The Power of Data and Empathy in UX : A Certificate Registration Transformation

Introduction

In the previous article, “Lessons from My Toddler: UX Principles in Parenting & Design,” we explored how looking at things from a toddler’s point of view and gathering relevant data can help to make user experience design better. Now, let’s look at a real-world example: improving our device certificate registration process through a deeper understanding of users.

Device Certificates: Your Digital ID

A device certificate serves as a digital ID card for devices, verifying their identity when connecting to websites and online services. This verification ensures secure communication, safeguarding company data and privacy. System administrators are responsible for registering new certificates for each device by inputting the device information into the system, thereby confirming the device’s identity.

What Wasn’t Working

Our original system had two main issues.

First, it supported only batch registration, meaning that users had to fill out a template on their computer with information about the multiple certificates they wanted to register.

users had to repeatedly fill out templates

The intention was to optimize backend operations by reducing single-line requests. However, this made things challenging for some users as they had to repeatedly fill out templates.

Second, error messages were complex, making issues tedious to identify and fix.

Listening to Our Users

When we delved into the data, we uncovered something truly astonishing. A staggering 90% of the requests consisted of three lines or less. In other words, the majority (80%) of users were relying on the batch upload feature for individual certificate registrations.

80% of users were relying on the batch upload feature for individual certificate registrations

This revelation highlighted a user behaviour that we couldn’t ignore.

This behaviour makes sense when we consider the nature of device certificates. The main trigger for new registrations is employees getting new devices, whether they’re joining the company or upgrading equipment.

However, unless it’s the beginning of the year or another special situation, it’s uncommon for more than three new employees to join the company on the very same day or for a group of people to request device updates all at once

Making It Simpler for Users, Efficient for Backends

We realized that to make things better, we needed to make them simpler. Although the backend team initially favoured batch registration, the user data demonstrated the merits of allowing one-by-one registration.

Introducing One-by-One Registration

We implemented an intuitive form enabling individual certificate registration. Users can now easily add or remove rows right within UI. This significantly simplifies the entire certificate registration process.

But here was the win-win: While users can add rows one by one, behind the scenes, we continue combining entries into batches for optimized backend efficiency. Users get simplicity, backends get speed.

We also transformed a complex verification process into transparent, user-focused flows with highlighted tables. Now, as users input their data, the system provides immediate verification feedback. No more searching for errors inside the file and re-uploading it. It’s a transparent and user-focused experience.

Of course, we kept the same functionality for batch upload as well. Errors within a 250-line document can be found easily by clicking the “show only rows with errors” button.

Key Takeaways

By adapting to user behaviour and introducing one-by-one registration, we not only enhanced usability but also put the user at the centre of our design philosophy.

This exemplifies the power of grasping the user perspective, leveraging data, and collaborating cross-functionally to enact positive change.

So, let’s carry forward the invaluable lesson that toddlers teach us about simplicity and infuse our design practices with their wisdom.

Let’s continue exploring our users’ needs to craft experiences that are intuitive yet powerful, simplified yet robust.