Docker Universal Control Plane 3.1

This is a work in progress, more to come!

understanding core workflows when considering change

I joined Docker a little over 3 years ago and quickly started working on the Enterprise Products. Some glaring issues were easy to fix, and we did, but in that process we lost sight of the core workflows. 

The current data model had a resource table always persistent, it allowed people to move between the same type of object easily - with the supported details of the object on the right.

This current model lets users change objects and keep the details persistent. We thought that users were navigating through the same objects, toggling between so we build the interaction model to support that.

How did we understand what people were actually doing?

Looker Dashboards

Using instrumentation I was able to build dashboards to track user movement through the product. From here we could see what features, functions and workflows users were prioritizing over others. I learned that people were not changing between object of the same kind that often. I wanted more information so I spoke to users.

Findings and User Needs

While interviewing and observing user behavior we learned that people were looking for a certain clue, like container or node that had an issue. This meant that they still needed flat lists of objects so they could find the source of the problem. Once they found that clue, they wanted to see what else might be affected by it.

Designing a new data model

I started with models to help understand possible data patterns. These were mapped with real data to understand how the information could fit and to get a sense of the interaction model. This was tested on over 5 different models with variations of each. Here is a sample.

Validation

These were shown to customers to get their feedback. The majority of users converged around Model 1, and it was used for more exploration.

Implementation

Docker Enterprise has over 80 pages, it would have taken too long to design out every page. Instead a create a template and worked with the front end teams to build components that would be reused. Here are some examples.

Results

The feedback we received was excellent!

Curious for More?

Check out the full presentation here