Multi-Platform SSO: A Unified Sign On Experience
Description:
Building a cohesive single sign on solution to bring together not just multiple products, but also a platform with multiple tool offerings that bridges the gap between a fresh product offering and a platform that will eventually wind down.
Why you should care:
On the company's most customer facing interface, in two weeks time our team researched, defined, designed, tested, and will eventually implement a unified login experience that highlights new product offerings and delivers a pleasant experience but also provides a seamless transition from login to legacy platform usage.
My Roles:
- High Level Rapid Research
- Problem definition and Requirements Gathering
- User Studies and Virtual Testing
- UI Design
Client:
Various fortune 500 clients including: United Airlines, American Express, Capital One
Goal:
Build a unified sign on experience that allows user's to access newly released products but still work with legacy tools on a platform that will eventually go away.
Outcome:
Ensure legacy products are as accessible and useful as the fresh product offering while focusing on bringing clarity to a complex situation.
Out with the old and in with the new... kinda
The company is undergoing radical transformation. To meet that need, new tools are being released to revolutionize the industry. But to sunset the old platform, the new set of tools has to meet the core needs of our users and their business functions. In other words, we can’t quite ditch the old tools yet while people still need access to them but the newly released products still need a marketed and targeted way of being present.
Building a cohesive single sign on solution to bring together not just multiple products, but also a platform with multiple tools sounds a lot easier than it truly is.
I believe it is the job of design to take the complicated and make it clear.
As the product design lead I set out to crystalize the problem. I believe it is the job of design to take the complicated and make it clear. To effectively add value to the business and avoid points of friction for our customers, we needed a shared understanding of the problem before anyone started suggesting a solution. One of the larger hurdles in this process was the dreaded timeline. This was on rush order and needed to be defined, designed, tested, and working towards implementation in 1 sprint’s time.
Our biggest issue wasn’t figuring out a path through the confusing navigation pattern that would surely be presented, it was figuring out how the most customer-facing page informed and delighted rather than confused and annoyed.
To effectively define the problem and with the tight timeline in mind, I quickly built out flow diagrams that would allow all parties involved (design, engineering, and executive functions) to rally around the requirements and move from definition to testing.
Move those goal posts!
With the sign off of key decision points and a rough flow diagram, I was able to (at a rapid pace) garner customer feedback and work with internal power user’s who served as proxies to understand the basic needs and help shine light on areas that would be frustrating or stifling to users. Our plan of execution was to deliver a functional experience that could be quickly implemented from a development perspective and still allow our customers to access the tools that they needed, and most importantly, paid for.
As I began to receive feedback from the quick and dirty research efforts that were in place, the flow became an ever-changing topic of discussion. User needs, business goals, and marketing challenges all began to surface and influence the direction. Between development constraints and a moving target, the new path forward differed from the original plan.
Establishing trust before the click
Once the research and definition phases came to a more comfortable place, I worked closely with the product development team to outline how the design should look and what it should convey. Clarity, product transparency, and moving away from convoluted consulting terms to bring our offering into the light. The bottom line: our users deserve to know what they are getting and how it will solve their problems.
Time to take the training wheels off
With design iterations and feedback sessions in full-swing, another constraint reared its ugly head. With the development of our new AI platform, we needed to steer people out of the legacy platform space with multiple tools into a product first mentality where they could eventually get used to a self service model. Our organizational goal was to shift our user base from relying on manual processes into a space where AI assisted them instead of vice versa.
The way we did this was challenging. Our goal from a UX perspective was to help people understand that they were signing into a product instead of a platform of products, while also still needing to offer the legacy platform during the migration process.
Pencils down, time to test
Testing success means a few different things. Some of the measurements we decided to focus on to gauge success were rage click percentages, overall session abandonment, and click-backs indicating people may have been confused and chosen the wrong option. This is currently in the testing phase and is set to roll out at the beginning of October to all customers. Early feedback has been extremely positive but the numbers should tell a clearer story.