Radfords
A sprawling produce platform, brought into one system.
Radfords' software runs fresh produce from soil to supermarket, and the system itself is genuinely powerful. Chasing a cleaner look, the team had built a design system to enforce it — but in a few areas that system grew too complex and backfired. I came in to fix those areas, inside their own product.
Excellent software. A design system that had out‑thought its own goal.
Radfords builds the first fresh-produce management software with complete control and visibility from soil to supermarket — trusted by some of the world's largest growers, from Zespri to Seeka. The functionality is deep and battle-tested. The catch was on the surface: in pursuit of a minimal look, the team had layered on a design system to enforce it, and in a handful of areas that system had over-complicated the very screens it was meant to simplify. My job was to fix those specific areas — working inside their existing product, without touching what already worked.
Three tensions at the centre of the work.
A design system fighting its own goal
Built to make the product feel minimal, the system had grown complex enough that, in places, it added the exact friction it was meant to remove. Minimal had quietly turned into more.
Complexity that still had to be usable
Packhouse work is genuinely dense — heavy tables, reconciliations, deep configuration. Simplifying couldn't mean hiding the data operators depend on under time pressure.
Fix in place, don't rebuild
This is live software running real businesses. Every fix had to slot into Radfords' existing system and patterns — a remediation, not a rebuild that stops the line.
Take the design system back to what minimal actually means.
Instead of adding more, I subtracted. I found the specific screens where the design system had over-complicated things, traced each one back to the minimal intent behind it, and rebuilt those areas with less — fewer competing elements, clearer hierarchy, one obvious action. Minimal isn't empty — it's nothing in the way.
Subtract first
Remove before adding. The fix was almost always taking something away, not layering something on.
Keep density legible
Dense data, calmly ordered — hierarchy and spacing tuned so heavy screens still read fast.
One clear action
Every screen ends in an obvious next step, never a wall of equal-weight controls.
Fit their system
Work within Radfords' existing patterns so the team could absorb the fixes, not relearn them.
The levers I leaned on to simplify.
A small set of design decisions carried the remediation: the real Radfords brand colour used with restraint, a clear type hierarchy, and a steady spacing rhythm — the quiet things that let a dense screen feel calm.
Colour BRAND
Radfords' own green, used sparingly for action and status against a clean neutral canvas — so emphasis lands only where it should.
Hierarchy TYPE
A clear display-to-data ladder so headings, labels and dense values each have one fixed, predictable role — no ambiguity about what matters.
Spacing RHYTHM
A consistent step scale drives padding, gaps and table rhythm — the invisible thing that makes real density feel orderly.
The areas I fixed, and the thinking behind each.
Each screen below is a place where the design system had over-complicated things — shown after the fix, with the decision that got it back to minimal. Switch between them.
The work, in context.
The real Radfords surfaces I fixed, after the remediation. Click any to view full size.
Where the work goes next.
Fixing the worst offenders proved the direction. Honest next steps to keep the product minimal for good:
Roll the fixes wider
The same subtract-first pass applies to more screens across Grow, Pack and Sell — the pattern is proven; it just needs to travel.
Prune the design system itself
The real long-term fix is upstream: simplify the shared components so new screens inherit minimal by default instead of having it added back.
Accessibility audit
Run contrast and keyboard checks across the dense tables and forms, where accessibility is most easily lost.
Guardrails against re-creep
Lightweight usage notes so the team keeps reaching for less — and complexity doesn't quietly grow back.