Usage Explorer

The Usage Explorer helps Illumina customers track and manage their software usage costs with control. Customers use iCredits, Illumina’s digital currency to pay for storage and computing cost of their informatics software. However, the old system lacks clarity and details, making cost management difficult.

As the lead UX designer, I initiated to uncover pain points, defined a strategic vision, and delivered design solutions in an agile, fast-paced manner to align with product goals. As a result, it immediately improved the overall experience, and the initial launch has already sparked strong enthusiasm among customers.

Problem:
Hidden Costs, Zero Visibility

"One thing about cloud is people get surprised how much it costs. You only pay for what you use but people tend to use a lot."

This user research quote underscores the major issue with the old usage app as many customers wondered, 'Why Illumina always charges us more than we anticipate?'. Customer found the old app lacked visibility and transparency without details regarding their software usage costs. Accessing an intuitive usage tracker is significant to Illumina's customers because it incurs costs when they need to fully utilize their software products.

Based on the research, it was clear that the old app was not meeting the user expectation as they encounter difficulties in comprehending their software usage due to:

Limited access: Usage information was only available in the Admin Console, restricting visibility to domain admins only, who often are not always the ones managing usage for each workgroup or project.
Lack of transparency: The page lacked clarity, and the terminology used was confusing, making it difficult for users to comprehend.
Poor UX: Provided only basic, flat-level data without custom date range and detailed insights, making it impossible for users to analyze patterns or compare usage effectively.
Low engagement: Due to these issues, many users saw little value in the page, resulting in low traffic.

Define & Iterate:
From Hypothesis to Team Alignment

After identifying the problem, I defined a hypothesis that the team aligned on:

"We believe that providing all users—not just domain admins—with clear insights into their software usage patterns will empower them to track, manage, and plan their software usage costs more effectively. We'll know this is true when users can better plan their software consumption and purchases, resulting in fewer negative credits balances."

And then, I facilitated a workshop with the cross-functional teams, including a product manager, lead developers, customer support, and data analysts. The objective was to align on uncertainties and drive ideation toward a shared solution.

This is a screenshot of affinity map from the workshop using Miro. The team realized that fixing the issues requires a complete overhaul of the current experience. Under my strategic guidance, we’ve identified three key focus areas for MVP: usage breakdown, filter, and budget.

Role-Based Information Architecture:
Right Information for the Right User

One issue with the current usage app is that it’s restricted to domain admins only, making it inaccessible to those responsible for managing usage costs. To address this, we’re expanding access to all users and implementing role-based content hierarchy, ensuring admins see more detailed data while end-users have access to relevant usage information.

I documented all my work in Confluence as the source of truth, which I call UX Wiki. Here’s a draft of the persona analysis from UX Wiki based on research, which validated opening access beyond domain admins to workgroup admins and individual users.

It’s important to note that the information hierarchy of the new usage app is defined according to the user’s role and their interaction with the usage data. Some usage contexts are only relevant to admins and won’t apply to end-users. This matrix is the final proposal for who sees and does what, based on role, so each user gets what matters most. It was the foundation for the design that followed.

Usage Explorer:

Transparency and Control Into Every Layer

Once we identified the problem and key focus areas, we defined user needs and built a clear structure. From there, I began design exploration, starting with rough sketches and refining the concept through multiple iterations and team reviews until ended up a high-fidelity prototype that we felt confident in.

The redesigned experience follows a structured flow, guiding users through details of their usage by:

Expanded accessibility: Now a standalone app available to all users, not just domain admins. Information and actions are tailored based on each role.
Information hierarchy: Designed for immersive experience with three key components:
- Summary: A snapshot of iCredits balance, spending patterns, and usage budget controls (below).
- Trends: Interactive data visualizations with dynamic filters for usage pattern over custom date range.
- Details: Granular breakdowns of usage consumption based on context with search, column filters, and CSV export options.

These improvements enhance clarity, providing a transparent view of software usage costs helping users not only understand total balance and usage in domain level, but also the details of breakdown by where it was used, and who used it over their preferred selection of date range.

We've also responded to strong customer demand for better usage spending management by introducing a Budget Notification feature. As highlighted in the workshop, this feature allows users to:

Set up a monthly recurring iCredit spending limit.
Allocate iCredits per workgroup, product, or project.
Customize low iCredit notification thresholds (as shown in the prototype).
Define recipients who should receive email regarding low iCredit balance alerts.

With this enhancement, customers can not only monitor their usage but also actively manage it with greater control, all within the Usage Explorer. Defining targeted recipients for the low iCredit balance email was highly advocated during concept research to raise awareness by ensuring the right individuals, rather than just default domain admins were notified and responsible for managing the situation.

Outcomes:
Validated by Users, Ready to Scale

After finalizing the high-fidelity prototype, I led usability testing with external customers to validate the experience against user needs and UX quality standards before handing it off to engineering. Once the product was deployed and ready for further evaluation, we conducted an additional round of alpha testing. The results demonstrated substantial improvements in addressing key user needs, supported by positive customer feedback.

The launch of Usage Explorer MVP established a more transparent and accessible cost-management experience, addressing key drivers of customer frustration and supporting Illumina’s business objective of reducing negative-balance accounts. Success was measured across three key areas:

Business Impact: Reduce negative-balance accounts by 20%.
Product Adoption: Increase adoption and engagement by expanding access beyond domain admins.
Sustained Financial Health: Increase the percentage of recovered accounts that maintain positive balances over time of 3 months.
Reduce customer support tickets related to unexpected charges and unclear usage breakdowns.

Related Projects:

See customer interaction with informatics software in the Microarray analysis setup workflow.
Explore the end-to-end experience of setting up software in the Software registration & onboarding.

Usage Explorer

Problem: Hidden Costs, Zero Visibility

Define & Iterate: From Hypothesis to Team Alignment