Redesigning the Splunk Federation onboarding experience to streamline how users connect with external data sources, enhancing usability and expanding capabilities through a more scalable process.
About
Timeline
Role
Team
Company
11/2023 - 05/2024
Lead product designer
2 Designers, 4 Engineers, 2 PMs,
1 Security Specialist
Splunk
Contributions
Leading the design effort from MVP to iterations, fostering successful rollouts.
Mentoring a junior designer on conducting his career’s first user research.
Impact
Being highlighted at the product keynote at Splunk's annual conference, receiving high customer interest and strengthening Splunk's leadership in security analytics.
Business initiatives
Expand data accessibility
Enable users to search, analyze, and gain insights from data across multiple external sources without full data ingestion.
Enhance performance and efficiency
Allow fast, scan-based querying of distributed datasets, reducing storage and infrastructure costs.
Drive operational productivity
Streamline integration with diverse data sources to help users work more efficiently and get better results with Splunlk.
Maintain Competitive Edge
Address market demands for flexible, scalable analytics solutions that support modern data architectures.
Previous researches have shown that the current onboarding is confusing, fragmented, and requires too much manual work, making it difficult for users to get started without errors.
Overwhelming setup process with fragmented workflows
Two separate forms for the onboarding process with different entry points. Each flow features a lengthy form with overwhelming configuration options.
Limited guidance complicates the configuration
The lack of guidance and help text on the UI makes it hard for users to know what to do and why.
Excessive manual effort increases errors and slows progress
The configuration requires manual typing and switching between apps to find information, making it both time-consuming and error-prone.
Unclear indicators for the next steps add confusion
Unclear or no completion feedback making it confusing for users whether the onboarding process was successful and what steps to take next.
The integration with expanded data accessibility presents new challenges
To expand data accessibility and strengthen Splunk's security analytics solutions, we will integrate with a specialized security data source and introduce a new data access capability.
1). The onboarding process for the new data source is non-linear
2). The configuration features two data access capabilities with unfamiliar terminologies
Onboarding pattern redesign
Creating a streamlined onboarding flow that scales across diverse data sources and supports multiple data access capabilities.
Combined workflow with wizard design to reduce cognitive load
One action button to combine the separate creation forms into one onboarding flow.
Breaks down the lengthy process into multiple steps to reduce cognitive load.
Guided experience to ease the pain of configuration
Provides step-by-step guidance to help users understand the purpose of each step.
Includes additional documentation for further learning purposes.
Build-in automation to expedite the setup process
Enables bulk action with auto-mapping and pre-populated values to automate the setup process that largely save time and prevent human errors.
Clear hand-off to streamline the experience
A summary page for comprehensive review.
A hand-off page with clear indications for what to expect further streamlines the experience after onboarding.
Research
To evaluate the new onboarding experience and gain insights into how users interact with the configuration process, I mentored a junior designer in conducting the research study. This study confirmed our assumptions about user pain points and uncovered additional improvement opportunities.
Methodology
3 (beginner-mid level) + 5 (expert users)
Semi-structure interview + Usability testing
60 mins each
Key insights
What works well
✅ The new onboarding flow is straightforward and easy to navigate with clear guidance and next step indicators.
✅ Users really appreciate the auto-mapping and pre-populated values as they simplify and expedite the setup process.
What doesn't work
❌ Non-expert users cannot fully understand the the different data access capabilities
❌ The back-and-forth communication is unforeseen and has slowed the progress.
❌ The configuration is an iterative process instead of a one-and-done task.
Redesigning the navigation
To address the challenges of streamlining the non-linear onboarding flow and distinguishing between two data access capabilities, this redesign is grounded in user research and validated through iterative usability testing.
Explorations
Two navigation options that focus on different user priorities. Both options were translated into prototypes and conducted A/B testing during the research study.
Users prioritize efficiency over clarity
The research study reveals that the user's goal is to onboard data as quickly as possible to start receiving insights. So they want to minimize the interface switching to achieve greater efficiency. Meanwhile, they also need better clarity on the technical terminologies.
Clarifying the technical terminologies
To better help non-expert and general users understand the key concepts, I enhanced and validated the index setup design through iterative usability testing.
Explorations
Explaining technical terminology through various visual and textual aids.
Visual flow chart is proven to be effective
The visual flow charts provide contextual aids that help users grasp the technology easily. When tested again, users all found these charts helpful and can understood both purposes right away. I then evolved the chart into a 3D version with the help of our visual designer.
Design enhancements
To address the additional problems identified through the research study.
1). Reduces the back-and-forth communications
The onboarding process requires collaboration between different roles, forcing users to navigate multiple touchpoints to complete setup—creating a frustrating experience.
🙌 Managing user expectations through the kick-off page
I enhanced the kick-off page to include the high-level onboarding steps and prerequisites, allowing users to better prepare before beginning the actual setup process.
2).Supports the iterative process
Configuring the data access is an iterative process instead of a one-time setup. Users need to repeatedly validate and refine their configurations to optimize results.
🙌 A structured editing experience
Includes the consolidated review and edit page that enables easy assessment and efficient modifications.
A comprehensive review page
Captures all configurations in a logical sequence for each data access capability, enabling easy assessment after onboarding.
A consolidated edit form
Enables users to edit each setting directly without going through the wizard flow again, featuring real-time updates for interconnected settings.
Deliverable & Impacts
📂 Business impact
💪 Strengthens Splunk's leadership in security analytics by providing the first solution to integrate with an external security data lake.
🔓 Achieves fast, scan-based querying of distributed datasets by extending the data access capability to data lake indexing.
🙎🏻 User impact
⏩ Fast time to value: The streamlined onboarding flow helped users work more efficiently to gain insights faster.
🙌 More use cases achieved by empowering threat detections and real-time analytics with data lake indexing.
💗Better user satisfaction with enhanced usability.
Future opportunities
While not implemented in the initial release, I identified additional opportunities to enhance the product experience and maximize business impact that were later added to the future product roadmap.
