Julia Lam
UX Designer
IBM Cloud IAM Redesign
Making enterprise security workflows clearer and more intuitive
IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the system that controls access to resources across IBM Cloud. During my internship with IBM, I audited the existing IAM flows and conducted a heuristic evaluation to identify pain points and outdated patterns. Based on these findings, I redesigned key experiences to better align with user needs, modern design standards, and accessibility best practices. The result was updated, more intuitive flows that streamlined complex tasks and improved overall usability.
Scope: Intern Project
My Role: UX Designer
Duration: 3 months
Tools: Figma, Mural
Skills: Competitive analysis, visual & interaction design, design systems
The Problem
IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) had design inconsistencies, usability gaps, and outdated flows that made it difficult for users to efficiently manage access and permissions. The experience lacked alignment with IBM’s pattern library and core user experience principles, leading to confusion and inefficiency in critical workflows such as inviting users and understanding account structures.
The Goal
To identify UX design inconsistencies, gaps, and opportunities for improvement in IAM, provide recommendations aligned with our pattern library and user experience principles, and reimagine IAM with clearer, more consistent, and user-centered flows through a redesign.
💭Defining the Problem Space
Initial Learnings
IAM can be confusing, and I was coming in with little to no prior knowledge. To ensure my redesigns were grounded in evidence and aligned with user needs, I conducted research to identify pain points, benchmark against industry standards, and prioritize opportunities for improvement.
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Competitive Analysis - Compared IBM Cloud IAM with AWS IAM and Google Cloud IAM to understand industry norms and uncover areas where IBM could improve.
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Heuristic Evaluation - Reviewed every IAM flow against usability principles, documenting inconsistencies, outdated patterns, and opportunities for clearer interactions.
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Priority Matrix - Organized findings based on impact and feasibility to help determine which issues to address first in the redesign process.
Learn the product: diving into each IAM flow, until I knew it like the back of my hand
Competitive Analysis
I conducted a competitive analysis comparing IBM Cloud IAM with AWS IAM and Google Cloud IAM to understand industry standards, identify strengths and weaknesses across platforms, and uncover opportunities where IBM’s experience could be improved. This helped ground my design recommendations in user expectations shaped by other leading cloud providers.
IBM Cloud
Streamlined but limited; invite/create buttons visible on the dashboard; identities and access managed separately; policies tied to users, not services; includes visual dashboards (charts).
AWS
Feature-rich but complex; no quick invite buttons; editable JSON; policies tied to services/resources; includes search, security recommendations, credential reports, and detailed user info.
Google Cloud
Structured differently; focuses on service accounts; less summary info upfront; tutorial sidebar; users and groups kept separate with less grouping in navigation.
💡
Conducting the competitive analysis deepened my understanding of IBM Cloud’s IAM and gave me broader insight into the cloud security landscape, expanding my domain knowledge.
Audit
The findings from the heuristic evaluation were condensed into an audit document detailing 30+ areas for UX and UI improvement in IBM Cloud IAM. The audit served as a structured record of issues, organized in a table with item descriptions, notes, and supporting screenshots. This made it easier to communicate problems clearly to stakeholders and provided a foundation for prioritizing redesign efforts.
Snippet of the final audit document, detailing issues and ideas for improvement
Priority Matrix
After completing the competitive analysis and heuristic evaluation/audit document, I had identified a wide range of usability issues and potential UI/UX improvements. To make sense of them, I created a priority matrix that mapped each issue according to its feasibility and impact. This helped me identify which problems I could reasonably tackle during the duration of my internship, and also gave me a better overview of what the general problems were with IAM.
Priority Matrix: Mapping issues by impact and feasibility
User Need Statements
I translated my research findings into user needs statements, framed using IBM’s standard format: [User] needs a way to [goal] so that [reason/value]. These statements ensured insights were consistent, actionable, and aligned with IBM’s design thinking practices. They became the foundation for all ideation, guiding the creation of sketches, flows, and redesigns to directly address real user challenges.
1.
Account admins need a simple and standard way to view IAM resources so that they can balance productivity and security.
2.
Account admins need a way to
invite users while adhering to best practices so that they can onboard them quickly without compromising security.
💡
Based on these user need statements, research insights, and the priority matrix, I chose to focus on redesigning the IAM invite flow and creating standardized dashboards for trusted profiles, access groups, and user profiles.
✏️ Ideation
Putting Pen to Paper
My ideation process began with 20+ low-fidelity sketches in my notebook to quickly explore different directions. From there, I reached out to my team and mentors who helped me understand which concepts were the strongest. I refined those into mid and high-fidelity flows in Figma, allowing for clearer interaction design and alignment with IBM’s pattern library.
💡
Unbiased insights and critiques from my team members helped me narrow down where I was going right, and course-correct where I was going wrong.
Sketches...
...to mid-fidelity
After sketching and prototyping in Figma, I collaborated with my team through whiteboarding and feedback sessions to further iterate and optimize the designs.
During this process, we uncovered a critical insight: the IAM invite flow was structured around how a user invites (via access groups or policies) rather than what they are inviting someone to (specific services like Cloud Object Storage). This reframing shifted the entire flow and made it more intuitive for users. We also recognized the need for standardized dashboards across IAM entities such as access groups and trusted profiles, ensuring consistency and clarity in navigation.
Whiteboarding session!
💡
Critical Insight: Current IAM is focused on HOW to invite. My redesigns would be focused on WHAT service the user is inviting to.
Users also needed a way to strengthen their mental model of where things are in a complex service- the answer? Standardized dashboards.
🎨 Bringing Ideas to Life
Final Designs
The whiteboarding sessions were the final step I needed before moving into final designs. With new ideas in mind, I set off to redesign the IAM invite flow and create dashboards centered around human needs and user goals.
Trusted profile overview as is...
Manage users overview as is...
...and to be
...and to be
Key Design Choices:
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Whitespace utilization - Condensed information into smaller, digestible cards to reduce cognitive load and make scanning easier.
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Logical layout - Adopted a left-to-right flow of key details, aligning with standard English reading patterns for intuitive navigation.
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Data presentation - Leveraged numerical indicators where possible to enable quicker processing and comparison.
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User trust - Incorporated previously overlooked elements, such as Recent Activity and Security Posture, to strengthen transparency and boost users’ confidence in the product’s security.
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Standardization - Unified the dashboards for Trusted Profiles and Manage Users overviews so users encounter consistent patterns, reducing memory load and making information easier to locate instinctively.
Invite flow as is...
...and to be
ℹ️
Open the prototype in fullscreen to explore the complete flow
Key Design Choices:
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User clarity - Clearly define invited users in the summary panel to reduce confusion and mental load.
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Decision alignment - Target the what, not the how: begin with the resource to provide a clear north star and match the user’s natural decision path.
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Redundancy reduction - Provide a list of existing access groups and policies to prevent duplication and strengthen security.
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Streamlined experience - Combine access policy and access group flows into one unified process, minimizing navigation time.
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Flexibility - Support both novice and advanced users by offering simple defaults alongside advanced customization options.
🤔 Reflection
Takeaways
This project gave me a firsthand look into how enterprise design works in practice and how closely design teams collaborate with each other and with developers. I not only became more confident working with design systems like IBM Carbon for Cloud and more fluent in Figma, but I also grew in how I approach teamwork and feedback. I learned to actively seek out input, be more proactive in contributing to discussions, and view critique as an opportunity for growth rather than something to shy away from. These lessons shaped me into a more adaptable and collaborative designer!