Gus Lamounier is a creative interdisciplinary UX designer, with a background in both Graphic and Digital, who dreams of a world where technology adapts to users’ needs (and not the other way around). Experienced in balancing research and empirical foundations with creative thinking and new media. Obsessed with bridging the communication gap across disciplinary domains, and finding ways for people to share, collaborate, and transform ideas and knowledge.

Project

NeoWrk

Transforming the workplace experience through data intelligence

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Intro

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, booking meeting rooms in office environments was a persistent pain point. Meeting rooms were often fully booked, yet many reservations went unused because people would fail to show up. This inefficiency led to wasted workspace and frustrated employees. Neowrk originated inside the IoT lab at CI&T in 2019 to tackle this problem by leveraging beacon technology. The initial solution involved a beacon device that detected whether people were physically present in a reserved meeting room. If no presence was detected within the first 10 minutes of the booking, the reservation was automatically dropped, freeing the room for others to use.

Problem

When the pandemic hit and offices began reopening, the workspace landscape changed dramatically. Social distancing and health protocols required new ways to manage office capacity and ensure employee safety. Neowrk pivoted to extend its beacon technology into a comprehensive workspace management platform. The challenge was to design a seamless mobile experience that allowed employees to book workstations, meeting rooms, and a variety of other office resources—such as booths, parking spots, shuttle seats, IT services, kitchen services, lockers, guest access, and food hall seating—while adhering to social distancing guidelines.

The platform needed to serve two distinct user groups: businesses seeking real-time utilization insights and operational control, and individual employees who required an intuitive, reliable way to schedule their workspace and services. This dual focus demanded a flexible, scalable design approach that could support complex backend AI-driven analytics and deliver a smooth, user-friendly front-end experience.

My Role

As the lead designer working remotely, I was responsible for driving the end-to-end design process from concept to launch, managing a team of three mid-level visual designers, and collaborating closely with the Product Manager to ensure the product met both business goals and user needs. The challenge was not only technical but also deeply human—helping teams return to the office safely and efficiently while optimizing workspace utilization in a rapidly evolving environment.

Discovery and Research

I began by performing a comprehensive heuristic evaluation of Neowrk’s existing and planned features, with a strong focus on accessibility and usability across both business and consumer user groups. This evaluation helped identify key pain points and opportunities for improvement based on measurable experience criteria and user behavior metrics.

Next, I conducted a thorough UI component audit to assess the current design system’s coverage and consistency. I identified gaps and collaborated closely with the design system team—including UX designers and engineers—to develop new components and refine existing patterns that aligned with the evolving product requirements and supported scalability.

As the lead UX/UI designer, I spearheaded multiple design sprints targeting critical user journeys, such as workspace booking, real-time utilization monitoring, and service scheduling. I produced both low- and high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes to facilitate product definition, validate experience hypotheses through rapid user research and customer feedback sessions, and guide engineering implementation.

Throughout the process, I leveraged continuous voice-of-customer insights to monitor user satisfaction, identify friction points, and prioritize iterative product experience enhancements. Additionally, I managed and mentored a team of three mid-level visual designers, fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented culture that emphasized design excellence and cross-functional partnership.

This structured, user-centered approach ensured that Neowrk’s platform not only met complex business needs but also delivered an intuitive and engaging experience for end users navigating the new hybrid workplace landscape.

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Solution

Our approach to solving the workspace management challenges centered on simplifying and unifying the user experience. Instead of maintaining multiple separate apps for different reservation types, we designed a single, cohesive mobile application that consolidated all bookings—meeting rooms, workstations, parking, shuttle seats, IT services, and more—into one streamlined journey.

Through extensive user research and collaboration with both business stakeholders and end users, we developed an intuitive interface that allowed employees to easily view, manage, and modify their reservations in real time. This unified approach reduced friction and confusion, enabling users to seamlessly navigate their workspace needs without switching between apps.

We prioritized clear, real-time visibility into space availability and utilization, leveraging embedded AI to provide actionable insights and ensure compliance with social distancing protocols. Interactive elements such as dynamic booking calendars, presence detection feedback, and contextual notifications empowered users to make informed decisions quickly.

By integrating diverse workspace services into a single platform and focusing on a consistent, user-friendly design, we created a solution that not only expedited the return to office but also enhanced operational efficiency for businesses. This holistic approach transformed the way companies and their employees interact with their work environments, fostering a safer, more flexible, and productive workplace.

Impact and Outcomes

Following the launch of Neowrk’s unified workspace management platform, the company achieved significant results for both users and the business. Within 2 years, Neowrk onboarded over 100 clients, generating an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $1.6 million. User engagement increased substantially as employees embraced the streamlined booking experience, and businesses benefited from real-time utilization insights that optimized space management.

Key impacts included:

  • Operational efficiency: Automated presence detection and consolidated booking workflows reduced no-shows and manual administrative overhead, freeing up valuable workspace and resources.
  • User satisfaction: A single, intuitive app simplified the employee experience, enabling seamless scheduling of workstations, meeting rooms, and ancillary services, which accelerated the return-to-office process while maintaining health and safety protocols.
  • Scalability: The platform’s modular design and embedded AI capabilities supported rapid integration of new services and expanded client operations across multiple industries.
  • Business growth: Securing R$10M (approximately $2M) in seed funding from Indicator Capital and Daniel Cherman positioned Neowrk for accelerated expansion and deeper platform integrations, strengthening its market presence in Brazil and beyond.

From a design perspective, Neowrk demonstrated the power of human-centered design in transforming complex workplace challenges into elegant, user-friendly solutions. The unified app experience fostered transparency and control for both business administrators and individual users, while the design system ensured consistency and scalability for future product evolution.

Neowrk’s success illustrates how thoughtful research, iterative design, and strategic collaboration can deliver measurable business outcomes alongside meaningful user value—empowering organizations to optimize their work environments and supporting employees in navigating the new hybrid workplace with confidence.

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