Building a unified user experience across disparate systems

CHALLENGE: Bringing disparate platforms together with consistency

Initially, the brief was to combine two cloud management platforms, but the scope quickly expanded to include more systems. This added a huge amount of complexity to the project, introducing lots of different coding languages, technologies, and legacy systems.

SOLUTION: A new, app-based approach to building user interfaces

The key to bringing all these separate systems together was adopting an app-based approach, where every individual system was created as its own ‘app’ within the main portal. Each app is accessed from a global menu and uses a unified set of UI assets that help create visual consistency across the whole ecosystem.

We’re now working on a design system that will help formalise our approach as we add more systems to the portal. It will include visual components, such as size, colour, and font, and experience components, such as what happens when you click on a button.

RESULT: A unified experience – and a growing backlog

Previously, customers would need different accounts for each portal – and every one offered a different UI and UX. Now, customers have one login that covers every app within the Services Portal, and all their information is accessible in a clear, consistent manner. 

The portal is growing all the time, with new apps joining the ecosystem as the business needs them. The design system we developed allows the client to develop new applications for the Services Portal.