// dadalab

ServiceNow Knowledge Base · Interaction design prototype

What’s it called?

ServiceNow naming decisions kept getting lost in chat threads and tribal memory — the same term redefined by three teams, none of them aware of the other two.

This is a working prototype of one way to approach the problem: a searchable, role-aware knowledge base where anyone can browse, members can propose a term, and admins can find the decision maker and publish it. Nine iterations in, it’s the clearest proof on this site of how I think about interaction design, not just words on a screen.

62 termsmodeled with category, maturity, and stability metadata 3 rolesAdmin, Member, and Guest each see a different set of affordances 9 iterationsfive still live below

Role

Product Designer

Scope

Interaction design, terminology architecture, role-based permission modeling, front-end prototyping

Timeline

May 16 – July 4, 2026

Outcome

A functioning role-aware KB prototype: search-first entry, live type-ahead, a working suggest-and-approve pipeline, and an interactive related-terms graph

What you’re looking at

This isn’t ServiceNow — it’s a concept, built from real ServiceNow terminology, that treats “who’s asking” as a first-class input. Switch roles in the top bar of the tool below. As Admin, you publish immediately. As Member, your suggestions land in a pending queue for review. As Guest, you can browse and search but not contribute — the “Add term” action disappears rather than failing quietly.

Try it: search for something (“glide,” “CMDB,” “role”), then select a result card — related terms highlight in green, scored by shared tags rather than a fixed taxonomy. Switch to Member, suggest a term, then switch to Admin and approve it from the Pending queue. That loop — propose, review, publish — is the actual interaction problem this prototype set out to solve.

Not affiliated with ServiceNow, Inc. The terminology is real; the tool is a portfolio concept.

↗ Pending
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62 entries
Portfolio concept · dadalab.com  ·  Not affiliated with ServiceNow, Inc.  ·  About this project
Design evolution — five iterations, annotated

Nine versions total; four are lost to iteration. What’s below are the five still live, each annotated with what changed and why. Opens in a new tab — the version-switcher inside the tool above (in its About panel) will bring you back here.

  1. v4 Sidebar layout · 32 terms · DM Sans · typeahead search · inline edit and delete · working pending approve/reject panel with live count
  2. v5 About modal added · opens on load · kebab menu · subtle visual update
  3. v6 Redesigned header · 62 Airtable terms · IBM Plex · color-coded category badges · stability overlaid on card corner · pending approve/reject regressed to non-functional in this rewrite (restored in v9)
  4. v8 Category colors removed (arbitrary + inaccessible) · stability moved to card footer · maturity filter dropped · AI highlight introduced · role-aware add term CTA
  5. v9you’re on it Search promoted to the primary entry point, with a larger input and live type-ahead across terms and categories · CTA hierarchy simplified to one solid action per view · matcha green re-scoped from a static AI tag to an interactive related-terms highlight on hover or click · multi-role pending review restored: amber-highlighted proposed terms visible to every role, Admin-only approve, and session state standing in for a live Sheets/Airtable connection