Sonary — Software Stack Manager

Software subscriptions are messy — teams sign up for SaaS across departments, individual receipts sit in different inboxes, and nobody has a clean picture of what's actually being spent, used, or duplicated.

Sonary was Ryze Beyond's answer: a single dashboard that gives users a full view of their subscription stack (spend per month, potential savings, unused tools) while surfacing personalized alternatives — recommendations funded through Sonary's affiliate model, which keeps the product free for end users.

Sole designer on the product, within a cross-functional team of product managers, content managers and engineers. From research to shipped design system, and through design QA post-implementation.

Two months of concentrated work (~4.5 days per week).

Research phase: user interviews, competitive benchmarking, curated inspiration from Dribbble, Pinterest and comparable market products, then accelerated exploration with AI tools (Midjourney, Firefly, Figma AI) to rapidly generate visual directions before narrowing down.

Then: information architecture, wireframes, high-fidelity design, iteration on stakeholder feedback, developer hand-off, and design QA after implementation to verify conformance screen by screen.

Design system extended from the Sonary Website foundation (already ~6 years mature at that point), then expanded with dashboard-heavy components — data grids, filters, complex flows, multi-state modals — all responsive across 5 breakpoints (Desktop 1920, Laptop 1280, Tablet landscape, Tablet portrait, Mobile 375), with all component states (empty, loading, filter, multi-select, modals) documented. Separate motion design system documented in Figma for developers, complemented by SVGator animations delivered when needed. An AI chat bot was designed as a dedicated flow so users could query their stack in natural language.

An initial visual direction, defined collectively upfront, didn't pass top-level review — deemed too close to what competitors were shipping.

I then brought forward the alternative I had been proposing from the start; once validated, it required a full re-design in two weeks (9 working days at 4.5 days/week): new palette, new iconography, addition of a dark mode (only one mode existed at first), applied across a project of 2,000+ frames. Delivered on time.

6 core surfaces (Software Stack, Calculators, User Settings, Login, Dashboard, AI Chat Bot). Design system with variants, auto-layout, nested and interactive components. The full project runs over 2,000 frames — the screens shown here are a representative sample.

Consolidating both sides of the value equation into one product — help users spend less, help the business recommend more — is a UX balancing act that only works in a team.

Building on top of the Sonary Website design system, itself mature after six years, meant the Dashboard could ship complex flows quickly while contributing new patterns (data grids, dashboard widgets, chat bot flows) back to the shared library.