Virtual Machine Networking

Shipped generally available February 2024

Lead UX Researcher

My research uncovered unmet user needs on one of the highest-traffic pages in the Azure portal and informed a redesign that materially improved business and user outcomes

The Azure portal virtual machine networking page is one of the most visited management pages. It surfaces essential networking information and controls that cloud administrators rely on daily. Over several years functionality and information had accumulated on the page, which generated signals that users were dissatisfied and were encountering challenges using the page to accomplish key jobs-to-be-done.

I led semi-structured interviews with current users to identify the root causes and surface opportunities for innovation. Overall, users wanted an improved experience, but the challenge was enhancing the experience without sacrificing the feature depth power users relied on. This created a tenuous tightrope we had to walk while redesigning the user experience. When the team had finished collaboratively building a prototype I conducted evaluative usability testing to identify if the redesign was more effective.

Ultimately the shipped product resulted in increased product adoption, a step-change improvement in user satisfaction, and reduced support burden.