Development of an IaC Cloud Management Platform - www.codeherent.tech
Codeherent CMP
Overview
Codeherent is a cloud management and Git repository visualisation platform that enables businesses to deploy and maintain their cloud Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The platform allows a business to have full visibility of it's cloud infrastructure, spotting security risks before they occur, generating costing reports and provided real-time monitoring of the effectiveness and stability of the organisation's entire cloud infrastructure.
Product Development
Thorough Qualitative & Quantitative research and usability testing is performed on a rolling basis - from initial product development right up to the present day. The platform's current active users provide constant feedback that is fed into the design and develpoment cycle. The product concept and usability was extensively researched initially and a minumum viable product (MVP) was developed and iterated upon using Agile, Kanban and Lean methodologies.
Codeherent is active within the fast-moving, ever-evolving DevOps, Cloud Architecture, Fintec and SaaS communities and acts on constant feedback from multiple user groups.
Pain-points & Challenges
The main challenge for the platform is how to display a complex cloud infrastructure in an intuitive and meaningful way. A typical infrastructure visualisation may be composed of hardware, virtualisation, storage, and networking components.
Codeherent needs to communicate a complete cloud computing system, once all the pieces are put together, as well as the individual technologies themselves.
Alongside this there are many features that a user would expect within a management tool such as user roles and permissions, account & billing, git integration and cloud security considerations.
Solutions
The solution was to break down the essential requirements based on user feedback from test users and user groups made up of DevOps engineers, cloud architects and businesses such as Ford and Admiral. This research was built up into a library of user personas, user stories and empathy maps which would inform the platform development.
This user research library led Codeherent to provide users with a ‘list view’, ‘network view’ and a ’workspace view’ along with the option to group and sort individual resources by type in each of the different view styles. Users are able to group resources by provider, security, data sources and components among many other categories. Users also see a real-time representation of the ‘states’ of their cloud infrastructure, clearly displaying it’s present, proposed and new state with a full breakdown of the result of those changes - costings, efficiency and security issues.
The platform was described by Ford Motor Company, Detroit as "Bringing fire to the cavemen" due to it's ability to give clear visibility to the company's entire cloud architecture. Visit Codeherent at www.codeherent.tech
My Role
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Set up and manage user groups, conduct user interviews and develop UX strategies to inform product development
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Communicate with Product Owners and stakeholders, gathering clear business requirements and delivering solutions
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Interpret UX research, user behaviour and competitor analysis and apply solutions to usability issues
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Liaise with development team and product owners to define, iterate and prototype the layout and core functionality
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Generate visual designs, wireframes, Adobe XD interactive prototypes and hi-fidelity visual UI mock ups
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Communicate with end users continuously
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Conduct stakeholder reviews and presentations
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Work within an agile and kanban software development process, assisting and supporting scrum teams
Below are a few examples of the prototype platform feature videos used to support and demonstrate functionality
1. Platform onboarding
2. Navigation update
Below are stages of my process including original user journey sketches, user personas, empathy maps, lo-fi wireframes, Hi-Fi mockups and interactive XD prototypes.
 Accessibility settings |  User roles & permissions. |  Codeherent Dashboard |
|---|---|---|
 UX sketchbook |  Interactive onboarding prototype |  Interactive onboarding prototype |
 Interactive prototype |  Interactive prototype |  User feedback system flow |
 Codeherent onboarding welcome splash |  Codeherent website homepage |  Onboarding & Help user flow |
 Generate a security report |  Generate a security report V2 |  Core functionality of the platform |
 Early full platform task flow |  Early user journey diagram |  UX sketchbook |
 Whiteboard discovery session |  Whiteboard discovery session |  User persona: Senior DevOps Consultant |
 User persona: Director of Technology Services |  User persona: Cyber Security Lead |  User persona: Senior Digital Project Manager |
 Empathy Map |  Early screen grid layout |  Functionality research sketch |
 Functionality research sketch |  Functionality research sketch |  Functionality research sketch |
 Functionality research sketch |
Kelly Bolderson
Managing Director
Glamorgan Telecom Limited
Great Professionalism
From the first communication, I felt I had the made the right decision. Our needs were understood and managed with great professionalism (even when we kept changing our minds). With help from Russell, we ended up rebranding our whole company image. The website is clear and concise, and we are all very happy with the end result. We have already seen an increase in the awareness of our website, and the contact made by both new and existing customers. I would recommend the company to other businesses without hesitation. Thanks.
Morgan Stevens
Operations Director
Newport Transport Limited
What an improvement!
We now have a great looking, easy to use and informative website, with a popular online shop that is helping to drive all units of our business forward. Our thanks go to Russ and his team for their work, creativity and passion on this project.
Christine Taylor
Finance Director
Bush Healthcare Limited
Vision, imagination and an excellent standard of work
Creative Director Russell Chambers has vision and imagination and attains an excellent standard of work. He has been able to work alongside and in conjunction with our staff to ensure that the desired result for each project is achieved first time, keeping projects within budget and on schedule. Many thanks, looking forward to our next project in the next couple of weeks.