Phoenix Search

How can we combine two searches to provide an equally seamless experience for two different use cases?

This was a 4 month-long project where we rearchitected a search that would be reused by two different MicroFocus products that had different users and goals. The team consisted of myself, a product manager, and 1 engineer. We worked on a future concept that was pitched to the company leaders to get the approval and potentially start usability testing before integrating the search into the products. This case study focuses on the UX/UI design portion of the project.

My notes and comments will go here…

The challenge

MicroFocus previously acquired two cyber security companies that had similar products;

The first product: allowed users to create dashboards to display attack data, archive data, and search through historical data up to 5 years. But the search was slow and had restrictions to how large the quarry request could be.

The second product: allowed users to detect ongoing attacks and search historical data up to 6 months. Since the product didn’t store data for longer than 6 months the search was very fast but this product couldn’t be used by the users of the first product.

We wanted to address the performance issues and create an equally pleasant and efficient experience for both users.

During A/B testing we found that users were drawn to the dark mode since they found darker pallet less straining on the eyes.

Based on our usability testing we found that users preferred to use this page over the first one because of the simpler interface design.

Initial explorations & research

Stakeholder Interviews

I conducted 7 interviews with Support Engineers, Sales, and PMs because:

  • I wanted to learn more about both products

  • Understand the differences between two products

  • Learn about challenges and pain points

User Survey

To learn more about the users I put together a survey that was distributed via email. It helped us to collect standardized data from customers since we had no database about customers and users. ​

Persona Creation

Based on the data that we have collected I was able to create user stories for a SOC Analyst and an Administrator, this helped me to understand the users’ similarities and differences. 

Stakeholder interviews helped me learn about the difference and similarities in opinion that each stakeholder had.
 
The survey helped us start a conversation with our customers and users.

  • SOC Analyst valued fast performance the most since their goal is to detect live attacks as soon as possible and prevent them.

  • Administrators said that having a query language that would allow them the flexibility to perform arithmetic and string ops on data is more important than fast query performance.

Branding & Design System

I designed a logo and put together a small design system to make sure that the mockup would look consistent and professional.

 
Even though this was just a concept project, I wanted to make sure that it looks professional when the team presents it.

Page Design

Log in page

Search page

Side panel

 
At the top of the redesigned page I added data visualizer allowing users to filter instantly on the time period. 

Bellow, data table displaying search results.
 
When user selects one of the rows a side panel would appear providing more detailed information about the event.

Query Editor

An old query editor used for one of the products. During research we found that users had a hard time reading the query since it was presented as one line. Users wanted to have a more organized editor.

A redesigned query editor

This was an old advanced query editor.

 
When writing or editing queries, I wanted to provide users with a more familiar experience that would match some of the code editors they used before.

Simple filters

I wanted to make sure that less technical users could also apply filters.

Date Picker

Two older date picker

A redesigned date picker

 
Both are screenshots of the date pickers from older products. 
One is very simple where the other one is very complex providing the user with a lot of functionality.


 
A preview at the top visualizes the traffic for the time period.
This allows the user to preview the traffic and filter based on the time that had the most attacks.

What is next?

The redesigned search page was presented during the yearly Micro Focus event to all stakeholders and clients.
The original goal of the Phoenix Search was to create a functional search prototype that could be used by two different products.


But stakeholders liked it so much that it was decided to integrate this search concept into the entire CiberRes suite, where not 2 but 5 products would be redesigned and merged into one seamless experience. This project is a step forward toward one unified product.