The IBM Cloud UI Library
Design team
Lisa Kaiser, Jeeyoung Yang, Kevin Camelo, Stephanie Cree, Adam Habensusz, Maximilian Hammer, Asha Newsom, JP Pollard, Nick Stiles, Sándor Vass
Creating and managing resources on Cloud is complex. Crafting a solution to meet security, compliance and configuration standards can take days or weeks and involve highly complicated processes. What if the process was simplified and shortened? What would it look like? What is the next generation of Cloud?
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Tasked with simplifying our Cloud UI, I led my team to create a new component library that not only guides users through the complex process, but it also challenges the industry standard of productive interfaces by enhancing the Cloud experience with moments of delight through expressive and productive features.
“The old design felt like
a knowledge repository,
the IBM Cloud
Experimental design
felt like a tool.”
IBM Cloud User feedback
When we shared these designs with our users in a comparative research study, the results were undeniable. Participants unanimously rated IBM Cloud Experimental as more trustworthy, modern, approachable, professional and impressive than its predecessor.
IBM Cloud Pattern Asset Library Team. (2022). IBM Cloud Experimental &
a glimpse into the future of IBM Cloud's UI.
700% increase in
user adoption
We worked organically with several sponsor product teams within IBM Cloud to diverge, iterate, and converge— testing and validating the new design system within product contexts. Naturally, the insights collected throughout led to enhancements for IBM Cloud Experimental.
When IBM Cloud for VMware recreated its product experience with the experimental design system they saw an increase in user creation and adoption by 700% and their usability score improved from a B to an A grade.
IBM Cloud for VMware. (2023). VMware research playback.
IBM Cloud Experimental sparked a revolution within Cloud. Cross-collaboration between teams on Cloud Platform brought forth innovative ideas to solve today’s issues with future-facing designs. We invited all IBM Cloud professionals to bring their knowledge, thoughts, ideas, and opinions to make a product that truly benefits our users. Through this experience, we invoked change within our community that was revolutionary.