Aspera on Cloud

Aspera on Cloud is a cloud based, file transfer service targeting the media and entertainment industry. The service enables users to transfer files at maximum speed without size limits, quick and secure collaboration with external users, and empower automated media processing via metadata.

I lead the design of the entire end user experience centered around file delivery and sharing. I also closely collaborate with user researchers, product managers, and engineers to prioritize design features.

Context

Aspera has a strong market share in on-premise file transfer tools due to having high speed transfers bundled with a robust UI. However, user satisfaction was low in the first cloud offering. Our original cloud service “Files” combined two different file transfer models in one interface to serve different use cases, and it caused a lot of confusion to our users. In addition, it lacked other needs that are desired in the Cloud and Media & Entertainment industry. These issues drove the team to redesign the entire service and we set the project goal as increasing conversion rate for new users, and increasing user satisfaction for existing users. 

Understand users

In the early phases, I facilitated an internal design workshop with user researchers, sales, PMs, marketing, engineering, and support team members to understand current users’ frustrations through various channels, as well as to define overarching business strategy. The workshop helped my team as we used the reflection as precursors to exploring new ideas and finding the right problem to solve.

My team and I also visited sponsored users in NY and LA, and conducted generative interviews to hear their pain points and needs directly, helping to validate the early assumptions. The interviews helped not only to understand users, but also to clarify an additional constraint: the new offering should not “break” workflows that were already established within the Aspera ecosystem. Many customers were already using multiple Aspera clients such as automation and reporting tools, and Aspera on Cloud needed to fit in without breaking existing workflows.

Personas

Key insight

• Simplification of file delivery and sharing model

  Originally, Aspera Files had two ways of file transferring in the one UI. The first way employs an email-like model, while the second uses a shared folder model. These two models have their own recognized use cases, but having both in the same UI caused confusion to the users. End users were often unclear on the differences between transferring files with one model or the other. Some admins were using both methods to transfer files, but it became clear that most end users chose and stuck to one.

• Clear and comprehensive transfer event notification

  For those in the media and entertainment industry, notifications of various file transfer events are just as important as the transfer speed. We found users wanted clear notifications on a variety of events including when a transfer completes and when files were downloaded by a user. These notifications help make auditing easier and reduces unnecessary communication burdens.

• Easy and secure external user contribution

  Most of our customers collaborate heavily with external vendors. Our customers want vendors to be empowered to easily send files in a secure manner. The app should be simple to use, while preventing data breaches.

• Support automation

  For many larger companies that process large volumes of data, automation is a mandatory feature. Many of our customers established workflows to process media content by utilizing transfer events and metadata.