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Red Bull Backend Applications

Red Bull Backend Applications

Product Design
User Research
User Testing
Design System
Product Strategy
Product Design
User Research
User Testing
Design System
Product Strategy

Agency

OkayBueno

Role
Product Designer

Duration
11 Months

Red Bull Owned Media operates globally across more than 100 countries, managing a vast ecosystem of digital platforms, channels, and publishing tools. These platforms allow the brand to create and distribute its own content, build a consistent identity, and connect directly with its audiences without relying exclusively on paid or traditional media.

Over the course of more than a decade, this internal ecosystem had grown into a collection of 25+ different applications, each developed at different moments in time and often using three outdated design systems. There was no unified vision or integration strategy behind them, which resulted in fragmented user experiences, duplicated work, and inefficient workflows.

For Red Bull employees, this meant that the tools they depended on daily to publish content, manage events, or run campaigns were often inconsistent, overly complex, and difficult to navigate. The lack of cohesion not only impacted productivity but also led to financial inefficiencies for the company.

Agency

OkayBueno

Role
Product Designer

Duration
11 Months

Red Bull Owned Media operates globally across more than 100 countries, managing a vast ecosystem of digital platforms, channels, and publishing tools. These platforms allow the brand to create and distribute its own content, build a consistent identity, and connect directly with its audiences without relying exclusively on paid or traditional media.

Over the course of more than a decade, this internal ecosystem had grown into a collection of 25+ different applications, each developed at different moments in time and often using three outdated design systems. There was no unified vision or integration strategy behind them, which resulted in fragmented user experiences, duplicated work, and inefficient workflows.

For Red Bull employees, this meant that the tools they depended on daily to publish content, manage events, or run campaigns were often inconsistent, overly complex, and difficult to navigate. The lack of cohesion not only impacted productivity but also led to financial inefficiencies for the company.

Research

To build a deep understanding of the problem, I carried out a multi-layered research process:

15 in-depth user interviews with Red Bull team members across different roles (editors, channel operators, managers) and time zones.

15 in-depth user interviews with Red Bull team members across different roles (editors, channel operators, managers) and time zones.

Analysis of application usage to identify which tools were most critical in day-to-day operations.

Observation of workflows to uncover inefficiencies, repetitive tasks, and bottlenecks.

Analysis of application usage to identify which tools were most critical in day-to-day operations.

Observation of workflows to uncover inefficiencies, repetitive tasks, and bottlenecks.

15 in-depth user interviews with Red Bull team members across different roles (editors, channel operators, managers) and time zones.

Analysis of application usage to identify which tools were most critical in day-to-day operations.

Observation of workflows to uncover inefficiencies, repetitive tasks, and bottlenecks.

To protect the interviewees’ privacy, their faces have been blurred.

To protect the interviewees’ privacy, their faces have been blurred.

From this research, a clear set of pain points emerged:

Inconsistency across applications: each tool had a different navigation system and interaction model, which confused users and slowed them down.

Repetitive and manual tasks: for example, editors often had to update the same asset across 30+ locales manually.

Content discovery challenges: inefficient search and tagging systems made it hard to find and reuse content.

Lack of transversal tools: there was no unified way to communicate internal announcements or provide quick access to frequent tasks.

Country-specific workarounds: since teams in different markets used the apps differently, issues were often solved in isolation, making it difficult to learn from each other.

Goals & Design Strategy

Our strategy was to reduce friction and bring intelligence into existing workflows. We explored how to unify and extend current tools, especially the Editor App, which is the most relevant application as it already covered 80% of user activity.

Slide from a deck I created to present user sentiment. The right side shows which participants shared the same pain points.

Document from my user research showing the percentage of time each participant spent on each app.

After reviewing all the research documentation, I needed to start drawing conclusions and forming hypotheses, and in doing so we uncovered insights that slightly shifted the project’s focus. By clustering the requirements, clear themes emerged: faster workflows, smarter editor options, better content discovery, and improved visibility.

Bugs (4)

Content Discovery (6)

Faster & Easier Workflows (32)

Editor Options (5)

Co-Creation (1)

Reminders & Tasks (7)

Some examples of these requirements that later would be part of the design strategy:

FASTER & EASIER WORKFLOWS

“I don’t use the Editor App that often and I struggle when I have to Create an image gallery”

Guidance for performing certain actions

“I don’t use the Editor App that often and I struggle when I have to Create an image gallery”

Guidance for performing certain actions

FASTER & EASIER WORKFLOWS

“I want to be notified when an embargo date has passed so I get reminded that I have to unpublish a story”

Notify when an expiration or embargo date has passed

REMINDERS & TASKS

“I want to see if any of my stories is getting many views”

Giving information on how user’s stories perform will help them to know what works better

CONTENT DISCOVERY

“I would love to be able to set different aspect ratios and better focal point support”

Enable more options for Image Sizing/Framing

EDITOR OPTIONS

REMINDERS & TASKS

“I want to be notified when an embargo date has passed so I get reminded that I have to unpublish a story”

Notify when an expiration or embargo date has passed

CONTENT DISCOVERY

“I want to see if any of my stories is getting many views”

Giving information on how user’s stories perform will help them to know what works better

EDITOR OPTIONS

“I would love to be able to set different aspect ratios and better focal point support”

Enable more options for Image Sizing/Framing

All requirements were clustered into two directions:

General Solutions
Solutions that solve more than 1 requirement. For example, we have 5 requirements from users that could get solved with the implementation of a Notification Center. The Notification Center is a general solution, and so it is the Quick Action Bar.

