Rethinking object storage bucket configuration
Turning a sprawling, hard-to-scan settings page into a tabbed experience that matches the mental model of cloud infrastructure architects.
SHIPPED
IBM CLOUD OBJECT STORAGE
Role
Product designer
TIMELINE
Feb - Apr 2025
TEAM
1 UX architect 2 developers 1 product manager
SKILLS
UX Design UX Research
OVERVIEW
Improving the usability of the object storage bucket configuration experience
As the product evolved over time, IBM Cloud Object Storage’s bucket configuration page had grown into a long, flat list of 15+ settings that users struggled to navigate. Over ~2 months I led the research and design to restructure it — running a competitive analysis, a card sort, an A/B prototype study, and ultimately synthesized findings into an experience that was met with higher user satisfaction.
PROBLEM
Customers struggle to navigate 15 configuration sections all on one page
The object storage bucket configuration page presented every setting — versioning, object lock, retention, expiration, replication, CORS, hosting, observability, and more — as one long scroll. There was no grouping that matched how cloud architects reason about their buckets.
For an enterprise storage product where buckets hold regulated and mission-critical data, a configuration page that people can’t scan quickly isn’t a cosmetic problem — it leads to misconfiguration, wasted time verifying settings, and support load. Competitors had already moved to tabbed, grouped, progressively-disclosed layouts.
15 CONFIGURATION SECTIONS ON 1 SINGLE PAGE
RESEARCH
Competitive analysis and card sorting revealed several fundamental issues
It was clear from the beginning that one of the biggest issues with the existing configuration page was how it attempts to squeeze 15 sections into a single, non-categorized page. Competitive analysis and card sorting would help us get started with chunking the configuration sections into more intuitive categories.
Competitive analysis
Content
CATEGORIES DETERMINED BASED ON CARD SORTING RESULTS
Card sorting
To validate the intuitiveness of category names we brainstormed and categories in competitor products, we conducted a closed card sorting exercise with 16 cloud
CATEGORIES DETERMINED BASED ON CARD SORTING RESULTS
“
I prefer [backing up] the boot volume by default. The only situation where it doesn't make sense is when we have a Kubernetes cluster or a template or whatever it is where the boot volume is always the same.
Senior SRE · multi-cloud SaaS
DESIGN + TESTING
A/B testing helped to identify more usable interaction patterns
There are many ways to organize 15 different configuration sections in the console. Based on broad patterns gathered from competitors and UX heuristics, I designed two different paradigms and tested them head-to-head with 10 cloud professionals using the UMUX framework.
PROTOTYPE A: UMUX 86.67
All 15 sections on a single page; navigate by scroll or left-panel anchor links.
Left panel shows live status for every section — no clicking needed.
Collapsed tiles; inline editing opens a card in the page body.
PROTOTYPE B: UMUX 90.83
Sections split across tabs (lifecycle, data mgmt, observability…).
Expanded tiles — descriptions visible immediately, fewer clicks to scan.
Side-panel editing grounds the user in one focused context.
Prototype B had a slightly higher UMUX score overall, but Prototype A’s left-panel status indicators were the single most-praised feature of the whole study. Ultimately, I decided to make the best of both worlds.
SOLUTION
On by default: Data protection integrated within VSI provisioning
In this solution backup becomes a more natural part of creating a virtual server — on by default, transparent about cost and permissions, and flexible enough for power users to bend to their exact schedule without leaving the page.
On by default,
collapsed by default
The tile is toggled on with a weekly backup policy by default, and is collapsed to a summary (including frequency, retention, estimated price) so confident users aren’t slowed and cautious users can expand.
Customizability with
limited scope
As we validated from interviews, customers are more willing to accept system defaults when they're able to customize values depending on different needs or use cases. However, limiting the scope of customizability is also important to avoid overloading users with decision points.
IAM authorization
created automatically
A huge potential friction point for new backup policy customers is visitinga separate IAM page to manually create service-to-service authorization. In this solution, the system creates the authorization on the user's behalf automatically, sparing unnecessary manual effort.
IMPACT + RESULTS
Reducing time and number of clicks required to protect customer data
15
MINUTES SAVED
This solution vastly reduces the amount of time on average that customers spend to back up critical storage volumes after VSI provisioning has completed.
8+
CLICKS REDUCED
Because the option for data protection is now integrated directly within the VSI provisioning page
20%
ERRORS AVOIDED
The backup policy provisioning page is one of the pages with the highest UI error rates. By simplifying backup configuration and keeping it within the VSI provisioning context, errors are largely reduced.
IMPACT + RESULTS
Increasing user satisfaction and decreasing time on task
16
CUSTOMER + D&UX ISSUES RESOLVED
The improved solution helped resolve a total of 16 issues identified directly from customers and during Design & UX (DUX) internal assessments
~15%
DECREASE IN TIME ON TASK
Customers spent less time on average finding nested configuration sections and completing target tasks.