Riverbed - SteelConnect Mobile App Research Project
When Riverbed acquired the software program that became SteelConnect Manager, (SCM), it included a lightweight iOS application. It was discovered that clients were not aware the SCM iOS mobile app existed.
Working side by side with my fellow UX teammate, we were tasked to understand the functionality of the app and what value does it add to Riverbed’s business strategy. This opportunity enabled me to expand upon my UX research background and interviewing skills.
We were given this 2 month project to incorporate into our current workload so we worked in a Lean UX environment. This allowed us to quickly assess and collect data and present ideas of improving the existing app as well as justifying the business advantages of having a mobile app for IT admins.
My Role
As a member of the UX team I was responsible for:
- User Research
- Heuristic evaluation
- Qualitative data gathering
- Data visualization
- Maintain UX methodologies
- User stories
About Riverbed
Riverbed Technology, is an information technology company whose products consist of enterprise software and hardware focused on network and application performance management, edge computing, Wi-Fi and wide area networks, including SD-WAN and WAN optimization.
User Research
6 interviews with stakeholders, sales managers, and primary support associates revealed key insights and common problems faced when using the existing app as well as a deeper understanding of what the app could accomplish.
Heuristic Evaluation
Doing a heuristic evaluation we tested the iOS application with our in-house set up. Working with the developer who created the app, we set about understanding the functionality and how it enhances and adds value to the SCM system. Some stakeholders volunteered to test the current app, after testing we followed up with them to get feedback on their experience.
The iOS app allowed the user to troubleshoot a gateway only when physically tethered with a USB cable. A SD-WAN management system consists of remote locations, not necessarily easy for an IT admin to get to. This is where Riverbed’s cloud management software shines. So why does the user have to be physically tethered for the app to work? What value does this bring to the user? Can we do the same type of troubleshooting without being tethered? What can we do to make this experience easy, educational and useful for the customer?
Suggested Design Solutions
Based on our interviews, user testing, user stories and heuristic evaluation we put pen to paper, brainstormed and came up with some possible solutions to make the existing app more useful to IT admins and I created some high fidelity mock ups to present as our findings.
Solution for appliance has a DHCP IP but there’s no DNS resolution
Give the IT admin a way to remotely run a Ping test on the gateway from the mobile app.
Solution for SCM firmware upgrade tells appliance it’s using the wrong WAN port
Give the IT admin a way to analyze the connection information for each WAN port.
What I learned
This project challenged me to learn a new way of thinking by engaging more in the research side of UX. This assignment was mostly about information gathering, figuring out what an existing app can do better and studying the analytics involved.
UX is essential
From the feedback, interviews from stakeholders, heuristic evaluations, visual assessment, and reports highlighting the pain points we proved that the current app did not add value nor was it practical to use. The requirements for the customer needs were not there. Had UX been involved in the mobile app project before development, UX would have been able to offer constructive feedback and help create an iOS app that would add value to the existing web application.
Some projects don’t go to development
Although our research, plans, user validation, and design reevaluations were well received, there wasn't a viable business need to facilitate the changes. Troubleshooting could be done in the web app with access to more refined management solutions.