Company
Dell Technologies
Year
2023
Length
12 months
Role
UX Lead
Team
Product, Engineering, QA, Com Ex, IDS, Legal, Product, Engineering, QA, Com Ex, IDS, Legal, Researchers, Writers, Marketing, Dell Digital
Users
Dev Ops, Storage Admins, App Developers
The Challenge
Managing persistant storage in Kubernetes
Business Context
- Provide centralized scalable SaaS solution
- On-prem and cloud
User Problems
- Fragmented, overly complex
- Relies on CLI and YAML workflows
- High operational overhead
Design Challenges
- Vague requirements from multiple product teams across different orgs
- 4 storage arrays
- 7 modules
- YAML does not translate nicely to a UI
- Platform change
- Some scenarios fell outside the system
— International Data Corporation (IDC)
80% of enterprises list persistent storage, data management, and disaster recovery as the top barriers limiting container adoption
Objectives
Position Dell as an innovation leader in the emerging workloads and multi cloud space by…
Unified Management
Ability to manage multiple clusters/storage systems across environments in a single UI
Effortless Integration
Seamless deployment of Dell’s CSI driver and Container Storage Modules
Visual Automation
Replace CLI and YAML files with UI workflows
Streamlined Access
SaaS delivery model for easy onboarding and subscription pricing
My Role
Owned the UX process end to end
User Researchers
Collaborate early to guide direction.
Designers
Mentored, coached, raised quality
Product Management
Shaped vision, prioritized user needs
Engineering
Bridged technical and design trade offs.
Stakeholders
Aligned strategy / business goals
Design System
Scale consistency and efficiency across products
Common Experience
Align cross-product journeys
UX Writers
Collaborate to align voice, tone, and clarity
Approach
- Interviews
- Competitive Analysis
- Workshops
- Personas
- User Flows
- Wireframes
- Visual design
- Prototype
- Usability testing
Process
We followed a dual track agile methodology. Our focus was on quickly generating validated product ideas for the backlog.
Discovery
Conducted user and stakeholder interviews to understand users and persistent storage setup.
Method
Structured interview
Duration
60 min
Participants
14
Roles
Dev ops
Software Engineer
Infrastructure Architect
Systems Engineer
Cloud Solutions Architect
Analyzed key competitors in the space
Portworx
Portworx is a container native storage (CNS) platform that can support different container platforms including Kubernetes.
It is a software layer that provides data services for Kubernetes.
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift delivers a modern, scalable approach to securing the entire application platform stack, from the operating system to containers to applications running in containers.
Orchestration and management is provided by Kubernetes.
NetApp
NetApp integrates with Kubernetes to provide scalable and efficient data management solutions for containerized applications. By leveraging NetApp’s storage capabilities, Kubernetes users can easily manage persistent storage, streamline data operations, and enhance application performance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. This integration ensures reliable, high-performance storage that supports the dynamic nature of containerized workloads.
Define
Leveraged the data to define initial requirements and develop ideas through workshops.
Ideate
Brainstormed around ideal path for users to take
Created high level conceptual designs to evaluate
Refined best ideas
Validate
Our design review sessions with stakeholders consisted of 3 simple steps.
01
Show what we have
No need to prepare anything special.
02
Say what we need
What kind of feedback we are looking for.
03
Active feedback
Open discussion brainstorming and sharing ideas.
We tested prototypes with users using a combination of usertesting.com, Figma, and Protopie
Goal
Understand user pain points during the initial setup and configuration of APEX Navigator for Kubernetes.
Participants
– 8
– experience setting up persistent storage
Tasks
– Onboard cluster and storage array
– Configure and deploy Dell’s CSI and container storage modules
Key Findings
– Users want to know the steps to expect before going through the flow
– Installation of the connectivity client was confusing
– Licensing was not something these users were normally responsible for
– Users valued and paid attention to supplementary content
– Streamline the configuration process
“Handoff”
There really is not a point where we hand off the designs. Developers took an active role in the design process. These are 3 things we did to help communicate design and intent.
Figma Dev Mode
Communicate styling, component, and icon information.
Annotations
Explain more complex items regarding logic, errors, or ui behavior.
Annotation Helper Figma plugin
Walkthroughs
Reviewed with engineering to ensure design intent was understood
Design Solution
Designs were created using the Dell Design system.
Impact
Business
Strengthened Dell’s hybrid cloud offering and positioned the SaaS model as a growth driver.
Users
Simplified complex Kubernetes workflows, reduced learning curve, and enabled infrastructure management at scale.
Org
Elevated design visibility, proved UX could influence roadmap direction, and created reusable patterns for future products.
Revealed at the 2023 DTW conference, it was well received by customers.
Results
This app has been found to reduce administrative toil.
5mins
to start a deployment job
72%
reduction on multicluster Kubernetes software deployment time
60s
start an app mobility job
Reflection
1
Learned how to navigate ambiguity at scale — shaping clarity out of competing demands from multiple orgs.
2
Reinforced the importance of design influence beyond the screen — strategy, alignment, and cross-functional collaboration.
3
Set a foundation for design maturity by mentoring peers and ensuring UX was part of the strategic conversation, not just the execution.
4
Kubernetes is inherently complex with intricate configs and dependencies
5
Progress is gradually enhancing accessibility and user experience
6
Mentored junior designers on navigating ambiguity/unknowns
Next Steps
Over the next several releases of the application it will scale to include support for additional Dell storage products and container storage modules.
Dell storage
– PowerFlex
– PowerScale
– PowerStore
– PowerMax
Container Storage Modules
– App mobility
– Authorization
– Encryption
– Observabiilty
– Replication
– Resiliency
– Snapshots/Volume group snapshots
