Desktop Application

Admin Panel Redesign
(MyOffice Cloud)

My role: Lead Product Designer

Team: Product manager, 2 UX/UI designer (whith me), front-end developers, back-end developers, testers

Task

The MyOffice Cloud Admin Panel is an internal tool used by system administrators in enterprise organizations — including governmental institutions, financial organizations, and corporate clients with strict security requirements

Action

The previous version of the admin panel consisted of a long, chaotic set of dropdowns and settings placed on a single page.

Administrators regularly complained about:

the lack of structure
difficulty finding critical settings
high risk of making mistakes
visual overload
unpredictable navigation
My goal was to redesign the panel into a structured, secure and intuitive interface that reduces cognitive complexity and supports enterprise-grade workflows.

Research Goals

The main objective was to build a deep understanding of how enterprise administrators work, what tasks they perform daily, and where exactly they experience friction.

Research questions:

What actions do admins perform most frequently?
What parts of the interface cause errors or slowdowns?
How do admins prioritize actions based on risk and urgency?
What mental models do they have when working with cloud storage and access control?
How can the navigation be structured to match their workflow?

User Interviews (CustDev)

I conducted 12 in-depth interviews with administrators from high-security organizations (banks, governmental institutions, industrial companies). Speaking with them required extra caution due to confidentiality and the strict corporate environment.

Focus areas:

Day-to-day workflows
Most frequent actions and rare operations
Pain points with the previous UI
Security responsibilities
Terminology and expectations
Sources of mistakes

Competitive Analysis

User Roles & User Stories

I analyzed several enterprise admin tools to identify best practices:

Microsoft Admin Center
Yandex Cloud
R7 Office

This helped understand how global products structure navigation, group settings, and reduce risks in critical operations.

Global Administrator
Security Administrator
Domain & Integration Admin
Content Manager
Auditor

User Flow

Wireframing & Validation

Low-fidelity wireframes

I created structural wireframes to:

test navigation logic
validate grouping of settings
check whether the sidebar structure made sense

User Testing

Two testing rounds were conducted:

Round 1: Found issues with terminology and category names
Round 2: Confirmed clarity after adjustments

Findings after tests:

Users located needed sections 4× faster
Misclicks on dangerous actions decreased
Navigation felt “logical”, “safe”, “predictable”

Final Design & UI Kit

After validating the structure, I created:

High-fidelity UI
Enterprise-style visual language
Unified spacing system
Notification and warning patterns
Full UI Kit for developers

The new admin panel provides:

clean navigation
clear hierarchy
consistent patterns
predictable behavior
scalable architecture for new modules

Results & Impact

1. Navigation became 3 - 4× faster

Clear sidebar and logical grouping reduced cognitive load and helped administrators find settings instantly

2. Fewer user errors

Separating high-risk actions and improving hierarchy significantly reduced misclicks and configuration mistakes

3. 40% decrease in support tickets

Support team reported fewer questions about navigation and locating settings

4. Higher clarity and predictability

Admins described the new UI as “clear”, “structured”, and “enterprise-level”, with a strong sense of control and safety

5. Scalable information architecture

The new modular structure allows adding new features without breaking UX consistency.
Developers noted faster implementation of new modules

6. Stronger product perception

Large enterprise clients said the updated UI feels more modern, trustworthy, and aligned with industry standards.