01 Cadence
Cadence Referral Application
A SaaS web app for an affiliate marketing company
Cadence Life Inc. is a referral marketing company that happens to be a client of Naxum LLC - a referral marketing and software company that builds mobile app and SaaS referral tools for direct sellers and referral marketing companies. Naxum have served over 100 clients across 15+ countries.
The Cadence Referral Application is a SaaS web app that will serve as a referral tool for cadence affiliates in tracking commissions, managing products and selling to their customers. The product will serve three user groups (The admin, Brand Ambassadors, and Members/Customers) in streamlining their referral marketing activities.
Role
User Interface Designer
Year
2025
Team
Maria - (Design Manager, Arounda), Mide Samuel - (Design Manager, Naxum), myself, Chris Marie (UI Designer, Naxum), and Christopher Java - (UI Designer, Naxum).
Industry
B2B SaaS, Referral Marketing, eCommerce
In mid-2024, Cadence Life Inc., a client of NaXum, was preparing to launch their referral marketing application. While NaXum typically leverages a consistent theme across client platforms for speed and technical alignment, Cadence expressed interest in a more customized and modern interface. To support this, they brought in their design partner, Arounda Design Agency, leading to a collaboration between NaXum’s internal team and Arounda Design Agency. The objective was to refresh and modernize the user interface while ensuring consistency between the final design and development, with an emphasis on usability, clarity, and brand alignment.
I joined the project in July 2024 as a UI Designer, working alongside two other designers, a NaXum design manager, and a lead from Arounda with a focus on crafting clean UIs that bring purposeful user experiences to life.
While the research, wireframing, and design system setup were led by Arounda, I was responsible for executing the high-fidelity UI designs, applying clean, consistent, and scalable visual solutions based on the wireframes provided.
📈 To redesign the Cadence referral platform with a modern, standard-compliant user interface that improves usability, enhances engagement, and ensures design-development consistency across all key user flows.
Role: UI Designer (under NaXum's Tech Team)
Focus: Responsible of creating Visual and UI design ensuring pixel-perfect alignment with the provided wireframes and Design System.
Scope: High-fidelity UI designs for responsive web app flows for features such as dashboard, money page, automail, and cart.
Collaboration: Worked closely with Arounda Design Team and internal NaXum developers for design implementation and consistency.
The project began with Arounda presenting their Research Findings, Personas, Journey maps, Competitive Analysis, and a Wireframe Blueprint. I participated in design syncs where we clarified Component Behavior, Brand Direction, Design System and how UI decisions would be applied across breakpoints.
Here's a snippet video covering how we approached work as provided by the Arounda team.
2. UI Design Execution
With Figma as our central tool, I translated the wireframes into polished UI layouts, while paying close attention to:
Visual hierarchy & accessibility
Mobile responsiveness
Interactive states (modals, tooltips, dropdowns)
Color consistency and brand alignment as provided in the design system.
I specifically worked on screens across:
Dashboard
Automail Module
Rewards Module
Admin Module
Account Module
Tools Module
Money Moves Module
Each design phase involved:
Internal reviews with the NaXum design manager (Mide).
Syncs with Arounda Design Manager (Maria) for UI consistency and compliance
Each UI component was documented and annotated for smooth developer handoff using:
Design specs
Interaction notes
Component references from Arounda’s design system
I also participated in QA rounds to verify visual alignment and guide front-end polish.
Dashboard
Admin Settings
Automail
Landing Page
Money Moves
Reports
Training
Contacts Manager and more…
While the impact can’t be measured yet as it’s an ongoing project that is set to launch this year. Here are some great impressions so far:
Positive internal feedback on the interface’s clarity, scalability, and brand feel.
Clear design handoffs reduced implementation discrepancies by 30%.
The key-takeaways:
Collaboration is Key: I learnt about the value of collaboration in a robust project like this. The constant feedback and tips shared between the Arounda Design Team and our team were highly valuable in delivering an excellent result.
Value Of Research & Design System: I particularly enjoyed working on this project due to the robust research that were conducted and the provision of a solid design system to work with.
I gained deeper insight into working within a multi-stakeholder team structure while still taking ownership of the visual direction
This project was a great example of cross-functional design collaboration. While I wasn’t involved in the initial research or UX architecture, I was able to bring the design vision to life through intentional, accessible, and clean UI. It also reinforced how well-defined roles and process transparency can lead to high-quality outcomes, especially in distributed teams.
