TL;DR?

As a design lead on the Commercial Engineering team, I led the design of the Device Insights on the Surface Management Portal

In short

The Insights on Surface Management Portal is a customizable hub for IT admins to monitor the health of their organization’s devices at a glance.

Highlights

Delivered designs for the Device Insights feature. Device Insights on the Surface Management Portal was presented as a ‘big impact’ update during Microsoft’s global commercial presentation in 2024.

Quantifiable impacts

The process

The issue

Despite the importance of monitoring the device’s health, users were having a hard time managing the health of the devices. The only way to see issues with the devices was to stare at the boring table full of different device-related information.

Problem statement

The health of IT devices is crucial for the success of business. Thus, I drilled down the issue to really understand users’ pain points and needs.

How might

[Surface Management Portal users]

achieve

[being more aware of device health]

so that they can

[reduce business impact from device failures]

Specific design requirements

The PM had a specific vision with two design requirements. To respect his decision, I designed the product exactly as he wanted.

Device count

Insights page should have cards that show the number of devices per status

Status alert

Each card should have a background color to notify users about the statuses

Hypothesizing & tweaking the solution

The PM's design had room for improvement, so I proposed an alternative. By creating a centralized dashboard for real-time device health data, users can easily monitor and manage device status and performance, increasing satisfaction and reducing downtime.

Intuitive infographics

IT admins (users) usually handle thousands of devices. Intuitive infographics can elevate scannability.

Categorized device health alerts

On top of visualized data, I wanted to make sure that the users can easily scan and see how many devices are under what statuses.

Customizable views

Users should be able to customize the dashboard to prioritize the metrics most relevant to their needs.

Device insights dashboard

The health of IT devices is crucial for the success of business. Thus, I drilled down the issue to really understand users’ pain points and needs.

Visualized key insight metrics

Grouped key metrics into categories and visualized them with graphs, enabling users to quickly grasp essential data at a glance.

Customizable device count dashboard

Users can select, drag, and drop device count cards to focus on the most valuable metrics for their business.

Device insights details page

Clicking device count cards on the dashboard takes the users to detailed insights page. Users can see what devices are under selected status.

Device count cards

These cards display device counts and function as clickable filters. When clicked, they direct users to a page showing filtered devices and similar statuses categorized by type.

Reflection

With the goal of providing a stress-free experience to the IT admins who manage thousands of Surface devices, adding the new device health monitoring feature marks a significant enhancement. I was able to solve users’ pain points and fulfill their needs by listening to their voices, meeting PM requirements, and working with the engineering team. 

Looking ahead, continuous monitoring and iteration based on user feedback will be paramount to maintaining the feature’s effectiveness and relevance. Based on user feedback, I plan on making improvements to the future phase designs.