Mira's mission was to make screen signage accessible to any business. By connecting TVs to WiFi using a MiraLink device, users could create and publish content from anywhere using an online dashboard. By 2017, Mira had around 100 business customers using v1 of our platform.

Before launch, we had designed v1 based on conversations with enterprise sales leads. These had many screens, specific scheduling needs, and relatively tech savvy end-users.

However, as our customer base grew instead with mostly smaller businesses, we learned that our scheduling tools were too granular and complex for their needs, evidenced by hundreds of manual onboarding and support calls.

Dashboard v1 followed a strict, linear flow:
App → Presentation → Playlist → Schedule → Publish

However, usage data revealed that 3 of 5 playlists contained a single presentation, and 7 of 10 schedules were set to run 24/7. Most customers just wanted to display one or two things on each screen, looping indefinitely.

We observed that users were thinking about screens first, not apps, so we restructured the flow to align with that mental model. I validated the approach with wireframe prototypes and refined it through rapid, iterative testing with small cohorts of 2–3 users.

Now, each screen or group of screens had two types of content: default content that loops continuously and scheduled content that temporarily takes over for events or promotions. This removed unnecessary steps from the core flow and better matched the real-world needs of our customers.

Leaning into modal workflows allowed us to reduce the amount of content on each screen and make each next step more obvious. Along with the light color scheme, the simplified interface made Dashboard v2 feel more like a consumer product than an intimidating enterprise tool.

The builder modal uses input fields to create and edit any content type, whether static (like images) or dynamic (like weather). Its generic interface makes it easier to develop new screen content types either in house or with partners.