NIDM
A network infrastructure data management application, serving as the source of truth for network devices to leverage automation capabilities. It acts as a central integration point for network management ecosystem.
My Input
Product design lifecycle and UX implementation strategy development
UX/IA/UI research & design
Brand architecture & identity design
Disclaimer: Some content has been modified to protect sensitive information. As a result, certain details may appear blurred or incomplete.
Challenges
Legacy system UI
Fragmented system integration: Multiple tools and systems within the network ecosystem do not communicate effectively. As the product meant to be the source of truth, it lacks a clear strategy for streamlining the device management lifecycle and integrating with downstream tools.
Engineer-focused design: Initially developed by engineers without a user-centered design, resulting in manual and inefficient workflow that contributes to data quality issues.
Low user adoption: Due to usability and data quality challenges, user engagement is minimal, with many relying on workarounds.
No prior UX process: Integrating UX into the product development process has been challenging, facing resistance due to time constraints and limited understanding of UX principles.
UX Implementation Strategy
Addressing the lack of a UX process was essential before starting the project. Previously, UX and development operated in silos, leading to inefficiencies. The proposed new process, supported by visual artifacts, initiated brainstorming, improved workflows, and bridged the gap between UX and development, aligning both teams towards a common goal.
Current:
Siloed Process
UX and development processes are disjointed.
UX should complement, not compete with technical functionalities, as it is integral to the overall user experience rather than a standalone feature.
Proposed:
Integrated Processed
Integrating UX ensures a more efficient, cohesive, and unified final product.
Product Design Lifecycle
Outlining the steps, deliverables, and roles involved in the product design lifecycle, ensuring a cohesive and streamlined approach for teams involved.
UX Research
Objective
Identify key current and potential users of the product.
Analyze the device lifecycle workflow and its interaction with other tools and systems.
Identify key pain points and areas for improvement.
Methodologies
Workshops
User Interviews
Surveys
Usability Testing
At the start of our research, there was no clear understanding of who was responsible for what, making it challenging to identify the right user group. To overcome this, we broadened the range of potential stakeholders and refined the target audience as we gained more insight.
Role-based Persona
Role-based personas were created to focus on functions and responsibilities. Given the variety of job titles, I identified patterns and common tasks across roles. This revealed discrepancies, such as developers handling tasks meant for other roles.
The result was a set of clear, role-based profiles that aligned with our use cases, ensuring the personas were relevant despite varied job titles. These profiles provided clarity across the organization and guided more efficient user stories, tasks, and overall decision-making.
Journey Map
We captured high-level goals, activities, tools used, and pain points. The device replacement process emerged as the most complex workflow, requiring deeper analysis to understand and address effectively.
Key Findings
Multiple pages and forms required for each tasks.
Repetitive data entry, both within this system and across disjointed systems.
Incongruent terminology for functions and statuses across teams and tools.
Unclear instructions and a complicated user flow lead to incorrect data entry just to complete tasks.
Users resort to manually modifying data as a workaround to system limitations, posing a high-risk data quality issue.
One of the biggest issues observed is the manual data modification.
For example, status changes are done manually, with users having to change each status as a separate action, rather than automating the process based on user actions.
There's a significant opportunity to streamline this process, creating a seamless flow instead of treating every task as an isolated action.
Information Architecture
Objective
The information architecture was a critical aspect of this project, given the lack of reliable and well-documented workflows, processes, and logic.
To build a solid foundation from scratch, I focused on mapping, auditing, and analyzing the current state to ensure a data-driven approach, rather than relying on assumptions from stakeholders.
Outcome
By documenting and evaluating the status quo, I was able to uncover inefficiencies, clarify system logic, and provide a comprehensive overview of how information flowed within the system.
This allowed us to make informed decisions that addressed real issues, aligning the architecture with actual user needs and system functionality, rather than just theoretical insights.
User Flow
With the journey map in place, we further explored the flow of each use case, capturing the roles involved, status transitions, tools used, and key data entries at each stage. This detailed mapping provided a clearer understanding of the workflow on a granular level and where bottlenecks or inefficiencies were occurring.
Each user interactions within the workflow were then further mapped out in detail.
Problem example
Navigating through numerous pages and perform repetitive actions to complete what should have been a simple task.
By having a clear, visual representation of this issue, we were able to effectively communicate the problem to stakeholders, driving conversations on how to improve user efficiency.
Sitemap
After mapping out the sitemap, I uncovered significant issues with the taxonomy, including illogical hierarchies and category errors.
For instance, actions that should have been part of a page were treated as separate entities, disrupting the typology of the site. This led to unpredictable interactions and incorrectly nested pages.
Additional auditing of each page and its content conducted, identifying areas where the hierarchy and navigation needed correction.
