A unified data protection platform for the mid-market.
Challenge
- Migrate multiple acquired data protection tools into a net new unified platform
- Manage a high-profile project with transparency and consistency
- Recent layoffs still impacting team productivity and capacity
Approach
- Develop project plan with regular checkpoints for research validation
- Catalog all use cases and maintain a public status tracker for them
- Introduce low and mid-fidelity wireframes into process
- Implement a common design system for the midmarket
Outcome
- Evolved platform purpose through iterative design process
- Built a lightweight, nimble design system with good defaults
- Improved transparency through consistent progress reporting
- Successfully launched as a unified data protection platform for mid-market customers
Discovery + planning
This was a high-profile project within the company. Transparency and consistency in showing our progress and inviting feedback were essential. We built a simple project plan that broke down the primary flows of this new platform and made time at regular checkpoints for flow validation and usability testing. We then built a status tracker for every use case in the project with an indicator for where it was in the low/mid/high fidelity spectrum. This tracker was included in weekly progress emails to senior management with links to every InVision prototype in play.
Low fidelity
Low fidelity planning for this project was vital — with a new platform we had an opportunity to right some wrongs from our existing products both in the user experience as well as the underlying architecture of the platform. The core design group spent considerable time planning the information architecture, user model, and key use cases for the platform before any wireframes were produced.
Mid fidelity
My bias is to stay at low or mid-fidelity as long as possible in a project. With Voltron, I produced many weeks' worth of mid-fidelity wireframes to ensure that we all agreed on this platform's core purpose. We ran our first round of validation on wireframes such as the ones below. That core purpose changed drastically from start to finish and this approach allowed us to adapt quickly.
High fidelity
Using a shared symbol library within the team allowed high-fidelity prototypes for Voltron to evolve in parallel with the wireframes. We aimed to build a lightweight and nimble UI, treading as lightly on the front-end and the user experience as possible and using good defaults and well-vetted interaction patterns where possible.
