BigFix Self Service Application
Evolving SSA from a basic catalog tool into the bridge between security and a seamless digital workday, for an endpoint protection platform serving 560 plus enterprises.
The outcome, up front
What changed
The situation
A dual mission
BigFix is an endpoint protection tool serving more than 560 enterprises, and was undergoing a major upgrade, shifting from a console based application to a web based solution that is more modern, more powerful, and more robust. This also included changes to BigFix's offering.
BigFix's new vision included venturing deeper into endpoint management. Although it already had a footprint there, the idea was to now prioritize management alongside protection. SSA already existed as part of BigFix's current offering, the goal was to make it part of BigFix's Digital Employee Experience, itself part of HCL BigFix Workspace+.
We are not just protecting endpoints anymore, we are expanding to transform the entire employee experience. Our 560 plus enterprise clients need BigFix to be both their security shield and their productivity enabler. I need you to take a deep look at our existing SSA and figure out how we can evolve it into the bridge that makes this dual mission possible. - PM, SSA BigFix
And with this, the SSA redesign began.
The task in hand
Building the bridge
My role was to evolve SSA into the bridge between security and productivity, ensuring it could deliver both protection and a seamless digital workday for employees.
This work is part of the HCL BigFix Workspace+ solution, used in 47 countries and managing more than 140 million endpoints.
The action plan
A long term plan, with short term wins
The first step was identifying a plan, with Workspace+ as the ultimate long term goal, and a short term goal of improving experience for existing and new SSA customers.
Discovery and research
Business context, current state audit, user interviews, competitive landscape.
Problem definition
Validation and stakeholder alignment, problem statement, scope analysis, edge cases.
Ideate, prototype, test, iterate
Ideation, wireframes, interactive prototype, design iteration, user testing.
Final design
High fidelity design and implementation, aligned to the design system.
Discovery and research
Understanding AS-IS and TO-BE
Understanding the current state of the business with stakeholders, and conducting an internal UX audit of the existing system, helped map both where SSA stood and where it needed to go.
| Category | AS-IS | TO-BE |
|---|---|---|
| Position and perception | Seen only as a basic catalog tool for app downloads, limited to compliance use, no clear workspace alignment | Evolve into the core employee interface in Workspace+, central to the digital workday experience |
| User experience | Heuristic gaps, jargon heavy, technical glitches, no adoption data, a backend driven admin tool | A seamless, intuitive self service hub with clear language and guided actions |
| Market and competitor view | No clear competitive positioning | Position as a partner ecosystem player alongside Zendesk, Jira, and ServiceNow, differentiated by BigFix's IT and security strengths |
We believe that a seamless, intuitive self service hub, with clearer language, guided actions, better usability and accessibility, and built in feedback mechanisms, will help users complete tasks more efficiently, rely less on support, and feel more satisfied.
Assumptions to test:
- Simplified language improves user understanding and task completion
- Guided actions reduce errors and hesitation
- Usability and accessibility improvements lower abandonment and increase successful completion
- A smoother experience drives higher adoption over contacting support
- Embedded feedback options increase user participation in continuous improvement
- Overall improvements reduce time to resolution and routine support tickets
What users told us
Two groups, two sets of friction
Users with no exposure to SSA
Device management and software installation issues
"Updates get pushed while I am working." "I do not have any insights into my device health status." "The approval process can take even longer."
Lack of transparency
"I do not always know where my ticket stands." "No clear timeline." "I have to follow up for updates."
Users with SSA exposure
High cognitive load, confusing navigation
Mixing tabs and dropdown filters added complexity. Oversized icons and too much information made it hard to focus on key tasks.
Preferred view not set as default
Users preferred the cleaner list view, but it was not the default.
UI lacks visual refinement
"The UI does not look polished and is so dated," reducing user confidence in the system.
No difference between offers and action requests
"Action requests and offers are two different things and have different intent, it is confusing to see them presented together."
Grouped actions not available
"There is no way to select more than one action request. This could save me time."
No reinstall option in the UI
Users could not easily rerun setup for a clean install after the initial installation.
Poor installation wizard experience
"The button says more, what is more? Like going to the next step?"
Too many notifications annoy users
Two or more persistent notifications on screen needed grouping into a single summary, especially for users in highly regulated industries.
BigFix value is: show me the things that are important to me and let me see them easily and quickly.Sponsored user
Problem definition
Aligning findings with business goals
We aligned findings with business goals and involved sponsored users to collect more data, ensuring decisions were informed and aligned across all stakeholders. A user quote, "anything that takes more than the required time affects end of day delivery," helped focus the team on efficiency.
Our app should be smart, quick, efficient, and straightforward.
Problem statement
Employees struggle with fragmented IT service experiences across multiple portals, each with inconsistent structures and terminology. This lack of transparency and cohesion makes it difficult for users to manage requests and track device related tasks, leading to confusion, delays, and unnecessary reliance on IT support.
Key user needs identified
Centralized access
Access to various organizational portals from the SSA.
Quick task completion
Routine tasks like password resets handled within the SSA.
Clear task organization
Offers and action requests clearly categorized.
Time saving automation
SSA should assist with raising service requests on behalf of users.
Device info access
Users should easily retrieve basic info about their devices.
Support resources
Quick, easy access to knowledge articles and support docs.
Reinstallation
Users should be able to reinstall apps from the SSA.
Org work tools
Access to internal tasks like training modules and timesheets.
