Absence Types:
Administrator Set-Up Pages

As the design lead for the Absence product, I drove the redesign and Redwood migration of the Absence Administration setup experience. I first established a reusable framework across three foundational setup projects, creating the patterns, structure, and interaction model that became the standard for the suite.

I then applied and validated this framework through Absence Types — the most complex setup experience in the product. My responsibilities included defining the information architecture, simplifying complex configuration workflows, and designing the creation, update, and correction experiences across three distinct absence type patterns.

Absence Admins need to define and manage different absence types so that they can track what absences their employees are taking.

My process starts with understanding the complexity behind the experience. I map the underlying data, business rules, and end-to-end workflows to uncover how information is created, managed, and consumed. This exercise helps me identify dependencies, edge cases, and opportunities to simplify the experience.

With that foundation, I design the information architecture — determining what information users need, when they need it, and how it should be organized. This ensures the interface reflects the real-world workflow while reducing cognitive load and supporting efficient decision-making.

Effective dating was a key design constraint that shaped the experience. By mapping the workflow, I gained a clear understanding of how users manage past, current, and future configurations, uncovering critical decision points and areas of complexity. These insights directly informed the information architecture, navigation, and interaction patterns throughout the product.

Administrators were responsible for configuring a large number of settings across multiple workflows and effective-dated states. My goal was to reduce cognitive load by creating a clearer information hierarchy, grouping related configurations, and establishing a scalable framework that could support future Absence Administration experiences.

To support the three Absence Type patterns, I designed the end-to-end configuration experience for each workflow, including creation, updates, and corrections. The visual below illustrates the scope of the work, highlighting the various states, decision points, and configuration paths that administrators can encounter.

Mapping and designing these flows helped ensure consistency across patterns while accommodating their unique business requirements. By establishing reusable interaction patterns and page structures, I was able to create a cohesive experience despite the underlying complexity.

The reusable framework I established was adopted across four Absence Administration experiences, creating a consistent Redwood-based pattern for highly configurable workflows. By simplifying information architecture and standardizing interaction patterns, the redesign reduced setup complexity and provided a scalable foundation for future enhancements.