In 2017 I delivered design concepts for an improved developer experience using a help hub capability in the Watson IoT Platform.
What is a Help Hub and a Side Panel
When users launch the Watson IoT service and open the IoT Platform web interface they are taken to the IoT platform dashboard. This default behavior is desirable and efficient for existing users of the IoT platform and takes them directly to an overview of the system state. The IoT platform dashboard is a flexible solution that allows users to use default boards, or configure their personal or team boards that present the right IoT system status to every user or team.
However, for new users entering the platform for the first time, this feature may be perceived as confusing. Users are left with the question “Ok, now what? You dropped me here, what do you want me to do?”
To improve the experience for developers exploring the platform we designed a Help Hub that answers just those questions. And, provides a structured journey for developers to quickly get started with the Watson IoT platform.
Design Vision
With the Help Hub design, we want to provide a simple onboarding experience for new users of the platform. The design should create a seamless learning experience within the Watson IoT Platform; gently guiding users toward the key ah-ha moments that allow them to form a mental model of the IoT platform and its resources. This will increase the likelihood that new users achieve their goals, gain satisfaction, continue engaging with key features, and happily refer the service to others.
The design should present a list of actions for the user to take to get started. The tasks should be context-sensitive. That is, actions are presented in a sequence of importance. Once an action is completed, new action(s) are activated and appear to the user. There are conditions that make actions active. For example, if there are no device types created the Help Hub should display a task to create a device type. Or, if there is only one user registered with the IoT platform, the Help Hub should provide an action to add additional team members as users.
Some users may find the pushing of tasks a bit annoying and will turn off such suggestions. Such users will find the Side Panel helpful as a way to, on-demand, see a list of recommended tasks and easy access to documentation.
User Research
In our research, we identified typical situations here the Help Hub and Side Panel are key to user success and satisfaction.
Getting started – Devon is an IoT developer in a new team formed to run a POC using IBM Cloud and Watson IoT Platform to build a demo IoT applications for a line of business in a week. The POC will provide new insights and optimizations for existing products or processes.
Devon, needs to
- Solve a business problem through innovation
- Build a PoC to secure ongoing funding & support
- Anticipating production-level requirements: scale, DevOps, security, etc.
- Needs to integrate with existing systems and processes.
Hills