IBM Cloud
Making enterprise search more useful & competitive
Designing a new global search experience to help users navigate a complex, distributed platform with greater ease.
Role
Product Designer
(UX, UI, Research, Prototyping, Testing)
01
THE CHALLENGE
Finding the right cloud resources took too much effort
IBM Cloud users needed a faster, simpler way to find resources, products, documentation, and tools. The existing search experience made it difficult to identify the right content, with unclear result types, limited context and inconsistent navigation patterns.
Before the redesign
Unclear results
Results lacked clear structure and context, making it hard to identify the right content.
• No access to recently viewed search items.
• Limited capacity for populated results
• Functional bugs
Inconsistent navigation
Multiple entry points and result types created a confusing experience.
02
DISCOVERY & UX AUDIT
Understanding users needs & the competitive landscape
I conducted user interviews, analyzed support tickets, and audited competitor platforms to identify common patterns, gaps, and opportunities to improve search and navigation.
Competitive analysis
Key opportunities
•
Surface recent search history
•
Create a unified search experience
•
Clarify result groupings
•
Make results more actionable
•
Provide contextual information
03
CONSTRAINTS & STAKEHOLDER INPUT
Designing with real-world constraints
I balanced user needs with technical constraints, existing navigation patters, and input from key stakeholders across product, engineering, and design.
1
Complex cloud product
Large and diverse set of resources, services, and documentation types.
2
Varied user needs
Different user roles and expertise levels, from new users to experienced practitioners.
3
Existing navigation patterns
Needed to align with IBM Cloud's IA and design system.
4
Technical and platform considerations
Work within existing search infrastructure and performance requirements.
04
RAPID IDEATION & CRITIQUE
Exploring & refining design solutions
I explored multiple concepts for the search result grouping, and interaction patterns. I iterated with the team and incorporated feedback through critiques to refine the experience.
Explore
Initial concepts to explore different interaction patterns and result layouts.
Evaluate
Reviewed options with the team to identify the strongest patterns.
Refine
Iterated on the leading direction based on stakeholder feedback and usability considerations.
05
Usability testing
Testing with industry experts
I conducted a usability test to evaluate how easily users can find and navigate to the right resources using the new search experience.
7 Participants
• IT admins
• Developers
• SME
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What we wanted to learn
• Is the experience intuitive?
• Are result types clear and prioritized corrrectly?
• Do users find the right content?
• What could be improved?
Key tasks
• Find a specific resource
• Navigate to documentation
• Compare similar results
• Complete an action from search
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06
Success metrics
Defining how we'll measure impact
The design will be evaluated against key metrics to ensure it helps users find the right content more efficiently and with greater confidence.
Time to find a resouce
Reduce the time it takes for users to find the right resource.
Result relevance
Improve the relevance and usefulness of search results.
Search task success
Increase the % of users successfully completing key search tasks.
User confidence
Help users feel confident in finding and navigating to the right content.
07
PROPOSED EXPERIENCE
A more robust global search experience
The new design provides a unified search entry point, clearer result grouping, richer context, and direct actions to help users find the right cloud resources with fewer navigation hops.
Feature enhancements
•
Clearer result grouping
Easier to scan and filter across content types.
•
Rich context
Surfacing of recently viewed search results.
•
Fewer navigation hops
Take action directly from search results
•
Two column all inclusive layout
•
Resources are the prioritized category
•
Platform, Docs, and Support Pages populated
Prototype
preview
