Garmin Portal Redesign
Before you trust your gear in the backcountry, you need to trust the tools that manage it. Garmin’s hardware is legendary, but their digital ecosystem left users stranded. My challenge: rebuild the portal so managing devices, plans, and messages feels just as rugged and reliable as the gear itself.
The Problem
Garmin’s portal wasn’t built around real-world use — it was built around features. Users were left scrambling with:
Fragmented platforms and multiple logins
Menus that required manuals (or tutors!) to navigate
Interfaces so dated they undermined confidence
The result? Customers trusted the hardware in the wild but dreaded the software in the city.
The Hypothesis
Here’s the bet: if the portal was rebuilt around clarity and confidence, users would stop fighting menus and start trusting the ecosystem — which directly drives adoption and subscriptions.
To get there, I mapped the journey like a trail:
Clear Pathways – information architecture organized around real tasks, not features.
Single Hub – one place for devices, plans, and messages.
Ruggedly Simple UI – stripped of noise, styled to match Garmin’s outdoor DNA.
Trust in Ecosystem – confidence that the digital matches the reliability of the hardware.
(North Star Metric: Perceived Usability – SUS Score)
The Existing Portal
This is where hikers were getting lost: multiple portals, clunky menus, and subscription plans buried behind layers of friction.
Final Designs
Each page wasn’t just a redesign — it was a deliberate strike against confusion and distrust.
The Summit: A Real Outcome
When measured against Garmin’s old portal, the redesign climbed from a 58 SUS score (below industry average) to a projected 89.
That’s the difference between “I need a manual for this” and “I trust this with my life.”
From sprawl to signal, this project proved a simple truth: when users can navigate their digital tools with confidence, they stick with the ecosystem. And in Garmin’s world, trust isn’t just UX polish — it’s survival.
