APEX — AI export platform (KOTRA AITC)
APEX is the platform behind KOTRA's AI Trade Support Centers (AITC) — a nationwide programme that helps Korean SMEs become exporters. It spans three surfaces: a public landing where an SME picks one of 7 regional centres and books free services (BuyKorea product registration, product photography, space rental); a back office that runs the centres' schedules, visitors, companies and inquiries; and a suite of AI tools — background removal, concept-image and video generation, product pages and export-strategy creation, powered by GPT-4 and Claude.
- Role
- UI/UX · Front-End
- Timeline
- 2024 — Present
- Team
- Astra Technology — for KOTRA
- Scope
- Public landing + back-office + SME AI tools
Traditional export support is fragmented — associations give information, B2B platforms give buyer lists, agencies cost a fortune, consultants hand over a strategy and leave the doing to you. APEX had to fold all of that into one place: strategy and execution, content and matchmaking, for SMEs with little or no export experience — and make a government-grade programme feel approachable.
I mapped a multi-stakeholder export process into a single guided path, reducing the cognitive load of a workflow that normally lives across emails, forms and disconnected systems.
- Structured the end-to-end export workflow into clear, sequential stages.
- Designed for the several roles that touch the same shipment.
High-fidelity UI for a data-rich back office — calendar and list scheduling, filterable tables, detail modals and a left-rail of modules — all on a clean, status-driven system.
- Designed scheduling in both calendar and list views, with a clear detail / add-schedule modal.
- Made bulk setup effortless — import schedules from Excel or straight from an image via AI.
- Designed the SME-facing AI tool suite — background removal, concept-image & video generation, product pages and export-strategy creation.
- Kept it consistent with the Astra product family so APEX and FECT feel related.
I built the public AITC landing front-end via vibe-coding — including the 7-centre selector that routes each SME to its region — turning the designs into a live, responsive product.
- Coded the AITC landing end to end — 7 regional centres and the free-service highlights.
- Translated the designs into a navigable, responsive build.
- 01
Map the workflow
Broke the multi-stakeholder export process into clear, sequential stages.
- 02
Design
Built the screens on the shared Astra system so the product family stays consistent.
- 03
Build
Took it into front-end code as a working, navigable product.
One guided path, not a wall of tools
Exporters get a single sequence to follow rather than a dashboard of disconnected features — less overwhelm, faster completion.
Reuse the FECT system
Sharing one design language across APEX and FECT meant a consistent product family and far less rework.
- ✦A complete, navigable export workspace — design through to live front-end.
Designing for a government programme meant making something rigorous feel effortless — an SME with no export experience should never feel the bureaucracy underneath. Building the public landing in code myself kept the vision intact, from the Figma comp to the live 7-centre selector.