SCCM Dashboards

Research | Information Architecture | Data Visualization | Wireframe | Prototype | Interaction Design | Visual Design

#
#
#
#

Project Info

System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is a systems management software for managing large groups of computers running Windows NT, Windows Embedded, OS X, Linux or UNIX, as well as Windows Phone, Symbian, iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

I led the re-design of SCCM dashboards for a multi-billion business legacy product. I collaborated closely with a product team including PMs and small group of experienced engineers. The primary goal was to enhance users' experience in managing enterprise-level environments effectively by providing rich overview insights via dashboards. In addition, the focus was to deliver a new, modern experience for SCCM that is both fresh and familiar to IT Professionals.

Client

Microsoft Corporation

Date

2014 to 2016

Contributors

Myself (Lead designer)
1 Researcher
Engineering team
PM stakeholders

Problem

Design a best-of-bread rich overview dashboard to improve managing experience of enterprise-level groups of computers. In addition, introduce a modern experience to a legacy product but easy adoptable by existing users.


Process

My process included partnering with research to validate our ideas, sketching and brainstorming new features with the engineering team, and working with product planning to drive priorities and the product roadmap. Together we were defining the new architecture. My final deliverables were a high-fidelity walkthrough, showing the new capabilities. I presented the direction to broader groups of stakeholders, getting feedback and helping inform new areas in other products.

Result

Our work was very well-received by our stakeholders and served as the inspiration for a number of concepts that made it into future design patterns and products. It became the best-looking piece of UI inside the SCCM console. SCCM dashboards became the new bar for the product team in adding UI to SCCM.


Philosophy

Behind these designs was an underlying hypothesis that our users only focus on a few tasks at once, that evolve over time. Rather than exposing long lists, expose frequent and recent objects and use the extra space for visualization and manipulation.

Findings

Though resources were limited, we managed to test our prototype with some of our target users (IT pros). Feedback was positive and constructive from this user base notorious for being resistant to “easier” software.

Product team stated "We shipped a version of the dashboard with 1510 ConfigMgr Preview and have got quite a bit of positive feedback on it. It has really helped in conversations with customers about how they see SCCM being used in their environment. Will be the new bar for us in adding UI to SCCM!"