BlogJanuary 1, 2026

IQON and Once UI: Scaling with a design system

Lorant,Zach,Chander
IQON and Once UI: Scaling with a design system
PlatformDesktop app
StackOnce UI · Tauri
TimelineProduction in 2 months
IQON app montage
IQON is a seed-funded startup building a modern PC monitoring experience — a native desktop app focused on clarity, performance, and visual feedback.
Before my involvement, the project already had strong ambitions and early design work created by an external studio. However, frontend progress had slowed, timelines were unclear, and the team needed a reliable foundation they could actually ship and build on.
IQON app montage
That’s where I joined.
My focus was not redesigning the product from scratch, but executing the vision fast and correctly — translating complex, native-style designs into a real, maintainable application.

Where speed and quality collide

Lorant delivered a rock-solid frontend for our landing page and desktop app — fast, clean, and production-ready.
Zach
Founder @IQON
Mockup image of the IQON app
I worked on:
  • Implementing the full desktop app frontend using Once UI and Next.js
  • Integrating the existing backend into the new UI
  • Recreating and refining the IQON logo
  • Strengthening the visual identity using Once UI effects such as MatrixFx
  • Delivering a production-ready landing page alongside the app
  • Establishing a clean, modular, component-based architecture for future features
While the designs originated elsewhere, the responsibility for turning them into a functional, native-feeling desktop application — and doing so quickly — sat with me.
From day one, the goal was to avoid the kind of technical debt that slows teams down later.
That meant:
  • no legacy patterns
  • no tightly coupled components
  • no rushed hacks to “just make it work”
Original IQON landing page hero
Reworked IQON landing page hero with Once UI
Instead, the app was built with:
  • clear separation of concerns
  • reusable, composable components
  • predictable data flow
  • a structure that IQON’s internal team could easily extend
After handoff, their developers were able to fine-tune, polish, and continue development without needing to rewrite or untangle the frontend.

A system I’d choose again

After building UIs with tools from Windows Forms to Tailwind, Once UI stands out. It’s flexible and very easy to pick up.
Chander L. Miller
Senior Engineer, Founder @IQON
Mockup image of the IQON settings page
A key part of IQON’s identity is how it feels — modern, technical, and precise.
Rather than relying on custom one-off visuals, the branding leaned heavily on Once UI’s system-level effects, such as MatrixFx, gradients, and motion primitives. This allowed the app and landing page to feel cohesive while remaining flexible and maintainable.
IQON app montage
The result was a stronger, more unified brand, without sacrificing speed or code quality.
In roughly two months, IQON went from fragmented progress to:
  • a production-ready desktop app frontend
  • a polished landing page
  • a clean, extensible codebase
  • a UI foundation capable of supporting rapid feature development
What had previously taken months without a clear endpoint was replaced with momentum, clarity, and a shippable product.
With the frontend foundations in place, IQON is now focused on expanding functionality, refining performance insights, and continuing to evolve the product experience — without being held back by early technical decisions.
For me, this project reinforced the value of combining a strong design system with focused execution: when the UI layer is done right, entire teams move faster.
Lorant
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