Securing networks with real-time insights
-
Organization
BlueCat
-
My role
Design Lead
-
XFN Team size
10+
BlueCat wanted to build a real-time threat detection solution for network security experts that provided critical actionable insights in a clean and modern UI while not overwhelming users with information.
Challenge
The company had been in the networking security space for over a decade and saw an opportunity to bring a novel product to the market; one that would reveal and mitigate real-time threats to network and security engineers in the enterprise space.
The heart of the matter for the UX of this product - called DNS Edge at the time of the first release, and later renamed to Edge - was displaying vast amounts of rapidly refreshing up-to-date data in a meaningful way.
Showing users real-time network data and letting them do something about it is how we will really add value.
CTO, Bluecat
Blue Address Manager, the company's flagship product circa 2016
Process
We had to define and build the MVP (minimum viable product) of the first release quickly with limited ability to get feedback from lots of customers. After nailing down the scope, we jumped into a quick iterative process to design the application.
Discovery
Through numerous conversations with customers, we gathered data about needs, pain points, workarounds, existing solutions, and use-cases.
Design
Based on business and technology requirements as well as insights from the previous phase, annotated wireframes were created and refined iteratively.
Validation
Using the wireframes, ran feedback sessions with cross-functional stakeholders and internal networking experts. Then, a pilot version of the product was developed to test the waters with a few key customers.
Solution
As is common with many networking applications, DNS Edge presented users with a large map view of detected threats.
DNS Edge's map view
It offered the ability to easily toggle to a live real-time list view. Both views offered the ability to drill down to see threat details and understand necessary mitigation steps.
DNS Edge's list view and threat details
The product included Command Builder, a novel feature inspired by command line tools that many network engineers were adept at using, to filter down the vast amounts of data to what was relevant to the engineer's goal.
DNS Edge's Commander Builder
Outcome
We conducted over 15 usability testing sessions with the pilot release across 4 diverse customer accounts. The feedback was positive, with an average score of 4.2/5 on a single 5-point scale satisfaction question ("How satisfied were you with this application?"), and customers were keen to see a broader roll-out and more feature-rich version of the product.
Business Value
The company had set out to create a product that offered real-time actionable insights in a novel format and based on the initial feedback from customers, it seemed that DNS Edge's MVP was right on track. Though BlueCat had established itself as a serious player in the network security space, the new product demonstrated its ability and desire to move the needle and innovate in its domain.
Working on DNS Edge, I led the UX team’s efforts to establish the BlueCat Design System which was gradually rolled out to more products in the succeeding months and years.
How I Led
Brought on as the first UX resource at this sales-led tech company, I set up and scaled the design practice at the company. Starting with managing a small 3rd-party vendor team of 1 UI designer and 2 UI developers, I hired another full-time UX designer as well as a design intern (8-month internship).
Through my time at BlueCat, I also evangelized the value of UX across the organization - with several talks at company events and a tongue-in-cheek column called BadUX in the monthly Tech and Product newsletter - and educated various teams about user-centered approaches to building products.
Snippet's from the BlueCat Design System
