Inviting Users to an IBM Cloud Account
Project: Enterprise Invite User Flow Redesign
Role: UX/UI Designer
Skills: Research, Innovation, Scalability, UX, UI, Collaboration
Team: 2 designers, 1 researcher, 2 front-end developers, and many more cross-team collaborators
1st Release: October 2019
About the Project
IBM’s Identity and Access Management team focuses on security and safety around your Cloud Account. Here you can invite users to your account and define how they interact to make sure your account stays as safe and secure as possible.
The Objective
Inviting users to the account and assigning the least permissive access possible is a laborious task. Users often get frustrated and end up giving ‘super user’ access which ultimately compromises the security and safety of the account.
The Solution
Create a new experience changing the mental model of how users visualize adding colleagues to their account. Specifically, implement a more transactional experience, become more conversational with our users, and provide transparent permissions to help understand specificity in our Platform and Service roles.
The Results
Unblocked a VMware deal as we met requirements which boosted sales for IBM Cloud.
There was a 3x increase in task completion rate from 33% to 95% and a 71% increase in perceived usability from system usability scale ratings.
After the new flow launched on September 23rd, there was a 30% decrease in creation of new policies on invite flow which directly correlates to the increase in inviting users to access groups. This trend has maintained and continues to decrease as more users are adding to access groups which greatly reduces policy bloat.
Discover & Define
Generative Research
Identifying Pain Points
Understanding Our Users
Prior to kicking off this project, the research team had compiled generative research across IAM to better understand the developing needs of our users.
Here are some examples of what our users thought of the previous Invite User flow:
Additionally, the research team conducted a study of the original flow to get a more specific understanding of pain points users experience when trying to invite others to their account.
After testing with 14 external users who have knowledgeable backgrounds with the IAM domain, we were able to compile and identify these key pain points:
Problem Statement
Inviting users to an IBM Cloud account and assigning the least permissive access possible is a laborious task. Users often get frustrated and end up giving ‘super user’ access which ultimately compromises the security and safety of the account. How might we simplify the IAM invite user flow while also giving our users more transparency into IAM permissions?
Design
Mental Models
RITE Testing
Greater Team Buy-In
Exploring New Mental Models & RITE Testing
As a design team, we first looked at the overall mental model of the invite flow. With IAM being such a complex domain, we wanted to discover a new way for our users to think about inviting users to an account. Therefore, we started exploring new mental models, pulling inspiration from check out flows, mad libs approaches, and bulk action flows.
After individually creating many different possible mental models, the team came together to compile and test two possible mental models with our users.
We used RITE testing to quickly iterate on our designs and get the most feedback from our users.
Below is a snapshot of some of the iterations:
Click to enlarge.
After testing with 14 external users and iterating 2 different concepts daily, the team was able to compile user feedback and use the shopping cart mental model approach.
Additionally, we tested the shopping cart model with sponsor users and received some of the following feedback:
“So, I don't know if you see my camera but I'm waving my hands going right here, right here. I am one of those people. Please simplify.”
Greater Team Buy-In
After testing with users, we found many other improvements that could really enhance the overall user experience, above and beyond what was asked for from our offering management team.
At this point in the process, we synced with our development and offering management team to propose additional design improvements for the flow. After presenting the solutions, we received the buy in necessary to push the invite flow beyond its intended result. This was a great win not only for our users, but for the collaboration and involvement on the IAM team as a whole.
Development
Fit and Finish
Shipped Design
Demo Video
Fit and Finish with Front-End Development
The weeks leading up to shipping the invite user flow were vital for our collaboration and success of the project with our front end development team. We sat side by side to polish off the final visual touches necessary to make the project look and feel visually appealing. This was a new form of collaboration for our team which is now a very vital part of our process (in person or virtual)!
Design
We released the new invite user flow on September 23, 2019.
Below is the MVP released design with what we improved for the user in the new release:
Iterative Design
Since the invite flow’s release in 2019, IBM Cloud has had a makeover from our Carbon 9 design system to our new Carbon 10 design system.
Below is the latest visual of the invite user flow.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Video Demo
Play the video below to view the Invite User flow in action.
(Original prototypes for testing and design presentations were made in Invision)
Results
Our research team followed up testing 2 months after release to check in to see the success of the project. Below are some of the success results we concluded from testing.
After completing a comparative study, the usability SUS rating jumped from a 43 (Percentile rank: 0-14; Acceptability: Not Acceptable) to 79 (Percentile Rank: 85-89; Acceptability: Acceptable)
Unblocked a VMware deal as we met requirements which boosted sales for IBM Cloud.
There was a 3x increase in task completion rate from 33% to 95% and a 71% increase in perceived usability from system usability scale ratings.
After the new flow launched on September 23rd, there was a 30% decrease in creation of new policies on invite flow which directly correlates to the increase in inviting users to access groups. This trend has maintained and continues to decrease as more users are adding to access groups which greatly reduces policy bloat.
Next Steps
After seeing the success of the shopping cart mental model for our users, we were able to implement the same idea in the new custom roles flow that shipped in March of 2020. To see the process of that flow, click here.