Pulse
NDAMonitor, Control, and Optimise Your Streaming Workflow.
Pulse is an internal tool used by the operations staff to manage live and on-demand video streaming workflows.
Initially developed without UX guidance to simplify manual processes, the app had become outdated, unintuitive, and difficult to maintain.
The redesign aimed to modernise the UI, improve usability for non-technical users, and support more reliable stream management across a growing platform.
Researcher, UX Information Architecture, UX/UI Designer, Product Designer
Engineer, QA, Operations, UX
Figma, FigJam, Jira, Confluence
Problem
Non-technical users struggled with unclear machine and process states, often leading to operational mistakes. The app lacked monitoring and feedback features (e.g. previewing uploads or active processes). Visual design and interactions were inconsistent and not aligned with standard UX patterns, leading to user frustration. Logs and status messages were not easily actionable or digestible.
Role & Responsibilities
As UX Designer I conducted research, defined user needs, and led the redesign strategy. I collaborated closely with stakeholders, engineering and the operations staff to ensure the new design addressed both technical constraints and user pain points.
- Conducted stakeholder interviews with the backend engineer, QA, and operations staff
- Synthesised feedback into user needs, design principles, and system requirements
- Created prototypes and flows to validate improvements
- Defined new interface patterns for log display, machine status, and stream management
- Worked with engineering on implementation feasibility and iteration
Chosen Methodology
To achieve our objectives, I employed a combination of qualitative research and evaluative design practices to understand how Pulse was being used, where friction points existed, and how the tool could better support the workflows of the operations staff.
Stakeholder Interviews
Conducted in-depth sessions with internal stakeholders, senior leadership, developers, and operators, to uncover expectations, technical constraints, and high-priority pain points.
User Interviews & Task Walkthroughs
Led interviews with regular users of the tool to observe how they interacted with the interface during typical workflows. This helped identify usability bottlenecks and gaps in the current design.
Heuristic Evaluation
Assessed the existing legacy interface against usability heuristics to document violations in clarity, feedback, and UI consistency.
Comparative Analysis
Benchmarked similar monitoring or ingest platforms to identify common design patterns and UX opportunities relevant to real-time video workflows.
Experience Mapping
Created flow diagrams of current tasks (like starting a stream, checking logs, or monitoring agent status) to visualise friction and propose smoother alternatives.
Interviews
To understand the needs and pain points of our users, I conducted interviews with key stakeholders including senior leadership, developers, and members of the operations staff.
These sessions provided insight into how different teams interact with Pulse, revealed usability gaps, and surfaced opportunities for improving workflows, monitoring, and system feedback.
The interviews served as a foundation for aligning business goals with user needs and prioritizing design improvements.
User Pain Points
Ambiguous Status Signals
Unclear or inconsistent status indicators cause confusion about system health and readiness.
Overwhelming Log Data
Users struggle with excessive or complex logs, making troubleshooting time-consuming.
Cumbersome Workflows
Inefficient processes demand too much manual intervention, slowing down operations.
User Needs
Clear Status Indicators
Users need immediate and understandable visual feedback on the status of all ingest agents and processes.
Intuitive Monitoring Tools
Access to simplified logs and graphical monitoring helps users quickly identify and resolve issues.
Reliable Control Mechanisms
Users require straightforward controls to efficiently start, stop, and configure streaming tasks.
Personas & Empathy Maps
To guide the redesign of Pulse, I created personas and empathy maps based on interviews with key stakeholders, including senior leadership, developers, and operations staff. These helped capture user motivations, frustrations, and daily workflows, aligning the team on user needs and shaping design decisions throughout the project.
User Flows
We mapped out key user flows to ensure the most critical actions (starting and stopping a live stream) were intuitive and frictionless. By presenting simplified wireframes of these two core tasks, we demonstrate how operators can confidently manage live content with minimal steps and clear guidance, reducing room for error during time-sensitive operations.
Start Live Streaming
Stop Live Streaming
Outcomes
Research and interviews uncovered key pain points and opportunities that shaped the design process. These insights guided ideation and iterations focused on improving usability, workflow clarity, and real-time monitoring, resulting in a more intuitive and efficient tool.
Key Findings
- Status and machine states needed a consistent visual language (colours, icons, grouping)
- Logs needed a hierarchy and clearer priority indicators (errors vs. warnings)
- Users needed to preview uploads/images for faster troubleshooting
- Layout and controls should follow Windows patterns to reduce cognitive load
Ideation & Design
- Created visual system with clear status icons (green/grey/red) and grouped machine blocks
- Designed a collapsible log section with filtered views by severity and timestamps
- Added a monitoring section with preview snapshots of images and incoming streams
- Reorganised top-level navigation into "Machines," "Processes," and "Monitoring"
- Applied UI standards to buttons, forms, and modal behaviour, aligning with platform conventions
Low-fidelity Wireframes
Wireframing focused on refining the existing interface to respect users' familiarity while enhancing clarity and usability. The goal was to improve workflows without disrupting the core experience operators have relied on for years.
Previous Design
New Design Wireframes: Default
New Design Wireframes: Ingest Has Started
Design Solution
Familiar, Refined, and Ready for Use
The final design preserves the essence of the original tool while introducing a clearer structure, improved visual hierarchy, and simplified interactions. It balances familiarity with usability upgrades, ensuring long-time operators feel at home while benefiting from a more efficient and intuitive experience.
Impact
- Users report fewer errors due to clearer feedback during stream setup
- Reduced reliance on backend team for support in daily workflows
- Improved speed and confidence for non-technical users
Learnings
- Even small UX patterns (like preview thumbnails or grouped states) dramatically improve confidence for ops users
- Collaborative prototyping sessions with backend and ops team were crucial to ensure realistic solutions
- Designing for legacy environments requires prioritising what to fix now vs. long-term refactors
