Red Hat Marketplace
Roles: User Experience, Visual Design, Data Visualization, UX Writer
I joined IBM in 2019, just after Red Hat was acquired for $34B with the goal of upending the enterprise cloud software market. Red Hat Marketplace was the first product to go to market and I was hired to help lead the design. The design team was tapped to create a more consumer-like experience for purchasing and deploying software. This was to be an all-in-one platform for customers to try, buy and deploy container-based software on the cloud of their choosing.
The Challenge
Red Hat Marketplace’s customers are made up of a varied set of interconnected user groups, each with equally diverse needs and challenges.
Developers want to quickly develop and deploy apps on any platform.
IT leaders are searching for standardization, security, compliance and cost savings.
Procurement managers need the ability to manage usage and allocation of purchased products.
Software vendors want to market and sell their product to the broadest set of users possible.
The User Journeys
Now that we have determined our potential users and the challenges they face, the design team created a list of user-focused journeys in order to stay focused on what makes a successful experience. Our principle designer set up an initial high level journey through the platform. Journeys I led or played a large role in are listed in bold.
Get started and create and account
Find a product that meets their needs
Try or buy a product
Use the product they purchased
Pay based on their usage of the product
Journey: Use the product they purchased
The process
In order for developers to be able to use the software they purchased, they also had to be able to manage the software. I began cataloging all of the different actions that would need to be taken from a single piece of software — updating, deploying, purchasing a trial, removing, renewing a subscription. From here I created low-fidelity wireframes for these flows and compiled a list of questions to investigate. I worked with the design team, product managers and UX researchers to find answers and start to narrow the scope for MVP.
As requirements became more defined, so did the design. The My Software page would be the hub for all purchased software. I designed the card that would represent entitled software along with all of the actions and states one card could encompass. I also created the details page for purchases software where a developer would begin their deployment journey, read documentation, or ask for support.
The MVP
After the fundamentals of the journey were defined — a developer can see and deploy software they purchased — advanced requirements began to take shape. I created flows to show how a user can search and filter their software, and how a user can see and distinguish between multiple entitlements of the same piece of software.
I worked along side a product manager and technical lead to validate these flows and then moved them into high fidelity, and created specs to hand off to our developers. The developers and I worked very closely having reviews to make sure the designs were being met.
The iterations
Soon after launch, I led highly strategic initiatives critical to the success of our users. I partnered with stakeholders and helped lead a collaborative effort with design, developers and product managers to design new features for product bundles, products with multiple operators and deploying datasets.
Journey: Pay based on their usage of the product
The process
After the initial launch of Red Hat Marketplace, we shifted focus to our procurement managers. They need the ability to manage usage and allocation of purchased products. I partnered with two other designers on the marketplace team to identify who would need usage data and how they would consume it.
A developer needs to understand what has been used and how much is left in the current plan.
An IT leader and procurement manager need to see spending trends.
A developer’s journey goes through the My software area, a natural fit to to surface usage to that user group. The spending trends data would be shown in a net new usage area. As a team we worked together to ensure the two areas had a consistent look. We started by defining user stories and then I began whiteboarding data visualization ideas.
The solution
Helping our users understand usage was an extremely complex problem given multiple types of metrics, data availability, and allocating by department. I designed a chart that combined total usage and usage by department. This chart was repurposed and also used on the new usage dashboard.
Other work
Outside of these two main user journeys, I made other large contributions to the design of Red Hat Marketplace. I was the initial designer for our support experience as well as documentation and API reference.
Accolades
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2021 Indigo award
Red Hat Marketplace won:
Gold in UX, Interface & Navigation 2021;
Silver in Animation & Illustration for Websites 2021 -
Eminence and excellence
I received this IBM award for my individual contributions to the successful launch of the marketplace.
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Design Luminary
I was named a design luminary at IBM — recognized as a breakthrough leader within my team and the organization.