IBM forums redesign

The goal

Create a complete redesign of the user experience for the IBM support forums. A key goal after the redesign was to measure the user engagement and to see if there would be an increase in user activity.

Responsibilities

User flow mapping, wire framing and UI design

Tools

Sketch, InVision, Mockflow

Discover

Before working on any new design concepts I held a variety of user interviews to begin to collect user feedback. I also worked with the research team which provided a ton of important user information, (ie., personas, analytics, user input from surveys, etc.).

I also performed an extensive market research analysis on the best in breed forum platforms to gain further knowledge of the functional components that work well within a forums experience versus the functional components that do not work well.

Ideation

Sketching and Wireframes

There were a list of user scenarios to cover so I started to sketch different designs to detail out the flows. These flows were then presented to stakeholders and development team members to get feedback.

The final designs

After many design iterations and user testing sessions the final designs were complete. The new forums experience was well received by stakeholders and management teams. Below are some of the new or enhanced features that I designed to be included into the new forums experience.

All designs follow the IBM design library system and grids.
Introduction of a new gamification system into the experience. This was a new feature designed to encourage IBM users to engage with forums, but more importantly, encourage external users to contribute to the forums.
A new "My activity" dashboard where users can view and manage the full history of the forums activity. From the dashboard, users can also follow forums specific to their products, follow / interact with other users, see their gamification points, and much more.
A product driven / personalized experience. This was a completely new concept to give the users a personalized experience. For example, once authenticated, users will only see a forums experience tailored only to the products they follow or have purchased.

The final result and learnings

So far, user engagement is up 50% after launching this new experience to a test pilot group. We have learned that the personalized experience and gamification system has drastically increased user participation. The simplicity of the designs, while using the IBM design library, has also helped increase user activity. The goal is to continue iterating on these designs and to keep improving on what we learn as users provide more feedback and data.