Telstra’s goal was to become the lead service provider for the next generation of cloud solutions in Australia, to do this they partnered with vendors such as Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and vCloud.
The project became Australia's first multi-cloud portal offering, providing previously unaccessible cloud service and infrastructure options to Australian businesses for the first time.
Opportunity statement
How might we provide more a reliable cloud infrastructure
For small to medium sized Australian businesses
So that the risk of service downtime and outages are reduced
Project Stages
DISCOVER
Research business needs
To design the online and offline customer experiences we needed to understand
multiple customer types such as network engineers, administrators and resellers.
During the research phase I conducted customer interviews, card sorting activities, contextual inquiries and supported customer journey mapping. We successful in further defining the user requirements and used this research as a source of truth for the service and product design.
multiple customer types such as network engineers, administrators and resellers.
During the research phase I conducted customer interviews, card sorting activities, contextual inquiries and supported customer journey mapping. We successful in further defining the user requirements and used this research as a source of truth for the service and product design.
DEFINE
Architecture refinement
Working closely with business analysts, solution architects and network engineers we mapped out the processes to handle cloud service purchasing, customer identity, user management, technical support and the complex procedure of turning manual infrastructure connection requests into online automated services.
Many iterations of process mapping, site and service architecture, and page flows were completed to define this user experience.
Many iterations of process mapping, site and service architecture, and page flows were completed to define this user experience.
DESIGN
Conceptual development
To design the digital touch-points of the service I created several low fidelity wireframes visualising key user interfaces. Techniques to improve the designs involved participatory design, workshops and user flows.
We regularly facilitated a walk through of our designs to product owners and broader teams to clearly depict the direction the product was moving towards.
We regularly facilitated a walk through of our designs to product owners and broader teams to clearly depict the direction the product was moving towards.
Prototypes and wireframes
After approval I worked to further develop the digital touch-points into high fidelity wireframes in Axure, the wireframes were built as clickable prototypes to explore the interaction experience and then annotated with functional logic.
Functional specifications were published and further walk throughs of the interactive experience were completed with developers to ensure build accuracy and quality.
Functional specifications were published and further walk throughs of the interactive experience were completed with developers to ensure build accuracy and quality.
REFINE
Usability testing
Interaction design validation was conducted using clickable prototypes during the design phase of the project. Net-promoter score testing was also completed with a mix of new customers and beta customers to validate the services likelihood for market success before launch.
Customer enactments were used to holistically evaluate the service experience from purchase through to provision, management, support and decommission.
Customer enactments were used to holistically evaluate the service experience from purchase through to provision, management, support and decommission.
DELIVER
Design, development, and analysis
Using usability testing and taking note of technical constraints we captured usability concerns on an ongoing basis and consistently presented these concerns back to key stakeholders.
To best communicate these concerns I designed a living wall with our collected data ranking potential threats to the project. This information was continually updated and visually mapped against the relevant wireframes on the wall.
To best communicate these concerns I designed a living wall with our collected data ranking potential threats to the project. This information was continually updated and visually mapped against the relevant wireframes on the wall.
Result
The Telstra Cloud Services Store and Cloud Services Portal were successfully released as Cisco’s first infrastructure offering to the Australian public with multiple cloud vendors following suit. The project turned complex physical and digital engineering problems that are traditionally set-up, purchased and managed offline into a consistent online experience which was carefully tailored and designed for a broad range of user types. The public facing elements from our teams interaction and service design have dramatically changed the way customers and cloud resellers can access and connect to multiple cloud vendors.