One of the major challenges was the inability to leverage automated tools due to the complex nature of the company’s external software access limitations. As a result, I had to manually map out the entire sitemap and its details, a time-consuming process that could have been expedited with access to the right technology.
The sitemap restructuring led to
70%+ reduction in clutter
More logical and streamlined navigation
Faster and easier to find relevant information and complete tasks efficiently
Concept Testing
After the initial research and information architecture audit, I developed hypotheses aimed at improving the user experience, which I tested by creating wireframes and gathering user feedback.
Hypothesis Focus Areas
Streamlining workflows
Optimizing data entry
Integrating helpful information
Content organization
Standardizing terminology
Validation
Users responded positively to many of the proposed improvements, while also identifying areas for further refinement.
More detailed in the Hypothesis Validation Matrix below.
Wireframe
Clickable low-fidelity wireframes were created and tested using InVision
Testing
Synthesis
Hypothesis Validation Matrix
Scope Adjustments
During the project, business direction changes impacted the time frame, which required adjustments to the MVP and design. To meet the new timeline, collaboration with the product owner and development team was essential to prioritize tasks based on development feasibility. As a result, some features were deprioritized and simplified to meet the revised project goals.
Refine Solutions
Service Blueprint structured as a layered swimlane diagram, with process elements and components aligned to each status, providing a holistic view of the entire process, allowing stakeholders to easily understand the project and its goals.
Data Flow Diagram (DFD) The data flow diagram highlights the decisions, steps/pages, inputs, and outputs for each use case, providing a comprehensive view of how information flows through the system. As a critical technical requirement handed off to development, ensuring completeness and clarity was essential.
The development team highly appreciated this level of detail, as it streamlined the process without the need to translate designs or documentations.
Prototypes were created with new solutions drafted based on the feedback and ongoing ideation sessions with stakeholders.
Interaction Prototypes provide users with the ability to navigate through streamlined workflows, interact with dynamic fields, and experience the improved design layout.
Global Components are unique, reusable elements—such as tables, forms, and pages—that form the foundation of the UI library. I developed these components to address the current issue of one-off templates and to ensure consistency across the application.
Service Blueprint
This bird's-eye view has been instrumental in guiding discussions, ensuring alignment, and has even become a template for future work.
Data Flow Diagram (DFD)
Prototype
The prototypes are designed based on the global components discussed earlier, highlighting the key solutions. By leveraging reusable elements, we focused on creating solutions that are scalable and efficient.
Pioritized bulk imports, with the option to add devices individually as needed.
Overview
Review stage to understand expected outcomes, and make any necessary edits before proceeding.
Particularly important due to downstream tool integration, ensuring that any changes are correctly reflected and do not negatively impact related systems.
Adding New Device Workflow
Designate the row of the spreadsheet as the column header, simplifying data input.
Activity Detail
Sidebar for statuses, essential information and quick links.
Device management lifecycle progress indicator
Downstream tool integration group status indicator.
Ability to move all devices within the activity as a group through the lifecycle, streamlining the process and ensuring consistency across all devices.
Device List
Introducing metadata for grouping activities.
Listing by latest activity.
Sorting by user ownership.
Match column headers with system names, a process that is currently manual, to reduce errors and save time
Data Validation
Based on validation results, the system prompts additional actions, ensuring issues are addressed before proceeding.
Also supports single-add functionality, allowing users to add individual rows as needed for greater flexibility and control.
Dashboard
I’ve introduced the dashboard solution initially for the IPAM experience and is currently in the concept phase. The plan is to expand this concept to other functional areas of the system as a future feature.
Device Detail
Sidebar for statuses, essential information and quick links.
Device-level downstream tool integration status indicator.
Reorganized layout for improved usability.
Brand Architecture & Identity
The branding architecture and identity design focused on establishing a cohesive and consistent visual identity across the network department. This involved understanding the hierarchy within the parent brand ecosystem, differentiating between client-facing and non-client-facing products, and designing logos for endorsed sub-products powered by the main product.
The design aimed to reflect the department’s values and tone while maintaining alignment with the broader Bank of America brand identity.
Reflection
Takeaways
This has been one of my favorite projects, not because the process was perfect or easy, but, on the contrary, due to the complexity and difficulties I had to navigate—whether technical challenges, time constraints, or interpersonal dynamics. These obstacles provided opportunities for problem-solving and personal growth in patience and resilience.
The experience was also extremely rewarding, as I received numerous appreciation from end users. Building solid relationships with them and being able to alleviate their years of frustration made the effort truly priceless.
What I would do differently
I discovered the team driving the most progress later in the process. In future projects, I would focus on identifying and engaging key teams or individuals earlier to expedite progress.
I also made the assumption that leadership had a better grasp of certain project dynamics, which slowed down decision-making. Moving forward, I would be more assertive in advocating for UX from the start, especially in environments where it's not prioritized.
And lastly, as always, never assume anything.