Shaping the Future of AI & Data Management
TEAM.
Hitachi Vantara
Product Design Team
Tools.
Figma, Miro
Year.
2023 - 2024
Role.
Lead Product Designer
Hitachi Vantara provides advanced data storage systems, software, and services, powering over half of the Fortune 100 companies.
As a lead product designer for Hitachi's data managment platform and Vantara's portals, I focused on data visualization and design thinking methodology to effectively communicate complex data. I collaborated closely with the engineering team to define, develop, and deliver visual designs in a consumer-facing environment. I was responsible for designing the UI and UX, conducting usability testing, and performing UX reviews. I primarily collaborated with Project Manager Kunju and Data Design Team Manager Petr Vlk. I developed frameworks and prototypes to communicate the new design vision, which facilitated decision-making within our team.
*During my time at Hitachi Vantara, I worked on projects that I cannot disclose due to NDA restrictions. Please contact me for more information at soyoungleestudio@gmail.com
Data Catalog
Lead Product Designer, UX Review, Wireframes
With the Pentaho Data Catalog, we’re helping businesses detect, diagnose, predict, and optimize their data—all through automation and machine learning. By aligning data with business glossaries, we make data-driven decisions seamless and intuitive.
How can you make your data essential?
The Data Catalog feature enables users to easily search, filter, and explore their data assets through an intuitive interface, providing metadata insights, AI-powered recommendations, and collaborative tools to enhance data governance and usability.
Track your data's journey
Follow your data through each stage—Draft, In Review, and Received. This progressive approach helps users easily see its current status and take action, providing clarity on what’s happening in their environment.
Quick edits in Kanban view
Enable users to edit data directly within the Kanban view for quick and effortless updates. Quick edits in a Kanban view streamline workflows by allowing users to make real-time updates directly within the interface. This eliminates the need to navigate between multiple screens, saving time and reducing friction.
Navigate to the specific data section
Clicking "View" provides users with immediate access to detailed information or actionable insights within the selected data section. This feature streamlines navigation, reduces search time, and enhances user efficiency by presenting relevant content in a clear and organized format.
Multiple Kanban card UI formats
Introducing minified, collapsed, and expanded versions of Kanban cards improves usability and flexibility by allowing users to adjust the view according to their needs. By exploring Kanban formatting and its hierarchical structure, I improved legibility and streamlined information presentation.
The expanded side panel offers quick access to asset details
The Kanban View's expanded side panel provides users with a comprehensive and organized display of asset details, task status, and related properties. The side panel is designed for quick updates with editable fields for data properties, status, and workflow.
Build visuals with your data
Building visuals with your data involves transforming raw data into meaningful and easily understandable graphics. By visualizing data effectively, you can communicate complex information in a more engaging and accessible way.
Data Documentation Portal
Lead Product Designer, UX Review, Wireframes
Clients often ask the product design team, "How can we streamline website search and simplify the user journey?" To address this, we aimed to highlight Hitachi Vantara's unique strengths and establish it as a leader in reliable data platforms. Our goal was to launch a clean, user-friendly data documentation portal. Through user research, data insights, and thoughtful critique, we're uncovering needs and solving core challenges that impact millions of people worldwide.
Methods
Usability testing notes that captured the user’s experience, comments, behaviors and challenges encountered while interacting with a product.
Thoughts on current portal?
I gathered user feedback by asking for their thoughts on the current state of the documentation portal and categorized responses by severity.
Simplifying the search process
The existing portal was visually unappealing and lacked a clear, simple user journey, making it difficult for users to find information efficiently. Our task was to enhance the user experience by simplifying the search process and improving functionality.
Key Focus Areas:
Simplifying the search experience and removing unnecessary steps
Reducing costs and improving time to value from data
Establishing a consistent design system for Pentaho products
Creating a flexible solution that accommodates various data types and use cases
Targeted three key user groups
Our target audience includes external visitors (clients and prospects) and internal Hitachi Vantara employees. We invited potential users to usability testing, sharing the current prototype and assigning specific tasks.
Target Audience:
Experienced Users: Familiar with the platform.
New Users: Prospective customers unfamiliar with the platform.
Internal Users: Hitachi Vantara employees who’ve completed product training.
Addressing Key Pain Points
We identified that clients desire easy navigation and searchability for features like bookmarks and the "My Library" tool to improve their portal experience. The main pain points included confusing icons and a cumbersome workflow after saving documents.
Competitive Analysis
Market research shows competitors use visual banners with CTA buttons for how-to videos, offer search with auto-complete, and follow a simple 3-step journey: homepage, product page, and feature page for easy access to documentation.
New user flows
We grouped user stories into logical categories, dividing them into high-level tasks and detailed steps, with key information highlighted in orange.
Design: Faster navigating
✅ New section with instructional videos to guide them.
✅ Added product categories to find relevant documents.
Allow users to search for specific topics
✅ Save/Bookmark
✅ Minimalist Icon
✅ Moved the download CTA to the fixed breadcrumb bar.
Add Mobile Experience
We enhanced the mobile experience by prototyping new ideas, enabling users to view multiple secondary websites without needing a desktop.
Final Deliverables
Banner Image: Highlighting sustainability through impactful visuals to enhance storytelling and connect with the audience.
Responsive Website (Mobile/Web/Tablet): A documentation portal featuring the homepage, product, and feature pages, designed with engaging layouts and content to encourage exploration of related materials.
Design Library System Component: A scalable, reusable component integrated into the Hitachi Vantara design system, ensuring adaptability for custom solutions across teams.
Redesign Based on Usability & A/B Testing
After usability testing, I refined the design to align with user needs, enhancing search efficiency. Key updates included repositioning the CTA button for better accessibility and optimizing icon usage to improve clarity and engagement.
Usability testing
I started by gathering participants' first impressions, then introduced a task-based user scenario to engage with the interface. Open-ended and follow-up questions helped uncover insights, refining the design with actionable feedback.
Hearing from the Users
I prioritized a list of seven testers to ensure the user stories were compelling and clear from the user's perspective. During usability testing, I collaborated with Alexandra Ross, a design team member, assigning her a dedicated role in note-taking to ensure precise documentation. We focused on capturing testers’ comments, observing their body language, and understanding the context behind their feedback to uncover actionable insights.
Kibo Nakamura
@Director at HItachi Vantara
I wholeheartedly recommend Soyoung, whose design talent and dynamic energy have been invaluable to our team. As a member of my team, her ability to quickly adapt to new projects and her keen sense of accountability set her apart. Soyoung not only masters new challenges swiftly but also ensures that every detail of her work reflects a deep commitment to quality. Her proactive suggestions have significantly enhanced our design processes, demonstrating her ability to think critically and contribute meaningfully to our team's evolution.
Petr Vlk
@Product Design Lead
Soyoung is talented product designer with great skillset for any product design team.
Working on complex & highly technical products in data management & governance area, she was able to quickly understand the problem space and propose engaging user experience solutions. Soyoung also worked directly with involved stakeholders from product management and engineering, communicated the design concepts with them and delivered final design assets for development.
Alexandra Ross
@Product Designer
Collaborating with Soyoung on the product design team at Hitachi Vantara was truly delightful. Soyoung's dedication to her role as a designer shines through in her constant pursuit of new knowledge and skills. Her inherent kindness and outstanding teamwork greatly enriched our work environment. I look forward to collaborating with her again in the future.