Lenovo Discovery Hub
A Centralized Discovery Experience for SMB
Shipped
6 weeks
Interaction Designer + Researcher
Figma · Gemini
TL;DR
Background
Lenovo SMB devices come with preloaded apps and smart features. Users didn't know they existed.
Problem
No centralized place to discover, understand, or adopt them. No entry points. No onboarding
Approach
Led end-to-end UX design across concepting, IA, and wireframing. Facilitated client workshops and iterated based on user feedback.
Outcome
A scalable discovery hub with clear IA, defined entry points, and three user flows. Built to expand across the full Lenovo ecosystem.
0 → 1
First discovery experience for Lenovo SMB
80+
Generated and narrowed in concepting
1M+
target users
Background
SMB users don't know what's on their own device.
Lenovo SMB devices ship with preloaded apps and smart features ready to use out of the box. But without a clear way to surface them,users never found them and used them.They opened their device, saw the default Windows experience, and moved on.
The device had everything it needed. It just never introduced itself.
Problem
No OOBE existed to introduce
Lenovo-specific features and native apps all lived in separate places, with no shared entry point tying them together. A user would have to already know a feature existed, and where to look for it, to ever find it.
Pattern #1
😐
Features were split across device-specific tools, OS-level settings, and standalone apps, with nothing connecting them or signaling they existed.
Pattern #2
A new feature could ship to every device and go completely unnoticed, with no place a user would ever think to look.
🤔
Approach
Understand the landscape, then narrow down
Solving this was about understanding how other products solved discovery, testing that thinking with the client early, and letting their feedback shape direction before a single screen existed.
Audit
Audited 12+ products for patterns.
I looked at direct competitors first, then other manufacturers, then moved outside the category entirely to apps people open just to see what's new. Across all of them, 5 patterns kept repeating.
I brought these patterns to the Lenovo team, and their specific feedback narrowed down what could work for them and what couldn't.
Show usage or impact building over time
Group features by hierarchy, not a flat list
Inspire users through examples and visuals
Guide the first-time experience
Offer an AI chat as an entry point
Ideating
Turned patterns into 35+ concepts ideas
Every concept was built around one of 5 "How Might We" questions, then sorted into thematic clusters so the volume of ideas had some shape before the client ever saw them. From there, I facilitated a workshop where the client voted on directions, which showed which layouts and structures aligned with how they saw the page working.
Information Architecture
Navigation came before any screen did
3 directions got explored before a screens were designed: a left panel, tabs, and an accordion. Each came down to how much structure the user would need to see up front versus how much could stay tucked away.
Accordian
Tabs
PAnel
User Testing
RITE study — tested, fixed, and tested again
We ran a RITE study. Testing surfaced what wasn't working, we synthesized the findings into design changes, then tested again with a new set of users to see if those changes held up.
Outcome
From no entry point to a working hub.
Multiple round of iterations , 2 rounds of testing turned into a discovery hub with clear structure, defined entry points, and flows built to hold up as Lenovo's ecosystem grows.
Learned
Don't wait on unknowns. Design for the hardest user first.
Users didn't arrive neutral. Testing showed people expected bloatware and excessive notifications before they'd opened anything. That skepticism had to be designed for directly, not assumed away.
Some cuts happen after the design is done. Group quick actions worked well in concept, but got removed once engineering flagged feasibility. Not every strong idea survives contact with what's buildable.