Specific in-app Solutions
Solutions that tackle existing problems from within existing tools. For example, the implementation of Bulk Editing in the Editor App, or repairing things that don’t work.

Key Design Solutions

I proposed a set of interconnected solutions and features, what we called solution starters, that directly addressed pain points from research:

Key Design Solutions

New Design System: “Gravity”

As part of the solutions, we introduced a new design system called Gravity, designed to be implemented across all Red Bull applications. It was built on elements of Red Bull’s existing design system, but adapted specifically to handle the complexity of backend applications and task-heavy workflows.

By unifying the ecosystem under one system, users could rely on consistent and recognizable patterns across apps, reducing cognitive load, shortening the learning curve, and making the overall experience more intuitive and scalable.

I collaborated in the development of Gravity by proposing ideas, testing components, and requesting the creation of new ones, while a dedicated teammate was responsible for leading and building the system in its entirety.

Unified Navigation across all apps

At the start of the project, each app had its own navigation logic, which was not scalable.

To solve this we designed a consistent navigation bar applied across all apps, where core elements such as the app name, navigation items, and the main call-to-action were standardized. This brought coherence across the ecosystem while allowing each app to include custom items relevant to its specific function.

Here are examples of how the navigation bar would scale and adapt across different applications in the ecosystem.

A Shared Entry Point for All Apps: Ecosystem Hub

I created a unified homescreen as a shared entry point to the ecosystem. Users could see quick actions, access the apps relevant to their user role, and have a more guided experience. This not only made the ecosystem more approachable but also set the foundation for scalability.

Notification Centre

Red Bull lacked a proper system for internal announcements. By implementing a cross-app Notification Centre, users could stay aligned and receive timely feedback within their workflows. This ensured reminders for mandatory actions, visibility on story performance, easier adoption of new directives, and access to useful information otherwise hard to find.

Quick Action Bar

To reduce friction, especially for new users, we introduced a Quick Action Bar integrated into the navigation. This allowed users to perform frequent actions such as creating stories, uploading media, or checking upcoming events without having to guess which application to open. It streamlined onboarding and simplified recurring tasks.

When the user clicks on Quick Search, the Quick Action Bar opens in the center of the screen in focus mode, blurring the background while keeping the navigation bar visible.

Impact & Learnings

By introducing these design solutions, the project directly addressed Red Bull’s goals of reducing friction, streamlining workflows, and designing for scalability.

These solutions gave users consistent patterns across apps, seamless transitions within the ecosystem, faster access to frequent actions, and timely feedback through notifications, ultimately improving efficiency while laying the foundation for a unified and future-proof platform.

41%

Quicker onboardings for new users.

64%

Reduction in support tickets

28%

Fewer publishing errors

This project underlined the importance of balancing user needs with organizational strategy. By resisting the temptation to add a new product, we instead delivered a vision for simplifying and strengthening what was already in place.

The process also highlighted how critical it is to involve diverse user groups in research. Insights from editors in Japan, programmers in Switzerland, and engineers at RB Racing all converged to shape a solution that worked globally.

In the end, the project wasn’t just about new features. It was about a mindset shift: from building more to building smarter, turning Red Bull’s complex ecosystem into a unified, future-proof platform for Owned Media.

I collaborated closely with the Product Manager on strategy and with the Red Bull team throughout the process, while leading presentations and stakeholder alignment to ensure clarity. At the same time, I was responsible for all research and design work.

I collaborated closely with the Product Manager on strategy and with the Red Bull team throughout the process, while leading presentations and stakeholder alignment to ensure clarity.

At the same time, I was responsible for all research and design work.

Product Design
User Research
User Testing
Design System
Product Strategy

Agency

OkayBueno

Role
Product Designer

Duration
11 Months

Red Bull Owned Media operates globally across more than 100 countries, managing a vast ecosystem of digital platforms, channels, and publishing tools. These platforms allow the brand to create and distribute its own content, build a consistent identity, and connect directly with its audiences without relying exclusively on paid or traditional media.

Over the course of more than a decade, this internal ecosystem had grown into a collection of 25+ different applications, each developed at different moments in time and often using three outdated design systems. There was no unified vision or integration strategy behind them, which resulted in fragmented user experiences, duplicated work, and inefficient workflows.

For Red Bull employees, this meant that the tools they depended on daily to publish content, manage events, or run campaigns were often inconsistent, overly complex, and difficult to navigate. The lack of cohesion not only impacted productivity but also led to financial inefficiencies for the company.