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Tam Cai, Beta v1.10A / Developer Mode:
Headquartered in Armonk, New York, IBM is a global leader in computer hardware, middleware, software and also offers consulting services from mainframe computing to cutting-edge nanotechnology.
“Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all... good design must primarily serve people.”
— Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
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I began by leading a deep-dive session with key team members to understand the CMAAS initiative, its business value, and metrics. We identified user pain points and feature requests to ensure the design aligned with both user needs and business goals:
Stakeholder
Product Owner
Offering Manager
Information Architectures
Software Engineers
Data Analysts
Content Strategists
This approach aligned with IBM’s standardized product development processes, using the IBM Design Principles to ensure consistency, usability, and innovation throughout the project.
To kickstart production, I conducted performance research, usability testing on CMAAS v1.0, and gathered stakeholder requirements. I prioritized user engagement and KPI scores as the foundation, creating hypothetical scenarios using user persona stories in the R&D process, which were then translated into wireframes.
The migration to CMAAS v2.0 leveraged the Carbon Design Kit (CD Kit), ensuring a more modern, robust, and scalable user experience.
For CMAAS v2.0, the goal was to increase user engagement to 62% YTD, improving upon the 37% achieved in CMAAS v1.0 through enhanced design and functionality.
CMAAS v1.0 was built on the North Star Kit codebase (pre-2017). To modernize it, we transitioned to the Carbon Design Kit for scalability and usability.
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Realistic expectations?
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Ship sans bells and whistles?
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Does the project scope require AI injection from IBM WatsonX?
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Will the end product add value to IBM's mission to provide client success?
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Does the team agree on the project roadmap, goals, execution and timeline?
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Net-new or contribute?
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Can the product evolve?
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Accessible by all?
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Designs dictated by quantitative data?
Before applying design solutions, I created low-fidelity wireframe prototypes to illustrate the vision for CMAAS v2.0. These early concepts provided the team with a clear user journey preview while allowing flexibility for iteration based on usability testing.
At this stage, visual precision wasn’t the priority—instead, the prototypes helped stakeholders, managers, analysts, and strategists align on the proposed direction for an improved user experience.
With the team aligned on product development cycles, including planning, research, market placement, and wireframing, my next key contribution was creating an assortment of high-fidelity designs that defined essential design patterns. These designs leveraged both existing and new components from the IBM Carbon Design Kit Library to ensure consistency and scalability.
To explore IBM’s Open-Source Carbon Design Kit Library, check out the latest build: Carbon v11.X.
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Router
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Support channels
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Sales channels
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Call sales
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Chat with AI
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Chat with agent
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Text to device
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Text to device: form
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End chat
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Chat feedback
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Book a meeting [Slide out]
As we enhanced the IBM CMAAS v2.0 user experience, I was later tasked with additional design contributions, including the product dashboard, redlining specs for engineers, iconography, UI motion, and animation, among others. Here’s a quick look at some of these additional design elements.
See additional pieces of brand design work at IBM Branding Overview.
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“Across all 62 test cases, the majority voted for the [new] CMAAS v2.0. Some users even said the concierge-style header made it feel fun, and that it added a personal vibe—making the product experience overall more natural to use.”
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/Clear
/Expected
/Fun
/Useful
/Forward
/Seamless