CLIENT: ALL9S
All9s was a SaaS solution designed as a turn-key remote backup and replication solution for mission-critical data hosted in the cloud.
PROCESS
Working with the CEO/founder (with whom I had previously worked at VMware), we used agile development methods to define use cases and requirements that enabled the delivery of a UX design specification for MVP software development.
All9s’ solution seamlessly integrated into cloud environments, allowing control over data and freedom to move data between cloud providers at the click of a button. Unlike cloud providers like AWS and Rackspace – who supply infrastructure to host data – All9s unique technology solution delivered automated solutions to securely replicate, migrate and recover data across all cloud providers at a fraction of the cost of manual or IT-consultant solutions.
Deliverables for this project included the UX design for an Admin experience enabling a user to manage data recovery processes, including flows for important uses cases such as notification of an outage originating from a mobile device.
REQUIREMENTS AND PERSONAS
My design process begins by understanding the business problem to be solved. From there I work to understand the business context and the needs of the user population, and the use cases. For All9s, I worked with the CEO/founder to understand the business requirements, validating them in cases that have impact on the user experience. Then I worked to understand the user models, in All9s case, administrators of mid-sized enterprises. In some cases I conduct user interviews or surveys to validate assumptions.
CONCEPTS AND FLOWS
After validating requirements and understanding the user models, I work through the prioritized flows – for All9s the team worked towards a MVP (minimum viable product) design. The flow designs for All9s allowed us to define a state model for the platform, some of which would impact the user experience and be exposed to the user.
WIREFRAMES
After the flows were well understood I began work on the wireframes. Wireframing helps define the overall system layout and the interactions between screens, as well as the components to enable the interaction model. In the case of All9s, we assumed a modern web application UI framework (Bootstrap) and standard UI components. For each of the flows, I designed wireframes and the admin’s interactions to initiate and complete tasks.
BUSINESS RESULTS
All9s was an early stage venture moving very rapidly to build their first product, and defining the MVP features and architectural attributes of the platform were the primary focus. Visual design considerations and branding were not defined at that time and as such we left the visual design very simple, using the default theming construct of the UI framework. Using the design artifacts, flows and wireframes that I delivered, engineering produced a completed implementation of the V1 of the All9s product.
All9s’ CEO Arturo Fagundo wrote the following review of Karen Donoghue’s work on this project on AngelList:
“I would strongly recommend Karen Donoghue for any role within a small developing company.
Karen helped me build the product vision for All9s from the ground up and worked with me as a partner to help build the company. Karen is the best user experience designer I have ever had the pleasure to work with, but she has contributed in so many other ways to the development of All9s that it would be inadequate to describe her contributions so narrowly.
Initially Karen quickly designed a set of wireframes that we could use to recruit early adopters. This involved early product planning and design for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The resulting UX was simple and masked a complex set of technical underpinnings while reflecting the end-to-end product experience. I would emphasize that Karen demonstrated tremendous flexibility by structuring her work to ensure All9s could meet its early goals around customer adoption.
Karen also brought enthusiasm and passion for entrepreneurship. She extended herself to support the founders and the company in any way she could. This included early introductions to potential investors as well as help with the investor presentation. She also insisted on sharing in some of the risk associated with the venture.
Karen is extremely easy to work with and technically savvy. We engaged in frequent dialogs as we iterated on the product design. These sessions were often long and required delving into many of the details associated with building enterprise software. Karen’s positive attitude and technical competence made these design sessions incredibly productive.
Karen is also poised and professional in her personal conduct to the point where I have relied on her to help present to the CIO at a potential early adopter for our product.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on how HumanLogic can help with planning, designing and improving your products please visit https://humanlogic.com/.