Design decisions, and why
Four decisions, each with reasoning
The redesign focused on reducing cognitive overload, improving visual hierarchy, simplifying navigation, and enhancing efficiency and usability. IT engineer workflows were scoped out for this phase, and user onboarding was designed separately for the broader BigFix domain.
Keyword based suggestion, proactive assistance
Allowing users to enter a keyword or query, with the system offering suggestions for self resolution or raising a ticket, context aware. This reduced time spent hunting for resources, especially for new users learning the system for the first time.
Why: narrows a wide set of choices into a manageable few, reducing cognitive load and speeding up the process.
Data driven solutions
Analyze support data to suggest solutions that have worked for similar issues, for example recommending an update if it resolved the problem for others.
Why: partially applicable due to technical feasibility at the time, kept as a directional decision rather than a full commitment.
Smart ticketing
Provide users with an option to raise a ticket that auto populates necessary details based on the issue detected.
Why: removes redundant manual entry, the single most repeated friction point in user interviews.
Status updates and notifications for actions taken
Keep users updated on the status of various actions they have taken within the SSA.
Why: a direct response to the transparency gap, "I do not always know where my ticket stands."
These ideas were informed by open card sorts against content from existing applications, helping shape an information architecture that matched how users actually grouped content in their own mental models. This case study focuses specifically on the what and how of the service portal home and the support ticket flow.
Where the happy path breaks
Will users always follow the ideal flow?
No. Real edge cases the design needed to account for:
Scope
What was deliberately left out
The visual design
Three screens, each a direct response to a research finding
I created these screens working within the existing BigFix and HCL Software design system. The system provided the component library and visual language. My contribution was applying it to the new information architecture and interaction patterns, ensuring every significant design decision traced back to something a user had told us.
Screen 01
Service Portal Home
"I rely on IT for a lot of basic things. I have to raise a request every 45 days to reset my password, and I do not know which category to use. I have bookmarked it for myself."
Keyword search with popular suggestions
Users did not know category names. Rather than forcing them to browse a taxonomy, the search bar accepts natural language and surfaces the most common requests as chips below it. Reduces the cognitive effort of finding the starting point.
Common requests sidebar, always visible
Password reset, email and chat, software install, hardware issue and VPN are the five most frequent requests. Surfacing them persistently in the sidebar removes the need to search at all for the majority of use cases.
Recent requests with status visible
Directly responds to "I do not always know where my ticket stands." The user can see their most recent ticket and its resolved or open status without navigating anywhere.
Screen 02
Ticket Creation Success
"I do not always know where my ticket stands." "No clear timeline." "I have to follow up for updates."
Ticket summary with accurate classification
Ticket number, priority, category, and estimated resolution time are shown immediately on the success screen. More accurate classification at this point was the direct driver of the 10 to 15 percent MTTR reduction, faster triage happens because the ticket arrives correctly categorised.
What happens next, numbered and time-bound
Three clear steps with time expectations: email confirmation within 5 minutes, team review within 2 hours for high priority, and where to track progress. Eliminates the follow-up support request that was previously the only way users could get this information.
Urgent assistance callout for critical cases
A contextual panel appears on high priority tickets directing users to the urgent support line. Keeps critical cases from being stuck in standard ticket queues.
Screen 03
Action Requests
"Action requests and offers are two different things and have different intent, it is confusing to see them presented together." "There is no way to select more than one action request. This could save me time."
Action Requests separated from Offers
These are now a distinct tab, not mixed with the software catalog or other content. Users told us directly that the two have different intent and different urgency. Separating them removes the confusion about what requires a decision versus what is optional.
Bulk selection and grouped action
Checkboxes allow users to select multiple action requests and run or snooze them at once. This was a verbatim user request: "There is no way to select more than one action request. This could save me time." It now can.
Priority and deadline visible at a scan
Colour-coded priority indicators and deadline timestamps are shown per row without expanding each item. Users in regulated industries who deal with compliance deadlines need this at a glance, not buried in a detail view.
Other screens
Software Catalog, category filtering and install or update states
Device Compliance and Password Management
Raising a ticket
Ticket creation successful, urgent assistance
Measurement gap, owned
What was verified, and what was directional
Every metric in this case study was sourced from an evaluation method, but the methods varied in rigor, from structured usability sessions to alpha stage proxy testing. Here is that distinction made explicit.
Sourced from a stated method
- Around 45 percent reduction in task completion time, from 9-participant task based usability sessions
- 10 to 15 percent reduction in mean time to resolution, from alpha version evaluation with proxy users
- WCAG 2.0 AA compliance, alt tags resolved and tested, keyboard navigation verified
Directional, not yet at production scale
- Usability session sample size was 9 participants, not a full production rollout
- MTTR figures came from proxy users on an alpha build, not live customer data
- Data driven solution suggestions were only partially implemented due to technical feasibility
What I learned
Three things that stuck
Efficiency is more than speed
Usability testing showed that cutting down minutes was not just about fewer clicks, but about clarity in navigation, separation of actions and offers, and giving users confidence they were on the right track.
Short term fixes must align with long term vision
Balancing immediate improvements for existing SSA users with Workspace+'s long term roadmap taught me to design incrementally without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Small usability wins compound into organizational impact
What looked like shaving a few minutes off a task translated into faster MTTR, reduced frustration, and stronger confidence in BigFix as both a security and productivity partner for enterprises.