Redesigning the Rackspace Cloud Control Panel
As part of the core design team for the Rackspace Cloud, I made significant contributions to the entire cloud portfolio, as well as setting the direction for the foundational design strategy. I delivered hundreds and hundreds of visual mockups, wireframes, process flows and every other type of design deliverable. I worked closely with ~20 front-end developers to make sure our interactions were implemented correctly and on schedule. Our team was proud to deliver the correct level of fidelity and complexity for new features, whether they were minimum viable products or signature interactions within our application.
A few of my largest contributions are listed below. Most of this work will remain private, but examples are available upon request.
Key Contributions
Redesign Concept
Core team member that developed a concept in August 2011 that consisted of 5 screens. Used as the foundation for the rest of 2011 and all of 2012.
Pattern Library
Curated and documented patterns that were developed during the redesig process.
Prototyping
Determined the appropriate fidelity and executed many successful prototypes. Supported concepting, usability testing and stakeholder buy-in.
Usability Testing
User testing proceeded all major product releases within the control panel. Participated in recruiting and screening users, task planning, running tests and documenting results.
User Research
Conducted and analyzed 20 customer interviews to form our Mental Model of cloud users. Applied to strategy, IxD, microcopy and more.
Concept Wireframing
Developed wireframes that help flesh out product direction, feature scope and informed API design.
Tweets
These tweets are positive and negative reactions to products that I have helped to design. These public displays resonate with me because they are outside proof that our design was successful or that it failed a user in certain scenarios.
Well, I for one am impressed with @Rackspace cloud end user experience. Stood up some personal sites in a few minutes flat.
— loganmcleod (@loganmcleod) November 7, 2012
New control panel for Rackspace Cloud is much better, DNS is finally split out from servers.
— Mike Bell (@mikebell_) July 21, 2012
I'm diggin' Rackspace's next-gen control panel. If you're a customer, be sure to sign-up for the beta!
— Tyler Chester (@Tyler_Chester) July 15, 2012
New Rackspace cpanel is ok, but still no auto cloud scaling. Deal breaker I'm afraid.
— Gav Richards (@gav) July 25, 2012
The new rackspace cloud offering is pretty sweet. Finally a powerful cloud server interface that doesn’t suck the life out of me @Rackspace
— Aaron Lax (@aaron_lax) November 1, 2012
really love the @rackspace next-gen cloud control panel. so much easier to use.
— Chris Meller (@chrismeller) June 15, 2012