3 top reasons for rethinking VM creation
User Goals, Business Goals and Product Goals
• To allow users to choose the right VM
• To enable all user types to create VMs efficiently
• To increase retention by reducing the number of pain points that users' face
• To decrease the costs associated with support and maintenance.
• To enable the product to cater to all user types
• To create a product that handles all VM creation use-cases on both cloud and on-premises infrastructure.
Studying users and product gaps
What do we know about our users and product?
Different users have different goals and hence use different number of customizations and have varied access types.
The flow is not optimized for those with low technical knowledge
Lack of contextual help and support affects domain and product learning.
The flow lacks hierarchy that differentiates primary and secondary features.
• The form is heavily based on text fields and lacks accelerators.
• Lack of batch actions: The flow allows users to create only one VM at a time.
• The current design does not support the addition of new features and customizations while retaining usability
• The flow lacks a design that allows integration of cost-metrics - an integral part of cloud infrastructure.
Ideation, user flows and design guidelines
Several concepts were brainstormed and three top concepts were chosen after studying stakeholder feedback. These include the -
1) Flat view - where all types of templates are presented together
2) Hierarchical View - where templates are divided into verticals, and
3) The Wizard- where templates are suggested based on user needs.
Based on concept feedback from stakeholders, we combined the flat view and wizard view into one concept and generated user flows.
Features and Glimpses from Final UI
Problems solved:
• Return and support features in
the nav bar create awareness and build trust in users.
• Locally revelant analogies are used such as Bag for Cart.
Problems solved:
• Return and support features in
the nav bar create awareness and build trust in users.
• Locally revelant analogies are used such as Bag for Cart.
Problems solved:
• Return and support features in
the nav bar create awareness and build trust in users.
• Locally revelant analogies are used such as Bag for Cart.
Problem solved:
• Beginners often go through a ton of documentation or reach out to seniors in order about the VM that is a best fit for the task at hand.
Problems solved:
• Environments are a collection of VM related settings and configurations such as network and storage settings.
• Pre-defined templates solve the problem of having to learn about configuring an environment.
Problems solved:
• Mobile OTP based login and checkout eliminates the need for
email ids.
Problems solved:
• Mobile OTP based login and checkout eliminates the need for
email ids.
• SMS based updates and feedback makes the process smoother
for a mobile-first market.
Problems solved:
• Mobile OTP based login and checkout eliminates the need for
email ids.
• SMS based updates and feedback makes the process smoother
for a mobile-first market.
How did we iterate to design the final solution?
Lo-fi wireframes were made for all user flows.
Based on Nutanix's style guide, the lo-fi wireframes were converted to mocks.
RITE methodology
More about my experience at Nutanix