Cloudflare One
Making security policy configuration more accessible
Designing a clearer way for customers to configure and schedule DNS policies.
Role
Product Designer
(UX, UI, Research, Prototyping, Testing)
01
THE CHALLENGE
API-only DNS policy scheduling configuration limits adoption
Admins couldn’t configure DNS policy schedules without help from IT experts. A complex workflow limited adoption and made policy management harder to scale.
Opportunity
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Make DNS policy scheduling self-serve
Design a streamlined experience that helps admins easily configure & manage DNS policy schedules without requiring deep technical expertise.
02
DISCOVERY, EMPATHY, DATA COLLECTION
Understanding customer needs & pain points
I conducted user interviews, analyzed support tickets, and reviewed customer configurations to understand how teams currently manage DNS policies and where they get stuck.
Key insights
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Complex startup
The current workflow requires deep technical knowledge.
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Low discoverability
Scheduling and advanced options are difficult to find.
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Limited self-service
Many customers rely on IT experts or support for setup.
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Customer trends
- Most of the schedules begin or end at the :00 or :30 minute mark.
- Admins consistently reuse the same schedules.
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03
USER JOURNEY
From intent to an an enforced policy
I mapped the end-to-end journey to identify key moments of friction and opportunities to simplify the experience.
04
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Identifying patterns & opportunities
I analyzed how other security and DNS platforms approach policy creation to identify common patterns & gaps.
05
AI-AUGMENTED DESIGN
Using AI as a research & design partner
I used ai to accelarate analysis, exploration, and iteration. AI helped me work faster and broader - but it didn't replace user research, domain expertise, or security decision-making.
Research evidence
User interviews, support themes, product analytics, and existing UX audit.
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Validation
Built prototypes, tested with users, and created a test plan with AI support.
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AI-assisted synthesis
Clustered pain points, generated edge cases, explained flow options, and drafted content.
Designer judgement
Validated findings against source evidence, applied domain expertise, and refined the direction.
06
CONSTRAINTS & DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Designing with constraints & considerations
I balanced customer needs, technical constraints, and platform consistency to guide the design.
Make policy logic visible
Communicate how conditions, actions, and scheduling work together.
Guide decisions progressively
Reduce cognitive load with step-by-step configuration and helpful defaults.
Support validation & monitoring
Give admins confidence with clear feedback, & easy iteration.
Considerations
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Admin should be able to enable/disable a policy schedule.
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Users should be able to view a list of pre-configured time intervals.
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Users should be able to customize the schedule.
07
PROPOSED EXPERIENCE
A simple, intuitive schedule creation flow
The new design streamlines policy schedule creation with a clear built-in scheduling tool within the existing policy builder UI.
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08
USABILITY VALIDATION
Testing the experience with real users
I planned and structured an unmoderated usability test to evaluate how easily admins can configure a DNS policy schedule.
Key insights
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6/7 Completed all tasks with minimal friction
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6/7 Thought the UI was intuitive and familiar
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7/7 Wanted templated/preset schedules
Unmoderated usability test
7 participants
IT admins and security team members.
Participant tasks
• Configure a DNS policy schedule
• Edit an existing policy
Post-task questions
• How easy was it to complete?
• What was confusing?
• What additional information would be helpful?
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09
SUCCESS METRICS
Defining what success looks like
The design will be evaluated against key metrics to ensure it reduces friction, increases adoption and improves policy management.
Task completion
Users can create and schedule a policy independently.
User confidence
Admins feel confident the policy will enforce the intended behavior.
Time to create policy
Reduced time and fewer steps in the workflow.
Configuration errors
Fewer errors & misconfigurations.
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