Futurex - From Legacy to Scalable
Project Type
Brand & Product Ecosystem Redesign
Project Timeline
October 2023 - Present
My contributions
UI / UX Design
Product Design
Graphics & Marketing
Team
2 UI / UX Designers
(second joined mid-project)
2 Software Developers
1 Marketing Copywriter
Overview
Redesigning a 40-Year-Old Cybersecurity Company for the Modern Enterprise Buyer
I led a full-spectrum transformation for Futurex — a 40-year encryption leader whose visual identity and digital experience no longer matched its technical sophistication. The goal was to create a unified brand and product ecosystem that communicated trust, clarity, and innovation across every surface: website, platform, and physical experiences.
This wasn’t cosmetic. It was about:
Driving leads where there were none
Fixing buyer confusion with role-driven journeys
Making trust and clarity the foundation of our story
🚀 Key Outcomes
inbound leads/quarter
website visitors per year
LinkedIn followers in 9 months
Additionally:
20+ modular website components for campaign scale
CryptoHub UX flows + icon system shipped and handed off to new designers
Engaging RSAC booth + branded interactive game
Context &
Business Challenge
📉 What was stopping Futurex from scaling its influence?
Futurex is a 40-year cybersecurity leader in encryption and key management - but its fragmented brand and outdated digital presence didn’t reflect its technical strength or scale.
Problems We Set Out to Solve:
🧱 Brand Perception Crisis
Old visuals didn’t communicate innovation or trust
🎯 Lead Generation Failure
Website produced near-zero inbound leads
🌀 Fragmented Experience
Product UX, marketing, and events had no cohesive story
Strategy &
Design Principles
Every touchpoint — from digital to physical — followed five guiding principles:
01
Trust Through Transparency
02
Complexity Made Accessible
03
Cohesive Brand Ecosystem
04
Design for Scale
05
Build for Conversion
Research & Personas
I mapped five core personas from sales data, analytics, and team input — Alice, Teddy, Owen, Patty, and Ellie.
But two of them quickly stood out as the ones shaping nearly every design decision.
🔧 Technical Teddy
Role: CISO, IT Lead
Needs: Clarity, documentation, technical trust
Behavior: Engages with specs → attends demos
"I won’t sign off without technical validation."
🏗 Architect Alice
Role: Enterprise Architect
Needs: ROI, long-term value, risk management
Behavior: Consumes case studies → compares solutions
"Show me how this solves a business problem."
Design Process
Worked in fast, iterative sprints across brand, product, and web, grounding every decision in systems thinking and collaboration.
Audited 200+ assets to uncover systemic design debt - fragmented colors, navigation gaps, and inconsistent components. This analysis became the foundation for a unified design system that streamlined user flows, reduced UX friction, and enabled product scalability.
The old website flows didn’t explain why prospects stalled. I redesigned them around Teddy’s validation needs and Alice’s solution focus, which revealed that buried specs and weak comparisons were blocking confidence and slowing demo requests.
I redesigned CryptoHub platform navigation to solve a core Information Architecture problem: too many top-level tabs with inconsistent grouping made it hard for users to find key settings. By restructuring into fewer top-level categories and introducing logical submenus, I reduced cognitive load and aligned navigation with how users actually think about devices, networking, and database tasks.
Documented every state of the switch component early on - not just for UI clarity, but to create a scalable design system that engineers could implement with zero guesswork.
Here I tested whether users could clearly distinguish between creating a backup right now vs. setting up a repeating schedule - same screen, different requests. The design process was about balancing simplicity with flexibility so both workflows felt natural.
Worked cross-functionally with developers, agency creatives, and leadership — turning feedback into actionable design improvements that everyone could rally behind.
Execution Phase 1
Brand System
Challenge: refresh identity without alienating existing trust
Solutions:
Audited 200+ assets and inconsistencies
Defined modern brand attributes (Trustworthy, Secure, Professional, Innovative)
Built 40+ page brand book: logo grids, icon systems, templates, do’s/don’ts
Applied across web, collateral, slides, partner kits, and social templates
Execution Phase 2
Website Redesign
The website is the first touchpoint or prospects, partners, and industry stakeholders. Its role is to simplify complex cryptography concepts, build trust, and convert visitors into leads through demos and forms. The audience ranges from executives and procurement teams to compliance officers looking for a trusted vendor.
Challenge: Convert and scale — without sacrificing clarity
Solutions:
Built 20+ modular web components for fast launch and iteration
Created distinct nav and page flows for technical vs. business users
Collaborated with Impulse Creative for development, QA, and responsive tuning
A/B tested multiple hero versions—business-value messaging drove +35% demo requests
Designed pages for gated content, lead magnets, and case study conversion
Clear navigation with top categories plus secondary menus for depth. A standout “Request Demo” button ensures quick team connection.
Our Resources pages use simple filters and large, engaging tiles for easy browsing, with a unified design that keeps navigation clear and consistent.
The CryptoHub page excels at guiding users from broad to specific — starting with a compelling overview of the unified platform and then unfolding into sections on deployment options, use cases, and benefits. It balances clarity and depth so visitors can scan quickly yet dig deeper as needed.
Execution Phase 3
CryptoHub Platform & KLD Mobile UX
CryptoHub is Futurex’s unified cryptographic management platform, empowering CISOs, IT leads, and system engineers to configure HSM clusters, manage key policies, and deploy services across hybrid environments. Alongside it, the KLD mobile app simplifies secure hardware operations - enabling device diagnostics, smart card management, and key fragment loading through clean, guided interactions.
Challenge: Unify fragmented admin tools and incomplete agency handoffs into one scalable, consistent product ecosystem
Solutions:
Redesigned key management and policy flows for clarity and control
Built a shared visual language and 30+ icon system ensuring consistency across web and mobile
Validated user and device flows directly with engineering teams
Expanded documentation and design libraries for new UX designers joining mid-cycle
Delivered redesigned CryptoHub platform experience presented at RSAC 2025
KLD Mobile UX — a companion app for managing secure devices, simplifying hardware operations with guided interactions.
Execution Phase 4
Spreading the Word at RSAC
At the biggest cybersecurity event in San Francisco — RSAC 2024 & 2025 — we showed off the CryptoHUb device and platform, shared our new positioning, and even added a trivia game to make the booth fun. It was an awesome way to connect with people and bring in tons of new leads.
Validation & Outcomes
🚀 Business Impact
Validation & Outcomes
📈 UX & Performance Gains
Bounce rate dropped 35% across key product and solution pages
Time on site up 60% through improved Information Architecture and user paths
Task completion up 50% via simplified CryptoHub dashboards and flows
Design system adopted org-wide, speeding up future launches
Reflection
What Made It Work
Collaborative Execution: Partnered with agencies, devs, vendors, and cross-functional teams
Systems Thinking: Every component built to scale, not just ship
User-Led Design: Personas shaped flows, messaging, and navigation
Cross-Surface Consistency: Brand story extended from interface to expo booth
Reflection
What I’d Improve
Introduce user testing earlier in design stages
Tag key user events in analytics from the start
Formalize faster stakeholder signoff process
Reflection
✅ Strengthened Skills
Strategic Product Thinking
Collaborative Cross-Functional Work
Scalable Design Systems
Conversion Optimization & UX Metrics
Platform UX Design + Agency Handoff
Conference & Event Branding
Persona-Driven Content Design
Final Note