I set the vision and tone for digital products and web experiences, large and small.
Creative direction & strategy
IBM Research Client Portal
Envisioning a digital experience for clients from a user-centered point of view
The problem
IBM Research Portal was envisioned as a digital hub for IBM Research clients to manage their collaboration, connect with experts, and level-up their knowledge of new technologies.
My role
I introduced user profiles, and helped our creative agency parters better understand the roles, needs and existing pain points to get us started. I developed plan and led ~20 discussions with clients (end users) and internal stakeholders. This research informed the first roadmap for the product.
Results
The team won executive support to execute the full vision for the product and onboard users. The project was also recognized by the following international design competitions:
2022, Fast Company Innovation by Design:
Finalist: Best Design from Companies with Enduring Impact
Honorable Mention: Best UX Design
2023, Red Dot:
Winner: Brands & Communication Design → Website → Collaborative Platform
IBM Research Client Portal Design & Development Team
IBM Research: Kate Blair, Jan Dusek, Lara Hanlon, Matous Havlena, Ales Kalfas, Kara Kotwas, Susana Rodriguez de Tembleque, Kate Soule, Anna Topol, George Tulevski, Mark Weber
Work&Co: Nemanja Bluatovic, Nikola Borisic, Stefan Danicic, Jan Dusek, Corey Edmondson, Renan Feltri, Tati Frambach, Drasko Gomboc, Maja Lazin, Jin Lin Li, Nikola Miljkovic, Nick Parish, Nikola Pavlovic, Vesna Petkovic, Srdjan Radic, Casey Sheehan, Vojin Soskic, Jon Stookey, Stanko Tadic, Lucas Teixeira, Bosko Vitkovic, Eric Zeleznik
The problem
In 2018 IBM was suffering from a lack of visibility to key audiences into the novel work being done in artificial intelligence research. We needed a way to make it accessible for IBM clients and the broader AI research community.
My role
Our team was charged with bringing this work out of the IBM Research lab and into the world. I kicked off and led design work across a globally-distributed, 40-person design and development team to create several experiences for the web that would be seen at key conferences and beyond. I joined small project squads during hands-on design execution for two demos, oversaw the visual design for the suite of work, and designed the main portfolio landing page, creating a flexible index of projects that can grow over time.
Results
The launch of this experience enabled IBM to showcase AI research in a polished, user-friendly format for conference attendees totaling over 20,000. Post-conference web analytics showed a nearly 50% increase in click-through to a demo, indicating a dramatic lift in visibility for IBM AI research.
AI Experiments
Designing a unified collection of demonstrations to elevate IBM Research AI
Each demo required its own unique interaction patterns, therefore I set the standard for the approach, including a basic page structure to unify the collection of experiences being executed by several design and development squads.
IBM Researcher Dr. Ian Molloy using the “Adversarial Robustness” experience to better demonstrate the value of this work to guests at the IBM THINK conference, 2018.
NeuNetS
Demonstrates to the user how NeuNetS can automatically build a neural network and the tradeoffs between accuracy and speed.
UX Design: Amanda Shearon
Adversarial Robustness
Allows the user to simulate attacks and different defense methods for machine learning models to better understand the power of the toolkit.
UX Design: Kara Kotwas
AI Hardware
Allows the user to run a visual recognition experiment on IBM's one-of-a-kind analog AI chip.
UX Design: Jason Lynch
AI Experiments Design & Development Team
Greg Kida (co-lead), Anna Obikane, Amanda Shearon, Caitlin Gettinger, Jason Lynch, Aaron Cox, Sana Sharma, + ~30 consulting web and software developers.
Sharing the story
Kara presenting how we set a large global team up for success in executing the AI Experiments portfolio during IBM 2019 Design Leadership Summit, with colleague Greg Kida.
The problem
In 2017, the web pages dedicated to telling the story of IBM’s work in quantum computing were failing to communicate the world-class research going on behind the scenes. The pages were out of date and inconsistent in their tone and style. The site navigation was disjointed and in need of repair and unification to better serve users and potential business partners.
My role
I forged relationships with the internal IBM team responsible for the roll-out and governance of the then-new IBM Design Language. I won buy-in from key stakeholders to move forward using the design language, bringing IBM Quantum closer into the IBM family of hero brands. I managed the work of several designers, provided creative direction, and organized reviews and quality-control checks during implementation.
Results
The information architecture of the navigation improved search engine indexing of key properties that were previously buried in the digital experience. The navigation update was a contributing factor to the 12% increase in organic search traffic and the 3% increase in referral traffic between the digital properties. This redesign moved the needle for both user experience and the value of leveraging a design system internally.
IBM Quantum Website
Modernizing web pages to match cutting-edge innovation
IBM Quantum Website Design & Development Team
Greg Kida (co-lead), Chase Kettl, Jules Murphy, Anna Obikane, Amanda Shearon, Caitlin Gettinger, Fran Cabrera, Borja Godoy, Chris Fisher, Brian Robotnik, Eric Abenojar, Melissa Turesky