during estimation. This small mistake ended up costing 50K that we didn’t account for.
It’s a lot of time and effort put into something… depending on the size of the job sometimes you need one or two estimators working on it full time for a full week — and you may not even get the job in the end.
I feel like the process is very outdated… it’s very manual, repetitive and menial.
Key findings
Consolidating the research revealed three key pain points:
- A repetitive and tedious estimation process.
- A high risk of costly errors due to overlooked details.
- Time consuming — leading to inefficiencies and delays.
These findings were pivotal in shaping the pitch deck — contributing to securing $1.9 million in funding from one of Australia’s top-three investors, plus several angel investors.
User persona
Bringing the research to life
The findings were distilled into a key user persona — bridging research insights to design decisions with a clear picture of the target audience.
Stage 2.0 — UX/UI Framework
Setting up for success
A framework for what comes next
Even though the project is ongoing, I made sure to communicate the next steps clearly — putting a strong, strategic framework in place as we navigate Stage 2 and stand up the staff platform.
The framework moves from empathising — empathy maps, personas and journey maps — into defining navigation through core user flows and information architecture, then ideation via storyboarding and low-to-high-fidelity prototypes, and finally testing & iterating with usability studies and benchmarks like SUS and NPS.
Reflection
Learnings
Looking back on the first phase of the project, I’ve reflected on a lot:
This project showcases my ability to align design with business goals. For a deeper dive into my hands-on UX/UI process, take a look at Submerge.