The background
At Atlan, I found myself on an exhilarating journey. My mission? To elevate the quality and accessibility of our products while ensuring a consistent experience across the board. As our company grew rapidly, I took a bird's-eye view of our design landscape. I collaborated with designers, mentored them, and focused on delivering not just solutions but unforgettable experiences. Quality became synonymous with Atlan in our users' minds.
The spark of an idea
During one of our townhall meeting, I presented a vision. I connected our company long-term strategy to user experience. This idea resonated with my team and leadership, igniting a wave of support. It was clear: user experience could be our competitive edge.
Building momentum
I organized several sessions with designers, engineers, and product managers. We shared concerns, suggestions, and questions. This collaboration brought clarity and excitement to the team. To truly understand our users’ challenges, I reached out directly:
- I spoke with customers to hear their pain points.
- Collaborated with sales and sales engineers for insights.
- Held brainstorming sessions with fellow designers.
Challenges
As we dove deeper into our work, we encountered significant challenges:
- Users felt confused due to disjointed interactions across the product.
- Our copy varied in tone and clarity, leading to misunderstandings.
- Engineers spent excessive time building custom components for new features.
- Less experienced designers lacked clear guidelines and best practices.
- Accessibility was an afterthought, leading some customers to choose competitors over us.
The opportunities
To tackle these issues, I teamed up with other designers for a comprehensive product audit. We shared our findings with stakeholders, paving the way for strategic improvements.
I laid the groundwork for our design by establishing tokens, typography, and essential elements—all while embedding accessibility from the start. I created concise documentation with examples to guide usage and best practices.
Colors
Typography & layout
Icons
Throughout this process, I consistently shared updates with designers and stakeholders, incorporating their feedback.
Components
Here are few components we designed and build.
Meaningful experiences
With our foundation in place, I prioritized building components that addressed user needs rather than merely redesigning existing ones. This approach aimed for a purposeful experience for end-users.
Working closely with the marketing team and technical writers, we developed a powerful framework for product content—after all, content made up 80% of the user experience.
Celebrating impact
The release marked a pivotal moment for me and my team—a fun yet challenging journey that paid off:
- Within four months, 4 out of 6 customers cited ease of use as a key reason for choosing us over competitors.
- We established a solid foundation in content design and user experience.
- Designers and engineers grew closer together.
- Engineering became faster and more focused on solving real business problems.
- Designers began thinking holistically about user experiences during reviews.
- We quickly addressed long-standing user experience issues.