Case Study:

Design Principles

As Head of Design at HackerOne, our design philosophy is all about simplicity, clarity, and putting the user first. We're dedicated to making cybersecurity intuitive and accessible for everyone, regardless of their expertise. This means focusing on what's essential, listening closely to feedback, and continuously improving to make sure our products are not just secure, but also engaging and easy to use.

Our guidelines embody this ethos, guiding our team in creating products that demystify cybersecurity and empower users. It's our iterative, user-driven approach that keeps our work relevant and sets new standards in user-centric cybersecurity.

The Problem

HackerOne faced feedback highlighting inconsistencies in design, leading to customer confusion and distrust. This highlighted the need for clear, consistent design principles to eliminate inefficiency and ensure a unified user experience. Establishing these principles became crucial to streamline development and reinforce customer confidence in our cybersecurity solutions.

 
 

My Role

As Head of Design, I guided HackerOne's design vision to craft user-centric, clear, and accessible cybersecurity solutions, and spearheaded principles that unified our user experience and reinforced trust.

The Team

Head of Design - Sr. Design Manager - Product Designers Researchers

Methodologies and Techniques

Usability Testing - Heuristic Evaluation - User Journeys Competitive Analysis - Wireframes - Surveys

Tools

Figma - FigJam - Surveys - Asana - Slack

Crafting Excellence in Design Collaboration

Explore HackerOne's Blueprint for Design Principles

At HackerOne, we believe that designing exceptional user experiences is a collaborative effort that hinges on open communication. Our guiding principles serve as a compass for this journey, encouraging our team to engage in meaningful dialogues at every stage—from planning to implementation. We've faced challenges in harmonizing diverse perspectives and ensuring that feasibility discussions translate into actionable design and engineering tasks. By leveraging our collective expertise during planning, critiques, and implementation discussions, we've crafted a culture where product managers, designers, and engineers work in unison to turn complex challenges into intuitive solutions.

Optimizing for Speed and Simplicity

Empowering Swift User Journeys at HackerOne

In our quest to enhance the user journey, HackerOne has prioritized speed and efficiency. Our design team has grappled with the challenge of reducing friction in user interactions. We've honed in on critical questions that drive our design decisions: Can users accomplish their goals with greater speed and fewer steps? Are our pages optimally structured for task completion? The obstacles we faced—such as full-page reloads slowing down navigation—prompted us to innovate.

Our goal was to eliminate delays and confusion caused by cumbersome processes, ambiguous concepts, and unclear language, ensuring no action takes longer than three seconds to complete. Through this, we aim to provide a seamless, intuitive experience that empowers our users to achieve their objectives rapidly and effortlessly.

Strategic Clarity in Design

Layering Information for Optimal User Guidance at HackerOne

In the digital space HackerOne occupies, clarity is key. Our design philosophy embraces the concept of revealing information in layers, addressing the core challenge of information overload. We continually ask ourselves: What is the primary information users need, and how can we present possible actions without overwhelming them? By focusing on these questions, we've tackled the issue where users faced an array of competing tasks and information.

Our solution is a design that surfaces the right information at the right time, allowing users to perform tasks in under ten seconds. We strive to create an interface that's not just efficient but also intuitive, inviting users to explore and learn without the burden of unnecessary complexity.

Harmonizing User Interaction

Embracing Consistency Across HackerOne's Platform

At HackerOne, our design ethos is anchored in the principle of consistency. We understand that a predictable and coherent user experience is fundamental for users to navigate our platform with ease. Our team has rigorously focused on ensuring that actions yield the same results across different contexts, terminology remains uniform, and icons retain their meaning throughout. This dedication to both internal and external consistency mitigates cognitive overload, allowing users to apply their knowledge seamlessly from one part of the platform to another.

The challenge has been to maintain this uniformity without stifling innovation. By embracing Jakob's Law, we ensure that our design conventions resonate with user expectations, facilitating a familiar and intuitive environment that both educates and empowers our users.

Infusing Empathy into Design

Humanizing Technology for Engaging Experiences at HackerOne

HackerOne champions the human aspect of cybersecurity, striving to infuse delight into every user interaction. We ask ourselves if our language is straightforward and relatable, if we're effectively guiding users to their goals, and if we're there to support them when they lose their way. These considerations have propelled us to focus on delight in both the surface appeal and the deep, functional layers of our design.

We've faced the challenge of transcending the typical coldness associated with tech interfaces by injecting personality and warmth into our platform. By doing so, we create a more engaging and humane experience that motivates and assists users, reminding them that behind the code and data are real people dedicated to making the internet a safer place.

Personalized User Engagement

Tailoring Experience to User Roles at HackerOne

At HackerOne, we constantly refine our approach to ensure that every user, regardless of their role, finds information and tools tailored to their needs. We prioritize relevant content, striving to align with familiar mental models and clear language, aiding in intuitive navigation.

Our challenge lies in cutting through the noise to deliver a personalized experience that considers the unique context of each user type. By asking the right questions and focusing on relevance, we seek to empower our users not just with the data, insights, or workflows they need, but with a sense of clarity and purpose that propels them through their cybersecurity tasks with confidence and efficiency.

 

The Results

Design iteration time for new features decreased by 15%

Development speed for UI components increased by 10%

User support tickets related to usability decreased by 20%

Customer satisfaction scores on usability improved by 10%

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