• Revamped Art Cologne’s failing digital platform to restore usability and rebuild trust after a widely criticized first launch

• As Proxy Product Owner, I defined the platform’s direction, led stakeholder management and a small crossfunctional team of 4

• Led end-to-end product design as the sole designer across a multi-fair platform and built a design system that enabled fast delivery

• As a result, the platform saw increased engagement, more uploaded artworks, fewer complaints and higher sales

A public failure and a client losing faith

Art Cologne's first attempt at digitizing their new traide fair experience had ended in bad press. The latest online art catalogue and application process were poorly built, nearly unusable on mobile devices and failed to meet the expectations of a discerning audience of gallery owners and art collectors.

This mattered because Art Cologne is one of the world's oldest art fairs and its reputation depends on the quality of every touchpoint. Galleries struggled through a broken application flow, VIPs found the portal frustrating and the organization had lost confidence in their own digital vision.

The challenge was not just to fix a page but to rebuild trust with an audience that had already been burned once.

This was the situation

The brief started as a redesign of the failed online art catalogue, but the scope quickly expanded into a full digital platform for Art Cologne's trade fairs in both Cologne and Palma de Mallorca. The platform needed to serve four very different user groups: galleries applying to exhibit, VIP collectors managing their fair experience, general visitors browsing an online artwork catalogue and Art Cologne's VIP and gallery managers.

A key constraint was that our VIP users were high-profile individuals, which meant advanced tracking and analytics were not permitted. Instead, we relied on qualitative insights from VIP managers and the client-side product owner to guide our decisions during our first itterations.

Two modes, one platform

Because direct user research was off the table, I worked closely with the VIP and gallery managers to build a proxy understanding of user behavior. After the first iteration, we gained permission to implement basic device tracking (anonymously) which supported my underlying hypothesis. During the application and early-access phase, 87% of users were on Mac desktops, carefully reviewing artworks, managing submissions and preparing for the fair.

But the moment the trade fair opened, usage shifted to nearly 100% mobile. People were on the ground, pulling up their tickets, booking hotel rooms, reserving shuttle rides, managing event schedules and chatting with galleries.

It meant the platform had to function as two fundamentally different experiences depending on the phase of the fair cycle. This insight became the organizing principle for every design decision that followed.

Desktop-first for galleries, context-aware for VIPs

This insight led to a fundamental design strategy decision. For the gallery trade fair application and artwork upload tools, I chose a desktop-first approach. A mobile-first or equal-weight responsive approach would have spread our small team's effort thin without serving the actual use case.

For the VIP tool, I chose a dual-context approach: the pre-fair planning experience was designed for desktop comfort, while the live-fair experience was designed mobile-first for on-the-go access to tickets, events, hotel confirmations, restaurant bookings and shuttle services. The trade-off was added design complexity across five products for a team of four, but it meant each user group received an experience built for how they actually worked rather than a one-size-fits-all compromise.

From a broken page to a living platform

Building on the dual-mode insight and the principle of respecting each audience's distinct needs, we transformed the failed online art catalogue into a comprehensive multi-product platform. The platform ultimately included: the gallery application process for both Cologne and Palma, an online artwork catalogue for public visitors and a full VIP portal for both fairs covering ticketing, hotel booking, event reservations, shuttle management, artwork browsing and gallery chat.

I built a complete design system in Figma with components that could be shared across all products. This was one of the hardest parts of the project because it required aligning multiple product owners around a shared component library rather than letting each product diverge.

I also designed custom input components for a bespoke CMS that powered all the different products, prioritizing flexibility so content managers could maintain distinct experiences without engineering intervention.

The mobile experience was treated as a first-class product for fair-time usage rather than a responsive afterthought.

Here's what I owned

Building on the solution work, my role on this project extended well beyond design execution. As the only Designer, I personally created all UX flows, wireframes, UI mockups and prototypes for every one of the five products, across both desktop and mobile.

As Proxy Product Owner, I managed the client relationship directly, including stakeholder communication, expectation setting and budget approvals. I led a team of four and was accountable for our delivery, quality and the overall direction of the platform.

Critically, I also owned the relationship repair. The project had arrived with reputational damage and part of my job was to rebuild trust through consistent delivery, transparent communication and showing the client that the work was in capable hands.

The team handled development and implementation, while insights and requirements flowed through close collaboration with VIP managers and the client-side product owner.

What changed

As a result of the iterative redesign and platform expansion, the outcomes were significant across business, user and team dimensions. Sales over the platform grew year over year, though exact figures cannot be shared publicly.

Built with great people on both sides

None of this would have worked without the VIP and gallery managers at Art Cologne. They were the bridge to an audience I could never reach directly. Their deep personal relationships with collectors and gallery owners gave me the insight I needed to design with confidence despite having no direct user data.

Aligning the different product owners around a shared design system required patience and persistence and I am grateful they trusted the process. I also want to thank our engineering team, who took on a custom CMS and a growing design system with real commitment to quality. The fact that bugs decreased while scope expanded is a testament to how well we worked together over four years.