Resolve without losing the thread.
Comments can be resolved, found again and reopened. ROUND keeps a resolved thread available as part of its version’s history.
Read the sourceProject 1 / Product design
Independent concept · 2026
Good feedback.
A clear decision.
A review room for freelance brand and web designers. Keep the artwork, the conversation and the decision attached to the same version.
- My role
- UX, interaction design,
visual system & frontend - Who it serves
- Independent designers
& occasional client reviewers - The core journey
- Review → revise →
approve → hand over - What you can try
- A working, browser-local
image-review prototype
The design question
A comment is useful.
Context makes it actionable.
A designer needs to know what to change. A reviewer needs to know what they are looking at, and what their approval will mean.
I treated those as one connected task. The hypothesis: placing feedback beside the artwork, with a version label carried into the decision, can make a review easier to follow.
The brief grew from a design-workflow problem and desk research. The prototype is the next step toward testing that hypothesis with people.
Workflow references
Keep the context.
Keep the history.
Official product documentation helped define the interaction model.
Earlier feedback needs a place.
The separation between current and other-version comments informed a clear rule: a request on v01 should stay on v01.
Read the sourceRevisions should be inspectable.
Version stacks and side-by-side comparison informed a review room where earlier work is easy to revisit without changing the latest version.
Two directions explored
The inbox, or
the work itself?
I chose the canvas as the starting point.
Both layouts support the same task. The decision is about what a reviewer should understand first: a queue of comments, or the design those comments refer to.
A / feedback first
An efficient reading queue.
Long threads are easy to scan. The trade-off is repeatedly reconstructing which part of the design a comment refers to.
B / context first · selected
A shared visual reference.
The artwork takes the centre. Feedback sits alongside it, and the current version remains visible as the reviewer moves toward a decision.
The defining interaction
Approval belongs
to a version.
A completed comment and an approved design are different things. ROUND makes that distinction part of the structure.
- Artifactv02 / launch artwork
Know what is being reviewed.
The image and its version are the reference point for every thread.
- Feedback
Give the date more breathing room.
Open requestv02 / needs a changeGive every request a home.
Pinned or general feedback keeps the same version label. Replies and resolution stay explicit.
- DecisionVersion 02 approvedlaunch-artwork-v02.pngExample decision receiptv02 / approved
Make the decision deliberate.
After blocking feedback is resolved, the reviewer confirms the exact version.
v03 / new round
A revision starts a new review. The v02 decision stays in its history.
Decisions & trade-offs
A small set of rules.
Fewer ambiguous states.
Resolving a thread never approves the artwork.
Requests and questions must be resolved before approval. Informational notes can remain open. That adds an explicit decision step, but makes the meaning of “done” clearer.
Look back without moving the decision.
Earlier versions remain available for inspection and comparison. New feedback and approval act on the latest version, with clear labels when viewing an earlier round.
A pin helps point. The words carry the request.
The feedback list gives each pin a readable counterpart. General feedback provides another route when a comment applies to the whole design.
Make the complete core journey usable.
Browser-local storage keeps this prototype focused on reviewing, revising and deciding. A downloadable packet carries the artwork, feedback and version context together.
A review away from the desk
Same decision.
Less screen.
The version, the work and the next action need to stay connected on a phone.
The first mobile layout stacked the controls, artwork and comments. Feedback was too far down the page. The revised layout switches between Artwork and Feedback in one tap, keeps the version visible and anchors the decision at the bottom. The full brief stays available in a disclosure.
Explore the responsive prototypeRefining the first round
Show the purpose.
Finish the handoff.
The first build opened directly into a populated workspace. It showed the system before explaining why to use it.
I narrowed the audience to freelance brand and web designers, added a choice between a guided review and the designer’s own work, and made the next step explicit in the sample journey.
Approval now includes what happens next. The downloaded handoff packet carries the exact artwork, reviewer, decision time, feedback and agreed next steps. A new revision starts a new review; its predecessor keeps its own handoff record.
Prototype checks
Test the rules
behind the screens.
The working prototype was checked at the moments where context could be lost.
- 30 automated checks cover feedback, version-bound approval, storage validation, version-bound handoff notes and review-packet files.
- Browser checks confirmed the guided review, approval gate and five-file handoff download.
- An imported image starts a fresh version; earlier versions remain read-only.
- Replies retain drafts across views, approved state survives reload, and unsupported uploads show a recovery message.
- Layouts were checked at 1440, 1024, 390 and 320 pixels, including direct access to phone feedback. Resetting the sample retains other review rooms.
These are functional checks of the prototype, rather than a usability study. Evaluation with independent designers and client reviewers is the next research step.
See the decisions in use
Take it for
a round.
Open the prototype Download the source kit
Brief, direction study, state model and editable project source.