Introduction
Following the sidebar task, it was now time to tackle the first of the three dashboards in the Trilogy: The StoryEngine. To re-iterate, The StoryEngine's goal is to be a simplified and strategically minimal writing platform for writers to get started with writing without feeling overwhelmed with too many features.

The challenge to all of this was keeping the general functionality the same, and exclusively working on aligning with the new style guide and layout.

The following goes through the original UI along with ascending versions concluding with the live version (accessible only to paid subscribers).
Original
The original StoryEngine had great ideas and layout for the time being, but now felt fragmented from the new interface structure.
Mock 1
In mock 1 I focused on bringing the rounded corners, adding in familiar iconography and cutting less important information out to further simplify the user experience.
Mock 2
In mock 2 I reverted back to some of the original features to keep familiarity for existing users. I also added more preview ideas, so users could get more pertinent information before clicking into areas for further information.
Mock 3
Mock 3 was built off mock 2, with an addition of the current project iconography links taking users directly to locations, characters, etc.
Current
In the end the top row was discarded to keep to our ideology of simplicity to the StoryEngine experience.
Learning Outcomes: 
Key Takeaways:
In the end I learned it will take a combination of taking steps forward then reverting to other ideas to reach a destination. The steps taken forward are not to be thought of as wasted, since sometimes creating something that's rejected is needed to help us understand what we don't want and why we don't want it.