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 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 and integrate AI-driven features into the data management platform, all while emphasizing storytelling. 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.
⚡️ The Challenge
Hitachi Vantara's documentation portal lacked visual appeal and failed to create a simple user journey, making it challenging for users to search on the documentation. Our team aimed to enhance its experience and functionality. Around 2 weeks, we conducted usability testing to identify pain points and user behaviors and challenges encountered while interacting with a current product.
Considerations:
How can we simplify the search journey for users and eliminate unnecessary steps?
How can we reduce costs and improve time to value from data?
How can we establish a consistent design system for Hitachi Vantara's Pentaho products?
Finding generic approach to suit various data types & use cases, alignment between PM, architecture & engineering.
Currently, there are two portals: Lumada+Pentaho, and Knowledge. We plan to merge them into one on the Fluid Topics platform.
👩🏻💻 Solution Generation
We aim for users to consume our content portal in a quick and relatable manner. We spotlight Hitachi Vantara's documentation portal that set us apart from competitors by showcasing community, welcome video, and encourage engagement through clean layout and relatable icons.
We initially outlined a diverse range of solutions for a given customer and assessed their feasibility in collaboration with cross-functional partners. (Lumada Customer Success team, the Director of Product Management, the Global Solution Lead, the Presales Solution team, and IT Business System Analysts)
✨ Research and Insight
Our target audience includes both external visitors to the Hitachi Vantara documentation portal, such as clients and potential clients, as well as our internal employees at Hitachi Vantara. We invited potential users to the usability testing session and shared the current prototype and asked to perform specific tasks.
Target Audience:
Experienced Users: Those who know how the platform performs.
New Users: Prospective customers unfamiliar with the platform.
Internal Users: Hitachi Vantara employees who have completed product training.
✅ Pain Point Severity List
Based on user research, we gathered insights and identified areas for improvement in the design. We found that our clients want to use bookmarks and the "My Library" tool with easy navigation and searchability for an enhanced portal experience. The most significant pain points were the unfamiliar icons and the workflow after saving a document.
✨ Competitive Analysis
Based on market research, we observed that our competitors prominently showcase visual banner images with CTA buttons for how-to videos on their homepage, focusing on enhancing navigation and searchability. They also offer search functionality with auto-complete suggestions for document searches. Furthermore, their documentation portals typically follow a simple 3-step journey: homepage, product page, and feature page, where users can access detailed documentation.
✨ Transition from Current User Flows to New User Flow
We need to group the user stories into logical categories. Therefore, we divided them based on user activities into high-level tasks and detailed information needed to complete each step, highlighted in orange.
🎨 Design and Inspiration
Overall, we needed to create a clean and visually appealing design with a well-organized layout, allowing users to quickly find the information they need.
Scrolling Effects: Given the lengthy nature of the documentation, which requires continuous scrolling, we moved the download CTA button to the breadcrumb bar with a fixed position. Additionally, we added a bookmark option to every title to enhance navigation.
Typography and Landing Page Image: We aimed to include a greenery banner that effectively communicates our sustainability story and aligns with our business values.
Remove Unnecessary Icons for Easier Access: We evaluated the necessity of each icon, removing those that were unnecessary to make it quicker and easier for users to find what they are looking for.
Mobile/Tablet Access: We shaped up-leveling the mobile experience by prototyping and pitching new ideas we haven't even thought of yet. The possibility of designing mobile screens can help users view multiple secondary websites without having desktop.
📆 Schedule a Usability Testing
We prioritized a list of 7 testers to ensure that the user stories are compelling and understandable from the user's perspective. During the testing, I invited one design team member, Alexandra Ross to attend, assigning them a clear role in note-taking. We made sure to accurately document the testers' comments and observe their body language and the context in which they provided their feedback.
🕵🏻Usability Testing
During the usability testing, I started by asking testers for their first impressions. Following this, I presented a user scenario with a specific task. I used open-ended questions to encourage participants to explain their choices and added follow-up questions to gather qualitative data from the preference test.
✨ Redesign Based on Usability Testing & A/B Testing
Following usability testing, we updated the design by integrating user needs, aiming to create a product that promotes efficient searching practices. The main changes were focused on the position of the CTA button and the use of icons.
📊Final Deliverables
Banner Image: Integrating impactful imagery was essential to our storytelling approach, emphasizing the sustainability value in our narrative.
Website(Mobile/Web/Tablet): The documentation portal features the homepage, product page, and feature page, designed to encourage engagement with elegant design and compelling content that entices users to explore related documents further.
Design Library System Component: I designed my project to scale as a reusable component for the Hitachi Vantara design system, enabling teams across Hitachi Vantara to adopt it in custom solutions.
By collaborating with the design system team, I provided detailed notes and handed off an organized Figma file to ensure seamless implementation by the engineers.
Pentaho 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
From Draft to Review, In Review, and Received.
Click to view its current stage and take action.
Navigate to the specific data section
Go to the specific data section to adjust the confidence score.
Refine the rule criteria to enhance accuracy and reliability.
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.