Platform:
Web
Role:
Product Designer
Timeline:
Jan 2023 - Oct 2023
Overview
idgard is a secure cloud collaboration platform powered by patented Sealed Cloud Technology, ensuring that sensitive data remains protected while enabling seamless teamwork.
Managing over 20,000 users was a slow, frustrating process, leading to rising support tickets and customer dissatisfaction. I co-led the UX effort at Uniscon to simplify user workflows, reduce load times by 80%, and improve enterprise collaboration. This case study explores how we tackled performance bottlenecks, restructured the user interface, and improved customer satisfaction by 15%.
Impact in a Nutshell
My Role
Our team: 1 Product Owner, 2 UX Designers (including me), 6 Frontend Developers, 1 Test automation engineer, 1 Scrum Master, 3 QA
I co-led the UX/Product Design (Individual Contributor) with another designer for the idgard web app redesign, including the User Management feature.
Work Division
As co-leads, we collaborated across all design phases (research, wireframing, testing, visual design) within Agile sprints. I focused on English-speaking user research, while the other designer handled German-speaking users. Tasks were divided per sprint based on the broader idgard web app redesign, with me solely designing mobile apps and other products.
The Problem
Complex User Creation
Creating users required multiple steps within a cluttered interface, causing daily frustration for administrators.
Performance Bottleneck
Enterprises managing over 20,000 users faced load times of up to three minutes - pushing key clients toward competitors.
Lack of Transparency
There was no simple way to filter or batch-manage users, making license allocation inefficient and costly.
Inconsistent UI
The UI lacked a consistent visual style, and stakeholders demanded a modern design aligned with our evolving brand.
The Challenge
Status Quo
The old interface buried essential actions behind nested menus, forcing admins to click through multiple steps. Additionally, data loading was unoptimized, leading to prolonged wait times for large enterprises with tens of thousands of users.
Process
Research & Analysis
User Feedback & Support Tickets
We analyzed over 50 support tickets specifically mentioning user management delays. This helped us identify top pain points such as unclear role assignments, slow loading times, and lack of filtering for license management.
Stakeholder Interviews
We spoke with three enterprise clients’ IT admins to uncover their daily frustrations and usage scenarios. Their input highlighted the urgent need for a more efficient user creation flow.
Ground Work
Design System
Instead of building a design system from scratch, we incorporated the Flowbite library and customized it to match our brand. This step ensured consistency across components while reducing development overhead.
Ground Work
Documentation in Supernova.io
We documented all UI components, styles, and typography in Supernova, providing a single source of truth for designers and developers.
Ground Work
Usability Testing Infrastructure
I led the initiative to form an internal usability testing group, creating an email distribution list for quick recruitment and scheduling. This allowed us to streamline the testing process whenever new prototypes were ready.
Ideation & Wireframing
Brainstorming
We used Miro to reorganize information architecture with stickies, reducing complexity around user creation. Our sketches focused on lowering cognitive load and visually separating user roles.
From Low-Fi to Mid-Fi (and High-Fi) Prototypes
Initially, we produced low- to mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma to validate layout and label clarity. Afterwards, we created high-fidelity mockups for deeper feedback on visuals and interactions.
Testing & Iteration
Moderated vs. Unmoderated Testing
We began with moderated usability tests but found scheduling and participant pressure to be barriers. Transitioning to Maze (unmoderated testing) let us collect feedback from more people in less time, boosting efficiency and reducing participant bias.
Refining Bulk Actions
During Alpha user tests, admin participants struggled with bulk user creation. Based on this feedback, we refined the bulk creation flow—simplifying it to clarify role assignments and license usage.
Implementation & Collaboration
Design System Alignment
By integrating Flowbite components and our brand guidelines in Figma, we ensured a consistent look and feel across all user management screens. This approach also helped the dev team work faster with pre-built, standardized components.
Performance Optimization
I partnered closely with frontend developers to implement efficient API calls and lazy loading, cutting load times drastically, especially for enterprise clients managing over 20,000 users. Weekly reviews validated performance metrics, UI consistency, and alignment with our user experience goals.
Final Design
Results & Impact
User Satisfaction: We saw a 15% boost in customer satisfaction scores, correlating to user management improvements.
Performance: Loading times reduced by 80%, from an average of 2 minutes to ~20 seconds.
Retention/Revenue: Key enterprise clients renewed their contracts, attributing the new user management experience as a primary factor.
Learnings
This project taught me the value of iterative, unmoderated testing to uncover genuine user insights early and often. By balancing performance gains with intuitive flows and collaborating with developers from the start, we fostered a true sense of shared ownership that drove a user-centric outcome. Catching usability pain points early ultimately saved us from costly pivots later on.