Unified Agent

Unified Agent – Solving UX problem

Aternity Unified Agent is the latest version of Aternity’s agent, designed around a new business model that offers greater flexibility and scalability. This version of the agent solving Persona’s basic problem. This unified agent includes all the core features of the Aternity system, such as Remediation Actions, Insights, Benchmarking, and Surveys. Unlike previous versions, the Unified Agent operates on a modular basis, allowing customers to purchase only the features they need, tailoring the solution to their specific requirements. This approach ensures that businesses can scale and adapt the tool according to their unique demands, while also providing a cost-effective solution for every use case.

We conducted extensive research and collaboration to create distinct personas for Aternity, addressing the system’s wide range of features and functionalities. This project provides the optimal solution to the ‘persona’ challenge, enabling users to focus solely on the system functionalities that are relevant to their specific needs.

Design Deliverable Plan Overview

• Project Scope and Objectives.
• Deliverables List.
• Timeline and Milestones.
• Quality Standards and Specifications.
• Review and Approval Process.

“I Like, I Wish, I Wonder” is a simple yet powerful UX research method used to gather feedback on a product, service, or experience. This technique encourages participants to share their thoughts in a structured manner, providing insights into what works well, what could be improved, and innovative ideas for the future.

Senior IT Administrator Persona

Challenges

The main UX challenges in installing the Unified Agent revolve around channel priorities and device grouping.

Channel Priorities

Prioritize Channels: Implement a system to prioritize channels based on their importance or urgency. This could involve categorizing channels into tiers (e.g., Stable, Staging, Beta, Alpha, Excluded Devices) and allowing administrators to assign priority levels to each channel.

Device-Channel Mapping: Provide a clear visualization by coloring device chips. Administrators can see which devices are associated with each channel. This helps them understand the impact of channel priorities on device deployment and management.

Device Grouping

Automated Grouping: Implement an automated grouping feature that categorizes devices based on predefined criteria such as location, operation system, and device type. This helps administrators efficiently manage large numbers of devices by organizing them into logical groups.

Customizable Groups: Allow administrators to create custom device groups based on their organization’s specific requirements. This flexibility enables them to tailor device grouping to match their workflow and organizational structure.

Group Management Tools: Provide tools for administrators to easily manage device groups, such as bulk editing options, group-based policies, and dynamic group membership based on criteria like device attributes or usage patterns. This simplifies device management tasks and ensures consistency across device groups.

Creating custom groups using operators: Designing an effective user experience for creating custom groups using operators requires thoughtful consideration of both UX and UI challenges. Providing clear, intuitive ways for users to select operators, define criteria, and visualize group compositions will enhance usability. Incorporating features like drag-and-drop functionality, deleting, and error handling mechanisms can help users efficiently create and manage custom groups.

Playing with ideas and Design Systems

Throughout the brainstorming process, dozens of different ideas and features were explored, resulting in the creation of tens of mockups and screens. One notable idea considered during this phase was the removal of the country groups feature. Another significant concept involved adding devices through the uploading of a CSV file, although this idea was ultimately discarded.

The Unified Agent project needs to be implemented on a different platform, and there were numerous considerations and uncertainties about which design system—Blueprint, Material Design, or Bootstrap—would be most suitable for this project.

Development Phases

Like many other projects under development, this one progresses through various phases. Due to the phased approach, not all features can be implemented immediately. Therefore, I created several mockups to correspond with different stages of the development process.

Initially, all mockups were crafted using Adobe XD. However, I later opted to redesign all screens using Figma.

Conclusion

To solve the problem, I facilitated workshops with the product team and conducted usability testing with customers. This approach helped inform our design decisions. By engaging multiple stakeholders early on, addressing the correct problem, and consistently validating our ideas, I developed a solution that aligned with both business needs and user-centric principles.

The Use Case

On the main screen of the Unified Agent modules, users can view a comprehensive dashboard presenting key information. This includes the total number of devices where each module is installed, visually represented with a pie chart showcasing installation statuses. Additionally, a bar graph indicates the distribution and availability of licenses, accompanied by a prominent call-to-action button enabling quick installation of any module that is not yet installed. This design aims to provide users with clear insights and actionable options for managing and deploying modules effectively.

The screenshot above demonstrates how to add groups to the stable channel, displaying device statuses, errors, and options for bulk actions.

The screenshot above illustrates the process of creating custom groups using operators.

Initiating the agent deployment process to the selected devices.

The alert dialog displays the message.

The updated modules screen displays new data of NPM Insights module.

Installation Arguments Challenges

• Show whether installation arguments are present.
• Emphasize which operating system each argument relates to, ensuring clarity for the user.

Operating System Versions

Takeaways from the Unified Agent Project

Out-of-the-Box Thinking
Discover Solutions Where You Least Expect

Defining Priorities
Learned how to define and manage priorities, balancing user needs with technical constraints to drive product development.

Working with Custom Operators
Gained hands-on experience in collaborating with custom operators to effectively create and manage custom groups.

Deployment Process
Developed a deeper understanding of the deployment process, ensuring smooth execution and optimization across various configurations.

Researching Design Systems
Explored design systems to understand best practices in creating consistent, scalable, and user-friendly interfaces.