Strategy

I began with an analysis of the successes and failures of the current interface and a comparison to competition’s interfaces. I continued by studying the company’s identity system manual to ensure the proposal matched the company’s standards. Research was conducted to determine how icons were used historically in the Windows environment and how other data storage managment software had represented complex ideas such as a storage domain.

Project Challenges

1. Overcome language barrier. I had to learn the vocabulary of the IT Networker. A language where what I would know as servers, or hard drives was labeled Storage Domains, Volumes , or Consistency Group. How these storage domains were structured made them SAN or NAS with details such as Host Groups and Exports etc.

2. Translate. Once I learned the new terms I was tasked with converting the terms into pictorial representations meaningful to the IT Networker.

3. Combine. Newly created icons required incorporation with industry established icons.

4. Unify. All visuals required adjustment to create a cohesive system.

5. Compress. Size requirements necessitated the compression of these complex pictorial representations into an 18 x 18 pixel space. Many of the existing program icons were as large as 32 x 32 making the transition to the custom size of 18 x 18 a challenge.

Minuscule Icons

I was able to create consistency despite the challenge of changing size. Many times the concept represented was best displayed using a combination of icons. So each icon had to have two sizes — full size (main), and smaller (secondary).

Communicating complex system functionality required a serious and simple design. Fortunately dramatic stylization wasn't necessary for the market. The software engineers wanted the interface to represent (at the time) the world's ultimate server operating system, Windows XP. The only touch of style we could afford was highlight and shadow, and out of necessity, occasional isometric perspective (you just can’t represent a cylinder as a straight on view).

Translating vocabulary into pictograms and ideograms may sound like a simple and straightforward project however drawing a cylinder, complete with highlight and shadow, in a 6 pixel by 10 pixel space presents a design challenge. Anti-alisis is often called hinting, when only have 30 pixels are available in which to draw dimensional shapes 50% of the image is hinting!

Graphic User Interface Design Graphic User Interface Design Graphic User Interface Design

Icon Color Pallet

A large color pallet allowed the small and complex overlapping icons to be individually recognizable.

Colors were matched to the previous system whenever possible and the existing program's use of blue and green to represent SAN and NAS respectively remained consistent. A large color pallet helped display the icons as clearly as possible. The issue of color blindness was considered and treated by ensuring the values were different enough that those with any degree of red/green or blue/yellow color blindness could recognize a difference between colors.

Over 30 usability tests and informal walk-throughs were conducted. These studies included review by system administrators, current customers, and company sales engineers. Input was gathered and applied. Icons were adjusted, and interface layout altered. A successful balance was struck in maintaining the former look and feel of the interface to accommodate existing users while introducing a software interface that was drastically more complex.

Compound Icons

Much of the program’s functionality was too complex to be represented by a single symbol. Consequently, the icons became a combination of two symbols, in some cases three. For example, an icon representing the CMP Virtual Machine Configuration Manager (cloud computing) features a gear (representing preference settings, clouds (cloud computing) and a computer (network storage rack).

Effectiveness

The Axiom Storage Service Manager was released in early 2011. The product has been well received by the industry. It won theBest Cloud Storage Solution award on June 21, 2011. Six days later Oracle announced it would acquire Pillar Data Systems.

Universal Communication

The Axiom Storage Service Manager is a product used by IT professionals around the globe and therefore the GUI was designed to present a universal language for the global marketplace. Care was taken during the design process to create a look that was not “American” or even “Western.”