From 'Orchestration Manager' to the new 'Gridview' Platform
One of the most technically complex projects I've worked on. What was originally called 'Orchman' (Orchestration Manager) built over 20 years ago - was evolving to become 'GridView'.
GridView is designed for Support Engineers, Environment Operations, and Development Engineers, providing them with tools to monitor, maintain, and triage Workday's customer integrations on a global scale.
Using Workday's Design System (Canvas Kit), I introduced new designs tailored to meet the platform's unique requirements. For instance, while the data table used an early 'Mock Client' from Canvas Kit, it quickly became evident that it couldn't accommodate the necessary micro-interactions, such as overlays and advanced functionality. As a result, many components had to be custom-designed to address these needs effectively.
Drafts / workings example
Legacy systems and databases
The existing platform was hosted across multiple global legacy systems and data pools in different time zones all built with various code bases and unique limitations. Even accessing some of these platforms required learning how to set up an SUV to do any research. The new Gridview platform's ambition was to bring everything together in one new cloud platform with current coding standards and best practices.
Research / Understanding the Platform / Journey flow
When I joined the project, there was some existing research, though it was a few years old. To build a deeper understanding, I conducted my own research by logging into various platforms to perform audits and by engaging directly with the system's users—Environment Engineers and DevOps professionals—as well as members of my team.
Additionally, I reviewed hours of recorded video workshops, interviews, and telephone support audio conversations, along with their transcripts. These provided valuable insights, which I documented and organised into actionable notes.
As part of this research, I created the Journey Flow below to capture the process by which GridView's users triaged integrations and the steps the team followed. This visualisation helped clarify user interactions and guided the design process for the platform.
Project Summary
The GridView work is still evolving as we speak, but we had progressed the platform in leaps and bounds by the time I had left the project
• When I was conducting research interviews at the Beta testing stage the designs were greatly favoured by all the user groups we tested
• Feedback comments gathered on design specifically included - "much simply", "clearer and cleaner", "more Workday", "nicer / easier to use"
• Our new Sign-in process was reduced from sometimes minutes (!) to a matter of seconds - an expected standard
• The introduction of a new Global Filter (this design was greatly limited by back end code) enabled users to filter through sometimes hundreds of rows of jobs increasing the speed of the task at hand
• Other research showed the simplified, cleaner designs made scanning long tables for 'jobs' (integrations) much easier by introducing simple typographic clarity, good use of space and understanding of screen-density, accessibility standards and other design devices. This included the introduction of 'labels', red tinted rows, showing failed jobs and more