Chia Ofonagoro

Less is more

When using Rebellion's cyber readiness tool, analysts need to quickly understand what devices are connected to which network. The current visual element was ideal for a small number of devices and networks, but quickly became overwhelming when faced with a legion of assets.

This made it near impossible to decipher which devices were most critical, and thus needed attention first.

When using Rebellion's cyber readiness tool, analysts need to quickly understand what devices are connected to which network. The current visual element was ideal for a small number of devices and networks, but quickly became overwhelming when faced with a legion of assets.

This made it near impossible to decipher which devices were most critical, and thus needed attention first.

When using Rebellion's cyber readiness tool, analysts need to quickly understand what devices are connected to which network. The current visual element was ideal for a small number of devices and networks, but quickly became overwhelming when faced with a legion of assets.

This made it near impossible to decipher which devices were most critical, and thus needed attention first.

How we measured success

Our main goal for the sprint was to ideate a solution that accounts for the technical constraints of the tool, without compromising the user experience. On a personal level, this was an opportunity for me to strengthen my design thinking and ideating skills while under a tight deadline.

A shared understanding

I was apart of the team responsible for the tool, so we were already familiar with the complexity of the problem space. But because the sprint involved the whole Rebellion's design team, we kicked off with a product demo to get everyone up to speed.

Once we established a shared understanding, we did an in-depth exploration into cyber analysts' needs, pain points, and workflows. These conversations helped facilitate a deeper understanding of the key user journey.

I was apart of the team responsible for the tool, so we were already familiar with the complexity of the problem space. But because the sprint involved the whole Rebellion's design team, we kicked off with a product demo to get everyone up to speed.

Once we established a shared understanding, we did an in-depth exploration into cyber analysts' needs, pain points, and workflows. These conversations helped facilitate a deeper understanding of the key user journey.

I was apart of the team responsible for the tool, so we were already familiar with the complexity of the problem space. But because the sprint involved the whole Rebellion's design team, we kicked off with a product demo to get everyone up to speed.

Once we established a shared understanding, we did an in-depth exploration into cyber analysts' needs, pain points, and workflows. These conversations helped facilitate a deeper understanding of the key user journey.

Crazy 8's and Dot Voting

Our first attempt at tackling the problem came through a Crazy 8s session. My inspiration came from a lot of different places: my background in science, geographical map applications, and even a game console home screen. When time was up, we shared our sketches - and all the unexpected places they came from.

With lots of ideas on the whiteboard, we categorized into general themes, and did some dot voting to form small teams.

Our first attempt at tackling the problem came through a Crazy 8s session. My inspiration came from a lot of different places: my background in science, geographical map applications, and even a game console home screen. When time was up, we shared our sketches - and all the unexpected places they came from.

With lots of ideas on the whiteboard, we categorized into general themes, and did some dot voting to form small teams.

Our first attempt at tackling the problem came through a Crazy 8s session. My inspiration came from a lot of different places: my background in science, geographical map applications, and even a game console home screen. When time was up, we shared our sketches - and all the unexpected places they came from.

With lots of ideas on the whiteboard, we categorized into general themes, and did some dot voting to form small teams.

Finalizing our direction

Choosing to explore the concept of ‘prioritization’, my teammate and I quickly determined what we would prioritize: only a small number of critical vulnerabilities in a network. After talking with our service designer, we confirmed that these were the devices requiring immediate attention.

We then had to figure out when to prioritize them. And where? Suddenly ‘prioritization’ felt too narrow, so we shifted to the idea of 'promotion'.

Choosing to explore the concept of ‘prioritization’, my teammate and I quickly determined what we would prioritize: only a small number of critical vulnerabilities in a network. After talking with our service designer, we confirmed that these were the devices requiring immediate attention.

We then had to figure out when to prioritize them. And where? Suddenly ‘prioritization’ felt too narrow, so we shifted to the idea of 'promotion'.

Choosing to explore the concept of ‘prioritization’, my teammate and I quickly determined what we would prioritize: only a small number of critical vulnerabilities in a network. After talking with our service designer, we confirmed that these were the devices requiring immediate attention.

We then had to figure out when to prioritize them. And where? Suddenly ‘prioritization’ felt too narrow, so we shifted to the idea of 'promotion'.

An unexpected roadblock

We proposed promoting only vulnerable devices at the topmost levels in the application to avoid overwhelming our users. But after a assessing the tool's information architecture, we realized that the data determining a device's criticality was split across multiple pages - and at different levels. What's worse, there was no mention of their status on the main dashboard, making it so users would have to work to find out this information.

(BTS: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE)

Faced with a new obstacle to solve before we even addressed the original problem statement, we immediately got to work reorganizing. With time dwindling down, we really leaned into this pivot and embraced our unexpected solution, which focused on where critical vulnerabilities should be promoted, rather than how.

Validation + Outcome

What seemed like a hurdle ended up exposing gaps in the user experience of the tool, but it came at the expense of actually validating our solution. Nevertheless, we demoed our solution once time was up.

After the sprint was over, every team's solution was passed along to the PM and was added to the Jira backlog. Later, I saw an opportunity to practice my visual design skills and turned our demo sketch into a higher fidelity dashboard concept.

What seemed like a hurdle ended up exposing gaps in the user experience of the tool, but it came at the expense of actually validating our solution. Nevertheless, we demoed our solution once time was up.

After the sprint was over, every team's solution was passed along to the PM and was added to the Jira backlog. Later, I saw an opportunity to practice my visual design skills and turned our demo sketch into a higher fidelity dashboard concept.

What seemed like a hurdle ended up exposing gaps in the user experience of the tool, but it came at the expense of actually validating our solution. Nevertheless, we demoed our solution once time was up.

After the sprint was over, every team's solution was passed along to the PM and was added to the Jira backlog. Later, I saw an opportunity to practice my visual design skills and turned our demo sketch into a higher fidelity dashboard concept.