Collaborative PDF Reviewer
Collaborative reviewing made simple for scientific content
Role
Product Designer
Industry
Pharmaceuticals · Scientific Publishing
Duration
4 months
At doDOC, I was responsible for designing the PDF Reviewer — a collaborative tool for reviewing scientific documents such as posters, publications and internal reports.
The product was developed with the pharmaceutical industry in mind, with clients like AstraZeneca using it to streamline review processes across distributed teams.
Problem
Pharmaceutical teams needed a way to review PDFs collaboratively — adding comments, assigning tasks and managing versions — without losing context or clarity.
Until then, reviews were done manually or through fragmented tools, slowing down workflows and causing misalignment between contributors.
Goals
Enable real-time collaboration on PDF content
Provide a seamless way to leave notes, assign tasks, and track changes
Build a consistent experience aligned with the core product (structured document editor)
Create a scalable product to integrate into a broader review suite
At doDOC, I was responsible for designing the PDF Reviewer — a collaborative tool for reviewing scientific documents such as posters, publications and internal reports.
The product was developed with the pharmaceutical industry in mind, with clients like AstraZeneca using it to streamline review processes across distributed teams.
Problem
Pharmaceutical teams needed a way to review PDFs collaboratively — adding comments, assigning tasks and managing versions — without losing context or clarity.
Until then, reviews were done manually or through fragmented tools, slowing down workflows and causing misalignment between contributors.
Goals
Enable real-time collaboration on PDF content
Provide a seamless way to leave notes, assign tasks, and track changes
Build a consistent experience aligned with the core product (structured document editor)
Create a scalable product to integrate into a broader review suite
Research & Insights
We worked closely with the product team and internal stakeholders to collect feedback and define core use cases.
Usability testing was conducted, especially around the onboarding flow, and we ran several A/B tests internally to validate specific design decisions.
Key insights:
Users expected a “Figma-like” collaboration model — real-time, clear and trackable
Familiarity with the main product was high, so visual and functional consistency was critical
Reviewers often worked asynchronously across teams and needed visibility over contributions
Design Approach
While not designed from scratch, I built the reviewer using our existing design system and reused patterns from the main editor product.
This ensured continuity for users already familiar with the ecosystem and sped up decision-making across design and development.
This was my first large-scale design project end-to-end, requiring me to zoom out, think holistically and anticipate multiple edge cases.
Functionality
The reviewer allowed users to:
Leave contextual comments and create to-do tasks
Share with others and see who was viewing in real-time (spotlight feature)
Export annotated documents
Save versions and track history
Collaborate on the same file — live or asynchronously
I worked to simplify the experience by prioritising clarity in navigation, reusing familiar components, and keeping the UI focused on the document first.
Collaboration
I collaborated closely with PMs, engineers, QA, and other designers.
Together, we aligned on technical feasibility, component consistency, and user expectations.
Design Approach
While not designed from scratch, I built the reviewer using our existing design system and reused patterns from the main editor product.
This ensured continuity for users already familiar with the ecosystem and sped up decision-making across design and development.
This was my first large-scale design project end-to-end, requiring me to zoom out, think holistically and anticipate multiple edge cases.
Functionality
The reviewer allowed users to:
Leave contextual comments and create to-do tasks
Share with others and see who was viewing in real-time (spotlight feature)
Export annotated documents
Save versions and track history
Collaborate on the same file — live or asynchronously
I worked to simplify the experience by prioritising clarity in navigation, reusing familiar components, and keeping the UI focused on the document first.
Collaboration
I collaborated closely with PMs, engineers, QA, and other designers.
Together, we aligned on technical feasibility, component consistency, and user expectations.
Outcome
The product was successfully launched and used both internally and by pharmaceutical clients. It became part of a broader suite of tools designed to improve scientific review workflows across regulated environments.
Although I left the company shortly after launch, I was able to:
Lead the product design from early concept to implementation
Validate core flows through usability testing and A/B experimentation
Deliver a tool that reduced friction in collaborative review and aligned with user expectations for real-time, contextual editing
Beyond the delivery itself, this project was a milestone for me as a designer — my first end-to-end product ownership, where I had to balance system consistency, new interaction patterns, and scale.
A focused, collaborative tool — designed to bring speed and clarity to document-heavy workflows.
Outcome
The product was successfully launched and used both internally and by pharmaceutical clients. It became part of a broader suite of tools designed to improve scientific review workflows across regulated environments.
Although I left the company shortly after launch, I was able to:
Lead the product design from early concept to implementation
Validate core flows through usability testing and A/B experimentation
Deliver a tool that reduced friction in collaborative review and aligned with user expectations for real-time, contextual editing
Beyond the delivery itself, this project was a milestone for me as a designer — my first end-to-end product ownership, where I had to balance system consistency, new interaction patterns, and scale.
A focused, collaborative tool — designed to bring speed and clarity to document-heavy workflows.