Keeping files in sync is simple with Box, so you can get work done wherever you are.
The Challenge
I started as the first designer and moved up into different roles as the company grew, managing small and large teams along the way. This has enabled me to work on basically every aspect of the Box product at some time, from the marketing side of things to the product. That includes the brand, web application, iOS/Adndroid/Windows mobile apps, , platform, admin features and more.
Some of the projects below I worked on personally and others I helped direct and manage fellow designers on.
Design Process
I like to work in two weeks design sprints where I would conduct the following process by myself and associated team members.
Set Goals
Research the problem by reviewing the competition and interviewing experts with all stakeholders present. Then establish baseline metrics that the product should meet to be successful. I some times use OKRs.
Ideate
The next stage requires finding the most ideas possible. Activities that I do involve taking copious amounts of notes, idea tree’s, sketches and simple user flows. Quantity over Quality here is what I’m looking for.
Design
Now I need to decide on which directions to go with, I do this by determining which ideas will beat metrics we established earlier as a team. Using Sketch and any prebuilt assets speeds up this part of the process.
Prototype
Using tools such as Invision, Principle or HTML/CSS I'll build clickable prototypes that preview the core experience and anything that I’m not sure about. It also helps to establish what questions you’ll be asking participants at this stage so that the prototype works correctly.
Test
This is where the real insights happen, a good designer needs to test their work so that they can provide actual predictions for a product beyond just opinions. Target customers are best for this stage, but testing on anyone is preferable to no testing at all.
Iterate
Depending on how the tests went I’ll either go back to an earlier phase or move ahead with building the actual product, going back to fix small problems that were identified. The quicker we start building, the sooner we’ll start to get real data back from how people use the product
Box Web Application
Over the course of eight years at Box, I worked with various product managers, engineers and our CEO to revamp the box experience to meet the ever changing needs of our customers. In the image above you can see how the design has moved away from a very consumer experience to a more utilitarian clean business aesthetic. Along with just the visual changes, there were many interactions and flows that were optimized to improve user engagement and retention. Things that were improved specifically were collaboration features, getting started tours and file syncing/uploading features.
Box for Desktop
It’s amazing how complex something as simple as sync application can be, but that’s the beaty of it and why users make use off synchronization clients. Above you can see a diagram of a signup and installation flow I created for the Box for Desktop application.
The actual app is rarely seen in a desktop sync tool because a user normally just sees a small symbol on each file letting them know the status of the file, but I put a lot of work in making this rarely seen interface feel very simple and yet very robust and stable. So that you never question if your files are safe or not.
