A portal that guides nonprofit leaders through every phase of the program
The Bloomberg Digital Accelerator Program sends nonprofit Tech Fellows through a structured, multi-phase journey — learning sessions, document submissions, vendor selection, and implementation. The program had no portal and no brief, just Bloomberg's baseline WordPress theme.
Bloomberg Philanthropies and their managing consultant, the Lapine Group, needed a secure, phase-aware web portal that would guide each Fellow through exactly where they were in the program — surfacing the right tasks, resources, and connections at exactly the right time.
I was brought in as the sole UX designer. 90 days later: a full design system, 15+ annotated screens, a React component library, and a design token JSON file — all approved by Bloomberg senior leadership and handed off to dev.
A dream. A PowerPoint. No team. Full system.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world; the DAP invests in nonprofits' digital capabilities, cohort by cohort. The ask was a centralized, secure portal for Bloomberg Tech Fellows — phase navigation, task guidance, a document library, a peer directory, a vendor directory — with only a baseline WordPress theme and no prior UX to build from.
What shipped: a full Figma handoff, design token JSON, and a React component library, approved at the senior leadership level. The portal launched on schedule and is now live for program Fellows, behind a password-protected login.
Discovery to developer handoff in 5 phases
This project started with a series of working sessions with Dave Ebert at the Lapine Group — no formal document, just conversations about how the program actually ran. From there I shaped the full IA, defined the page inventory, and began wireframing while the content was still being written in parallel.
The design system came next — enhancing Bloomberg's existing design system and baseline WordPress theme for a portal context, and documented three ways: a Figma file, a machine-readable token JSON, and a React component library ready for WordPress handoff. Bloomberg leadership reviewed the final comps and approved on the first formal presentation.
01 · Discovery & IA — Working sessions with Lapine Group. No brief — UX architecture shaped from conversation. Full page inventory and nav structure defined.
02 · Wireframes — 15+ screens covering dashboard, five phase pages, document library, directories, calendar, and event pages. Full team review with Bloomberg stakeholders.
03 · Design System — Color tokens, type scale, spacing, 30+ components — extending Bloomberg's baseline theme, documented in Figma, JSON, and JSX. Every state. Every variant.
04 · Visual Design — Full-fidelity comps across all screens. Iterated through Bloomberg stakeholder feedback rounds with same-day and next-morning turnarounds.
05 · Code Handoff — Annotated Figma file, design token JSON, React component library, written reference doc, and a Loom walkthrough — handed to Chapter 324 for WordPress build.
Wireframes
Mapping the full program experience before a pixel of color was chosen
With no existing UX to reference, I built the page inventory from scratch — dashboard, five phase pages, document library with 400+ files, peer directory, vendor directory, program calendar, and event detail pages. Every screen was wireframed at low fidelity and reviewed with Bloomberg and Lapine Group stakeholders before any visual design began.
Design System
Built on Bloomberg's system, documented in three formats
The design system started from Bloomberg's existing design system and baseline WordPress theme, and extended it for a complex portal context. Color tokens were defined across brand, chart, semantic, and file-type categories. A type scale using the system font stack was tuned for dense information display. Every token was machine-readable — exported as JSON for dev consumption alongside the Figma file.
Visual Design
Phase-aware navigation that shows the right tasks at the right time
The portal's primary innovation was its phase intelligence — the dashboard and nav updated dynamically based on where each Fellow was in the five-phase program. Full-fidelity comps were delivered across all 15+ screens, iterated through Bloomberg stakeholder rounds with same-day and next-morning turnarounds.
Developer Handoff
Every artifact was purpose-built for the dev team at Chapter 324 who would build the WordPress implementation. Nothing shipped without an answer already attached — no back-and-forth needed once the build started.
The handoff package was so complete that Bloomberg senior leadership approved it on the first formal presentation — no revision round needed.
Figma File — Fully annotated screens with interaction notes, spacing documentation, and state coverage
Design Token JSON — Machine-readable color, type, spacing, and radius tokens — consumed directly by the dev build
React Component Library — 30+ JSX components with full prop documentation — every state, every variant
Reference Document — Written design system spec for non-Figma stakeholders and future maintainers
Loom Walkthrough — Video narration of the full system for async team review
Lean team. Maximum output.
Design — Figma, Claude Code
Delivery — Design Token JSON · React / JSX Components · Annotated Figma Handoff · Loom Walkthrough
Team — Dan Nemirovsky (UX Lead) · Dave Ebert, Lapine Group (Program Lead) · Jason Froderman (Dev)
Client — Bloomberg Philanthropies