iServer

UI / UX

Understand

When I arrived at Orbus Software, iServer was already established as a market leading desktop software for enterprise architecture. It allows enterprises to manage, govern and visualize their business and IT transformation. It is fully integrated with the Microsoft suite, and when Windows 8 arrived (with its large scale changes to UI/UX) our team had to react, by designing and building a new version that work in harmony with Microsoft’s latest.

Research

As the overall goal was for iServer to work seamlessly with the Microsoft Office Suite, thorough research was done on Windows ‘Metro’ design language and how that would impact our desktop offering. We also investigated all the upcoming versions of the Microsoft Suite, including beta versions to see what UX patterns we could use to avoid users having to relearn any behaviour.

The previous version of iServer already had a loyal customer base, so we were able to reach out to them and get insight in to how the product was currently being used, and how it could be improved further. The users shaped the product just as much as any stakeholder.

Design

As the only UI/UX Designer on the project, I collaborated with stakeholders via whiteboard sessions and general design workshops to collectively get an idea of the direction of project. From there, I created more detailed sketches – iterated on them – and then fleshed out wireframes to present to the wider team, including the development team.

Deliver

As mentioned, the final aim of the product was always to fit in seamlessly with the rest of the Microsoft Office Suite. For that reason, the look and feel closely mirrored that of Office, and only making exceptions where totally necessary.

The front end of the software was built in WPF, and I contributed to styling the UI in XAML.