Legacy System Redesign: 4 Key Transformations for Better UX

Outdated design tortures customers 🥲

Hey! I'm Anastasiya, the Associate Product Director at Cieden. I’ll explain how to redesign digital products without killing the patterns customers love. And in case you're not 100% sure if a design update is needed, I've outlined a few UX red flags that make your users suffer and eventually leave.

I know nobody wants to think their design is weak, but let's face the truth: in this competitive race, where companies invest thousands into design and continually test and refine, you can't afford to have an outdated interface.

Let's look at the example of Open IQ. They modernized their product and attracted new enterprise-level customers with large budgets.

Legacy system redesign is difficult because you are not starting from zero. The product already has users, workflows, habits, edge cases, and business logic that people rely on every day. That is why redesigning legacy software is never just about making the interface look newer. The goal is to improve usability, reduce friction, and modernize the experience without breaking the patterns that still work. In this guide, we explain how to approach legacy system redesign step by step, using the Open IQ project as an example. You will see how to audit an existing product, identify UX problems, preserve user trust, and redesign key workflows in a way that is easier to scale.

A bit about Open IQ and their business goals

Open IQ is an Australian cloud-based telephony and contact center software provider. They offer inbound and outbound recording, customer satisfaction assessment, agent evaluation, workforce management, telephony, and analytics. Such a broad functionality spectrum allows Open IQ to work with enterprise-level companies in the insurance, banking, and government fields.

After a decade in the market, the team understood that their application functionality was limited by the design and that a fraction of users had negative feedback because they wanted friendlier onboarding and training. So, the company started looking for a product design agency. That was the point where Open IQ met Cieden.

A bit about our design team

Together with Kateryna, our Product Designer, we took most decisions in collaboration with Shad Mortazavi, the CEO & Managing Director of Open IQ. We also worked closely with developers and QA engineers to ensure the design was implemented correctly. This approach is crucial for achieving pixel-perfect product design. Otherwise, developers might overlook certain elements, leading to additional costs. Disappointing.

4 Fundamental parts of the product redesign process

The Open IQ project is a good example of how legacy system redesign can be approached without disrupting the underlying product value. Instead of jumping straight into a visual refresh, the redesign followed a structured path: audit the current experience, study proven patterns, align on a modernized direction, and support implementation so the product actually improves in practice.

Part 1: Audit of the existing platform

Every strong redesign starts with understanding what is broken, what still works, and what users have already adapted to. In a legacy product, that means looking beyond screenshots and documenting friction across onboarding, navigation, key flows, and feature discoverability.

During the audit, the goal is to identify where the system slows users down or creates unnecessary dependence on support and training. In Open IQ's case, the team found recurring friction around onboarding, feature clarity, and workflow complexity. That made the redesign priorities much clearer.

This stage is also where user context becomes critical. Product requirements, personas, behavior patterns, and pain points should all be documented before redesign decisions are made. If that research step is weak, the new interface may simply replace old problems with different ones. This is why user interviews, observation, and structured discovery work still matter so much in legacy redesign projects. Cieden's article on the value of user research is a useful companion read here.

Part 2: Researching best UX practices for each feature

In the Open IQ product, there were several features that are key to a successful call center. One of them is the ability to record video and audio calls, transcribe the conversation, mark specific timestamps, leave notes, and tag them. This ensures that no crucial moments in the conversation are missed and saves the employee's time, as they no longer need to repeatedly listen to the same recording.

The idea was fantastic, but the visual part wasn't intuitively clear, leading to user issues. To address this, we turned to quality tools that record video and offer similar functionality. After this analysis, we identified design patterns that became the foundation of our solution.

Then, we improved the second feature - the survey builder that helps objectively assess the operator’s performance. The previous version had a high entry threshold, requiring managers to undergo special training to create surveys.

"Again, we've looked at apps with such functionality that had high NPS. We identified patterns and made enhancements, so the survey logic became intuitive and the interface more interactive.

You can find the survey builder visualization in the Open IQ case.

As a result, we came up with the goal of crafting a digital tool that is both intuitive and easily customizable to meet the requirements of operators and their supervisors alike.

Part 3: Design styles approval

While I was conducting the audit and researching the market and features, Kateryna developed a design concept. She then presented our redesign refresh plan and style ideas to the client and primary stakeholders. We all agreed on a corporate style with a clean, uncluttered interface that's simple yet functional. This approach allows users to focus solely on the data. We also ensured that all core brand colors were retained.

Kateryna had an additional suggestion to add a dark sidebar to the interface. This simplifies navigation and makes the sidebar more noticeable without straining the eyes. The client believed it would enhance the user experience 😎

Part 4: Design implementation & dev support

We believe that even the most user-friendly UX can fail if not properly implemented. That's why we closely collaborated with developers to make sure the design was implemented according to all the requirements and specifications.

So, I provided them with detailed design documentation including information about design, wireframes, design guidelines, and specifications for user interface elements and user interaction.

For a flawless redesign, our collaboration with developers worked in both ways. On one side, we collaborated with them to ensure the feasibility of our design. During our regular meetings, we received feedback on how to streamline and optimize design from the implementation perspective and usability testing. On the other side, we conducted a design review of implementation and provided feedback on revisions to be made.

To facilitate collaboration with developers, we chose a workspace that was comfortable for them and centralized all the necessary information.

Results 

The redesign produced business and usability improvements that mattered to the product team:

• the product attracted new customers and supported revenue growth;
• customer satisfaction improved and user feedback became more positive;
• the interface became more scalable and easier to use;
• important features became easier to discover;
• onboarding became simpler and training time dropped to 25 minutes;
• usability issues and bugs became easier to surface and address;
• operators gained more flexibility while handling calls and customizing their work areas;
• development became more efficient because the product direction was clearer.

If you want to see the redesign in more case-study detail, link this section naturally to the Open IQ redesign case study.

Final thoughts

Legacy system redesign is not about erasing the past. It is about deciding which parts of the existing product still help users, which parts create friction, and how to modernize the experience without disrupting critical workflows.

For mature enterprise products, redesign is often the most practical path when the underlying functionality is still valuable but the UX is slowing adoption, training, support, or growth. The safest path is to audit first, validate assumptions, modernize deliberately, and support implementation closely.

If you are evaluating whether an older product needs redesign, start with user behavior, not aesthetics. That is usually where the most expensive problems reveal themselves. The stark reality is that you have to monitor the market, you have to do user interviews and gather customer feedback to meet user expectations every single day. Without these, it's easy for someone else to outpace you.