Cisco Nexus Dashboard Data Broker

The UX team engaged in extensive collaboration with key stakeholders, including Cisco IT personnel, technical marketing engineers, product managers, and hardware board members. Through in-depth discussions and workshops, we sought to gain a comprehensive understanding of the operators' needs and pain points. This involved identifying essential features required for effective network management, determining optimal data presentation formats, and exploring the typical troubleshooting methodologies employed by operators in real-world scenarios. By delving into these details, we aimed to ensure that our product design aligned closely with the operational requirements and workflows of our target user base.

Introduction
Overview
Problem
Armed solely with the directive to "improve UI" outlined in the user story, I embarked on a transformative journey, navigating the intricacies of the task despite being new to the product. This endeavor was further complicated by the transition to Figma as our primary design tool, marking my inaugural immersion into its functionalities. Compounded by the task's urgency, with a daunting timeline of 2.5 months, the challenge was amplified by the necessity to construct every screen within the application.
Solutions
To meet the challenge of improving the UI within a tight timeframe, I adopted a strategic approach. I began by analyzing the existing UI, gathering feedbacks from product managers, technical marketing engineers, and leveraging industry best practices. Prioritizing tasks based on impact and feasibility, I focused on critical screens first. Remaining agile, I iteratively refined designs based on feedbacks. This approach enabled me to deliver a refreshed UI that met the PM's directive and enhanced the overall user experience.

Discovery

The initial challenge I encountered was deciphering the precise meaning of "improve UI." From an engineering standpoint, this entailed ensuring feature parity with the outgoing version of the application. Conversely, from the perspective of technical marketing, the focus was on augmenting the interactivity of the topology, enabling users to effect changes seamlessly without necessitating navigation to individual object management pages. Furthermore, from a business standpoint, it was imperative to align the design aesthetics of the Data Broker with the newly established look and feel of the Nexus Dashboard platform. By applying the same design system, we aimed to cultivate a consistent user experience across our suite of applications, thus reinforcing brand identity and user engagement.

Design

Upon careful examination, I identified a notable absence within the app: a dedicated page offering users a swift overview of traffic monitoring status. Collaborating closely with the team to address this deficiency, we leveraged the available data to devise a straightforward V1 dashboard solution aimed at providing users with essential insights at a glance. This collaborative endeavor not only addressed a critical gap in the app's functionality but also demonstrated our team's agility and commitment to enhancing the user experience.
Design
As part of our redesign efforts, we focused on revolutionizing the network topology feature to significantly enhance user experience. Unlike its static predecessor, the redesigned topology is now interactive, allowing users to drill down to individual tools and network elements effortlessly. This transformation enables users to efficiently monitor and manage object statuses, making real-time changes directly from the topology interface, thus elevating the platform's usability and effectiveness.
Design
Another notable improvement lies within the configuration pages. Previously, the design primarily relied on text boxes and dropdown menus for user interaction, resulting in a cumbersome experience. In response, I revamped the UI by maximizing visualization elements. This redesign facilitates a more intuitive configuration process, enabling users to swiftly navigate through options and selections via visual cues, thus enhancing efficiency and usability.
Design
As an integral component of the UI redesign initiative, I meticulously reconstructed every individual page of the application. This overhaul was executed in alignment with the established design system for Nexus Dashboard, the platform slated to host the Data Broker application. By adhering to this standardized framework, we ensured seamless integration and consistency across the user interface. This comprehensive approach not only elevated the aesthetic appeal and usability of each page but also laid a solid foundation for future scalability and alignment with overarching platform objectives.