Thrivea

The Challenge

Thrivea approached Elder with the need to design a new HRIS functionality for their platform — a holiday and leave calendar system. The functionality needed to seamlessly integrate into the existing Thrivea ecosystem while maintaining consistency with the current design system.

Key requirements included:

• Importing national holiday calendars via API and managing events within them
  (adding, deleting, linking to locations and employees).
• Creating entirely new, custom holiday calendars with the option to define unique events.
• Visual display of holidays and leave types in both grid and table formats
  (annual leave, sick leave, personal days, religious holidays, etc.)

The ultimate goal was to make the web design simple, straightforward, and intuitive for HR managers and employees to organise and visualise time off across their organisations.

Elder’s Role

The client required UX/UI design services, specifically:

• UX research and mapping of user needs
• Designing intuitive user flows for holiday management
• Creating wireframes and prototypes
• Delivering final UI design consistent with Thrivea’s design system

Given that our team joined the project towards its final development phase, we worked within certain limitations: parts of the functionality were already built, so our solutions had to align with what was technically feasible without breaking existing logic.

Our Design Process

At Elder, we rely on the Design Thinking methodology (Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) to ensure human-centred outcomes.

1. Discovery and Research

We began with a briefing call with Thrivea’s team to understand the current platform, user needs, and technical constraints. Our designers explored the existing live platform and studied the design system already in use.

2. Information Architecture and User Flows

We mapped out the structure of the holiday calendar functionality, ensuring that HR managers could:

• Import national calendars quickly
• Manage events with minimal friction
• Easily switch between views (grid and table)

3. Wireframing and Prototyping

Using Figma, we developed low-fidelity wireframes to outline the core functionality of the project. Interactive prototypes enabled us to validate the flow logic early, ensuring that the system minimises cognitive load.

4. Visual Design and UI Consistency

We applied Thrivea’s existing design system, ensuring seamless visual consistency across the platform. This included typography, colour palette, and component styling. The goal was to make the new feature feel native to the platform, not like an add-on.

5. Iteration and Feedback

Given the international user base of Thrivea, we designed for clarity and accessibility, taking into account multilingual support, localisation of holidays, and varying HR practices across markets.

The Outcome

The result was a user-friendly holiday and leave calendar system that is both powerful and intuitive. With the new functionality, Thrivea’s clients can:

• Import and manage national holidays effortlessly
• Create custom calendars tailored to organisational needs
• Visualise employee leave across the company at a glance
• Improve HR efficiency and reduce scheduling conflicts

This feature enhances Thrivea’s HRIS offering, positioning the platform as a more comprehensive solution for global companies.

Why Thrivea Chose Elder

Elder was selected for this project because of our expertise in UX/UI design for SaaS platforms and HR technology. Our approach combines:

• Cross-functional collaboration with client teams
• Psychology-driven design, applying cognitive science and neuromarketing principles
• Platform-specific thinking tailored to enterprise HR systems
• A results-oriented mindset focused on usability, scalability, and adoption

We continue to support SaaS companies, such as Thrivea, in building intuitive, scalable, and engaging digital products that drive both adoption and business results. Let us know if you need our help as well.