Helping DevOps engineers securely deliver website content

Designing Fastly’s TLS management experience

My role

Lead designer + transitioned to design manager

What is TLS?

Transport Layer Security(TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The lock we see in our browser’s address bar, that’s TLS.

Situation

At the time, Fastly was offering a cumbersome TLS management solution. It comprised of an extremely manual and labor intense process which could take anywhere from days to as long as a week. Seven out of ten support tickets were TLS related.

Tasks

To reduce the burden on customer support manual staff processes, the focus shifted towards allowing support to concentrate on large customers. Previously, support tickets were inundated with TLS-related issues, with a majority of emails highlighting such concerns. In recognizing the market demand for serving secure traffic, especially with TLS becoming a standard requirement, efforts are being redirected to address this emerging market opportunity effectively.

Actions I took

  • User research

  • Competitive analysis

  • Usability testing

  • Partner with engineering

  • UI and UX design

Results

  • Successfully delivered Fastly’s self-service TLS management experience

  • TLS UI led to a 60% reduction in support tickets related tickets

  • Set the foundation for a usable and scalable experience in which additional features can but built upon.