Design that turned hesitation into adoption

The real problem was adoption and trust

The existing employee app had limited support, and its navigation made everyday tasks difficult to complete. Employees with a workstation preferred desktop services; those without one often visited HR and continued with familiar paper-based processes. Digital adoption remained very low.

The workforce’s higher average age made clarity and familiarity especially important. There was also hesitation about installing company services on personal devices. The design challenge was to make the app understandable, useful and worthy of employees’ trust.

Rebuild the experience around familiar tasks

We reconstructed the app’s information architecture, UX and UI around the tasks employees needed to complete: checking a payslip, requesting leave, ordering a certificate and finding company information. Clearer navigation and consistent interaction patterns across desktop and mobile helped employees carry what they already understood from one channel to the other.

This gave the mobile app a clearer role in the working day: a practical route to company services for employees at a workstation, on site or away from their usual workplace.

Design that earns confidence through use

I led UX direction and team management with a focus on reducing the effort of finding and completing everyday tasks. Familiar patterns and clearer journeys addressed usability and understanding as part of the wider effort to build trust in the app. The redesign helped employees move from established desktop or paper routines towards mobile self-service.

One digitalization programme, connected company services

The employee app and HR self-service were parts of the same DTEK One Click transformation. Alongside the mobile experience, the programme brought leave requests, payslips and employment certificates to web and mobile, with services available around the clock. Employees in offices and production shared the same everyday needs, even when their devices and working conditions differed. [4]

My UX direction and team management covered both the app experience and the services employees could use once they had access. Together, they reduced dependence on work computers, office visits and paper-based HR routines.

Resilience became part of the experience

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, employee access could no longer depend on being in an office or at a company computer. In DTEK’s wider transformation, the need to work remotely became critical in wartime. For relocated employees and teams operating far from their usual workplace, a mobile front door to company services helped preserve reach and continuity. [3]

From redesign to adoption

The redesigned experience supported a substantial shift in mobile adoption. Monthly active users rose from 522 in December 2023 to 25,000 within twelve months—approximately 48 times the original user base. HR services became accessible to the whole workforce, including production specialists. [1]

The change reached everyday HR work: more than 44,000 leave requests completed digitally each quarter and 2,500 digital certificates issued each month. [2]

At that scale, small improvements add up. With more than 176,000 leave requests a year, replacing an assumed 30 minutes of paper preparation and physical routing per request represents an estimated 88,000 person-hours of annual administrative effort avoided.

From internal transformation to standalone product

The work did not end as an internal app. The model was taken to market as DEEP, a standalone product that connects existing HR systems with a mobile employee experience. That is the outcome I value most: not simply making one service easier, but helping establish a repeatable way for a company to stay within reach of every employee. [2] [3]