Redesign a legacy product into a SaaS product
Signiant was the industry leader in enabling media companies like Disney to transfer large files between office locations. However, it still relied on on-premise solutions, while investors were pushing for a shift to SaaS—a model considered more valuable and scalable.
Year
2016 - 2019
Topics
UX Design, SaaS, UX Research
Company
Signiant
/ Objectives
Lead the design strategy for Signiant’s transition from a legacy on-premise solution to a modern SaaS product, in response to investor pressure and market demand for scalable, subscription-based models. This involved reimagining the core experience to better serve enterprise media clients like Disney, while achieving two key design outcomes:
Simplifying the user experience to make large file transfers more intuitive for both technical and non-technical users.
Reducing sales cycle complexity by designing a focused, standalone product offering that minimized customization and accelerated client onboarding.
/ Designing the Future, Letting Go of the Past
We analyzed what aspects of the legacy application were being used, and not used today through user interviews and surveys. Unfortunately, we had no usage data from the system.
/ Field Research for Inspiration
We met with six companies to discover how they use our products. Here are some insights we gathered.
Dark Rooms: Right away we noticed all the studios worked in the dark. "Colourists" need to adjust their movie compositions in the environment their viewers will be watching.
Big Screens: Our monitoring products were used as a communication device between team members working in a large room.
Proud of Work: Everyone is excited about the work they produce. They also have posters of their favourite work all around their office to celebrate their successes.
Structured by Projects: Studios structure their work by project. They have budgets, specific customers and a time-box. Assets are not shared across projects.
/ Design Demos & Workshops
I held morning workshops with donuts to educate the company on design activities. I had them work through a non-work-related scenario to keep things light. For example, they had to come up with personas for a museum. I also frequently presented at our company-wide demos on the progress of my work. This made it easier for them to apply these concepts to the project while understanding my methodology when presenting
/ Design Principles
Show Off Content: Our customers make some of the best content in the world. I wanted the content they produce to bring the product to life.
Dark Mode: I wanted the users to know that we are thinking about their environment.
Project Structure: Media studios are like consultants. They are very project-based.
Material Design: A small company is limited in resources. I decided the company should move to an established design language.
/ Keeping the Business Model in Mind
Sellable products can be simplified into a single control: Signiant sells products based on how content transfers. (Cloud, on-premise, person-to-person). Since buyers are not the users, I wanted to create a 'from point A to B' mental model instead of separate applications.
Modular Add-ons: As users add complexity, those controls are provided.
Progressive Disclosure: Media transfers (jobs) can be very simple or complex. I opted for a paradigm where users can add options as needed.
/ Lessons Learned
Field Visits are Awesome: I am preaching to the choir about conducting in-context interviews. However, this was a friendly reminder to me about how much you miss if you don’t go on-site.
Understand the Sales Pitch: The CEO had a problem with the design. She was worried that the business development reps would have difficulty explaining the different products. Instead, we needed to adjust the design into separate applications for easier sales cycles.
Branding Material Design: Not all stakeholders like the idea of using Google as their design language. Since the development team was small, I did not have them focus on the visual look and feel beyond matching our internal brand. By putting more effort into differentiating the componentry, there would have been more excitement in the direction.
Redesign a legacy product into a SaaS product
Signiant was the industry leader in enabling media companies like Disney to transfer large files between office locations. However, it still relied on on-premise solutions, while investors were pushing for a shift to SaaS—a model considered more valuable and scalable.
Year
2016 - 2019
Topics
UX Design, SaaS, UX Research
Company
Signiant
/ Objectives
Lead the design strategy for Signiant’s transition from a legacy on-premise solution to a modern SaaS product, in response to investor pressure and market demand for scalable, subscription-based models. This involved reimagining the core experience to better serve enterprise media clients like Disney, while achieving two key design outcomes:
Simplifying the user experience to make large file transfers more intuitive for both technical and non-technical users.
Reducing sales cycle complexity by designing a focused, standalone product offering that minimized customization and accelerated client onboarding.
/ Designing the Future, Letting Go of the Past
We analyzed what aspects of the legacy application were being used, and not used today through user interviews and surveys. Unfortunately, we had no usage data from the system.
/ Field Research for Inspiration
We met with six companies to discover how they use our products. Here are some insights we gathered.
Dark Rooms: Right away we noticed all the studios worked in the dark. "Colourists" need to adjust their movie compositions in the environment their viewers will be watching.
Big Screens: Our monitoring products were used as a communication device between team members working in a large room.
