Designing a Getting Started guide for Network Management SaaS
Client
Cloud-based Networks Management Solution
Role
Lead User Experience Designer
Platforms
Desktop
About the Client
A newly launched startup building the industry’s first cloud-native enterprise mobile networking solution. Their product combines 5G wireless technology with AI-driven infrastructure management, helping enterprises monitor performance, track devices, and configure network rules across locations. With rapid customer growth post-stealth, they needed to significantly improve the dashboard experience before scaling new features.
Problem & Context
One of the biggest bottlenecks Highway9 faced in onboarding clients onto their platform was the initial configuration of required infrastructure both physically and digitally. Previously the configuration process depended on a lot of different stakeholders like the client, the client’s on-site engineers or tech team and the engineers and support from the Cloud Solution team. The client team would be required to know the details of their network infrastructure setup such as the equipment used and the relevant setup details in order to make sure that their network is added to the Cloud Solution dashboard. Since the setup was manual in the initial stages, the Cloud Solution team would work with the client to get the details and onboard the client on to the platform. This process could take anything from 3 days to around 4 weeks to be completely done. The initial brief was to create a wizard or getting started guide to simplify the onboarding and configuration tasks, while also making the process much shorter.
Stakeholders & Team
Chief Technology Officer,
Engineering Lead,
2 Engineers and
1 Product Designer (Me)
Initial Brief and Requirements
The first task at hand was to look at the current settings and configuration screens, and to pick the fields that would be absolutely necessary during the setup process. The CTO also mentioned his preferences of the wizard/guide to be a full-width experience. We also suggested that any space on the right side of the page can be used to explain definitions of terms and configurations that needed explanation. Over the course of the work on this project, it was conveyed to us by the engineering lead that they want to use the newly designed configuration screens to replace the existing settings screens with the only difference that there would be more fields visible in the screens seen after the platform is setup.
Key Requirements:
— Provide installation/setup guide for components such as Edges
— The getting started guide or wizard should be a full screen experience
— The settings will be based on the existing settings in the product
— Not all fields from each step of the settings will be considered. Only the ones that are crucial during the initial setup and onboarding stage will be shown.
Information Architecture
We worked closely with the team to know which are the important input fields from every stage of the setup that are needed for the onboarding of the client on to the platform. For this, we looked at all the existing settings screens and picked out the fields that were needed. There were 8 existing settings flows and a new flow for addition of devices to the network was also needed.
Wireframing
Final Output
Here's some components and selected screens from the final output
Outcomes & Impact
The Getting Started guide screens proved improve onboarding times for new clients significantly and also upgraded the initial settings screens. Since the new layout was preferred, the older settings screens were also replaced by layouts similar to the screens created for this flow.
The team also made a decision to keep the Getting Started flow accessible from the profile menu so it’s easier for users to access at any given time even after setup is completed, in the case that they would have an infrastructural upgrade and would have to go back to re-configure components in the network.
Key Outcomes:
— Reduced setup times from initial contact with the client to the first stage of onboarding
— Upgraded existing settings screens to a newer visual design and a full width layout with contextual help content for each stage of the flow
— Users were able to start the setup process in a non-linear manner which allowed them to complete the processes for the components that they already had arrangements for. In case of any dependencies on information from other stakeholders, the user could revisit a flow at a later time when they had the information to continue.
Future Scope & Learnings
The idea of sending across a checklist to the client before the onboarding process ignited the idea of a data collection exercise during the early phases of enquiry for availing services of Cloud Solution which would make the setup process even faster. If the client is able to provide all details about their network infrastructure during the early phases of enquiry, the data can be saved to pre-fill the steps of onboarding and also help the Enterprise Network Management company to prepare for client setups more efficiently. The Getting Started flows helped identify the important fields that would be needed from an institution and ideas for a much more efficient flow was added to the roadmap. One of the key takeaways from the project was identifying the opportunity to save a large amount of time by informing the client about the infrastructure and setup requirements before hand.
