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IBM Support Portal

How Can We Help You?

IBM - SP - Case Study

Project Overview


In 2015, IBM established the Support Portal New Generation as a Hallmark Project and so began the journey to create the new and improved IBM support experience. After receiving the title as a Hallmark project, the SPNG team realized they needed a designer who could do more than just create strong visuals. The team requested a designer who could think and go beyond just pushing pixels. They wanted a human-centered, visual designer capable of making their vision come to life.​

Role

Research, UX, Visual Design

 

Deliverables

  • Wireframes

  • Prototypes

  • High-Fidelity Mockups

The Team (remote team)

  • Business Managers

  • Engineering Lead

  • Backend Devs

Platform

  • Web (Focus)

  • Helped with the web app part-time

Tools

  • Photoshop

IBM Design sprint bootcamp in Raleigh, North Carolina

The Original Support Portal

 

In the recent years, IBM has begun investing more resources into internal and external software products and services. Example A (photo below) is what the current support experience looks like. A challenge with the current support portal is that information and resources are not located in one central repository. The experience is disjointed and it can feel like hunting for a needle in a haystack.

Focus was home redesign - this was the original homepage

Before I Started

Before joining this project, the lead information architect created a sitemap, provided some base for the information hierarchy, and had initial sketches laid out.

Before I joined the project, the information architect created HTML prototypes (two possible directions shown above) which the team wanted me to initially design around

Business Goals

  1. Search is key, should be front and center 

  2. Information on the homepage is ordered in a way that addresses the most common questions and concerns of users

  3. Use new IBM brand guidelines when designing

  4. The redesign should fall into line with other initiatives happening across both internal and external
    IBM experiences

 

Room for Improvement

 

The original experience was disjointed and the lack of a centralized search experience made it very difficult to quickly access information.

Also, common information and links are buried under several layers of menu, a goal would be to surface these quick links for the most common inquiries.

 

Design Iterations for Homepage

Design Iterations for Dashboard

Mobile Tech Web App

 

Experimenting with possible dashboards for the mobile web app. This would be used by those that were working in the server farms and needed the ability to view the support portal on the go.

 

Explored the use of colors, tiles, icons. This project was not implemented during my time on the project it was more about exploring what direction the team could take. 

Reflection

 

It was very rewarding creating work for a high profile project. Through research, it is very easy to see why it is extremely important for a company to provide a powerful support experience.

 

What the Team Had to Say​

“Britta is wonderfully creative and visionary while working within the constraints of the business world. She delivers visual assets on time and in the form needed by the development team. In her interactions with others, she balances professionalism with being a real person and is fun to work with. I would welcome any opportunity to work with Britta in the future." 
— Gregory Bender, User Research Associate Director

 

 

"Britta has been a tremendous asset to our project team. She was able to come up to speed very quickly, learn about electronic support and understand our challenges. Britta is a strong designer who encourages the team to think about designing for the user. She stays up to date with current trends but keeps in mind traditional design methodologies. Britta’s communication skills are excellent. She always kept the team up to date on new designs and was quick to react as we accelerated our user interface. She would a great asset to any team." 
— Gregory Shalhoub, IT Program Director / Sr. Technology Manager

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