Proud of Work: Everyone is excited about the work they produce. They also have posters of their favourite work all around their office to celebrate their successes.
Structured by Projects: Studios structure their work by project. They have budgets, specific customers and a time-box. Assets are not shared across projects.
/ Design Demos & Workshops
I held morning workshops with donuts to educate the company on design activities. I had them work through a non-work-related scenario to keep things light. For example, they had to come up with personas for a museum. I also frequently presented at our company-wide demos on the progress of my work. This made it easier for them to apply these concepts to the project while understanding my methodology when presenting
/ Design Principles
Show Off Content: Our customers make some of the best content in the world. I wanted the content they produce to bring the product to life.
Dark Mode: I wanted the users to know that we are thinking about their environment.
Project Structure: Media studios are like consultants. They are very project-based.
Material Design: A small company is limited in resources. I decided the company should move to an established design language.
/ Keeping the Business Model in Mind
Sellable products can be simplified into a single control: Signiant sells products based on how content transfers. (Cloud, on-premise, person-to-person). Since buyers are not the users, I wanted to create a 'from point A to B' mental model instead of separate applications.
Modular Add-ons: As users add complexity, those controls are provided.
Progressive Disclosure: Media transfers (jobs) can be very simple or complex. I opted for a paradigm where users can add options as needed.
/ Lessons Learned
Field Visits are Awesome: I am preaching to the choir about conducting in-context interviews. However, this was a friendly reminder to me about how much you miss if you don’t go on-site.
Understand the Sales Pitch: The CEO had a problem with the design. She was worried that the business development reps would have difficulty explaining the different products. Instead, we needed to adjust the design into separate applications for easier sales cycles.
Branding Material Design: Not all stakeholders like the idea of using Google as their design language. Since the development team was small, I did not have them focus on the visual look and feel beyond matching our internal brand. By putting more effort into differentiating the componentry, there would have been more excitement in the direction.
Redesign a legacy product into a SaaS product
Signiant was the industry leader in enabling media companies like Disney to transfer large files between office locations. However, it still relied on on-premise solutions, while investors were pushing for a shift to SaaS—a model considered more valuable and scalable.
Year
2016 - 2019
Topics
UX Design, SaaS, UX Research
Company
Signiant
/ Objectives
Lead the design strategy for Signiant’s transition from a legacy on-premise solution to a modern SaaS product, in response to investor pressure and market demand for scalable, subscription-based models. This involved reimagining the core experience to better serve enterprise media clients like Disney, while achieving two key design outcomes:
Simplifying the user experience to make large file transfers more intuitive for both technical and non-technical users.
Reducing sales cycle complexity by designing a focused, standalone product offering that minimized customization and accelerated client onboarding.
/ Designing the Future, Letting Go of the Past
We analyzed what aspects of the legacy application were being used, and not used today through user interviews and surveys. Unfortunately, we had no usage data from the system.
/ Field Research for Inspiration
We met with six companies to discover how they use our products. Here are some insights we gathered.
Dark Rooms: Right away we noticed all the studios worked in the dark. "Colourists" need to adjust their movie compositions in the environment their viewers will be watching.
Big Screens: Our monitoring products were used as a communication device between team members working in a large room.
Proud of Work: Everyone is excited about the work they produce. They also have posters of their favourite work all around their office to celebrate their successes.
Structured by Projects: Studios structure their work by project. They have budgets, specific customers and a time-box. Assets are not shared across projects.
/ Design Demos & Workshops
I held morning workshops with donuts to educate the company on design activities. I had them work through a non-work-related scenario to keep things light. For example, they had to come up with personas for a museum. I also frequently presented at our company-wide demos on the progress of my work. This made it easier for them to apply these concepts to the project while understanding my methodology when presenting
/ Design Principles
Show Off Content: Our customers make some of the best content in the world. I wanted the content they produce to bring the product to life.
Dark Mode: I wanted the users to know that we are thinking about their environment.
Project Structure: Media studios are like consultants. They are very project-based.
Material Design: A small company is limited in resources. I decided the company should move to an established design language.
/ Keeping the Business Model in Mind
Sellable products can be simplified into a single control: Signiant sells products based on how content transfers. (Cloud, on-premise, person-to-person). Since buyers are not the users, I wanted to create a 'from point A to B' mental model instead of separate applications.
Modular Add-ons: As users add complexity, those controls are provided.
Progressive Disclosure: Media transfers (jobs) can be very simple or complex. I opted for a paradigm where users can add options as needed.