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Data visualization dashboard for Glasswall Halo

Successfully launched the risk report (dashboard) feature, which was positively received and continues to be a product differentiator.

Problem statement:

Security IT administrators using Glasswall Halo had no way to see the bigger picture. File activity was visible only as rows in a table. There were no trends, patterns, or actionable insights. When leadership asked whether the software was delivering value, there was no answer. Admins needed a way to understand their data and communicate its story to the people who depended on them.

My role:

I was the sole UX researcher and designer, end-to-end — research planning, stakeholder and customer interviews, Figma design iterations, and final presentation. Along the way, findings and progress were reported to the Director of UX at key milestones.

Users and goals:

  • Security IT admins (primary): understand file activity at a glance, identify trends, monitor compliance, and share insights with non-technical stakeholders

  • C-suite leadership (secondary): one overriding question — is this investment worth it?

The design had to serve deep operational needs while surfacing the right information for executive decision-making.

Research - round 1:

  • Semi-structured interviews with 8–12 participants — customers individually, internal stakeholders as a group — combining open-ended discovery with concept testing of draft visualizations

  • Four key pain points emerged:

    • Inconsistent terminology — no shared language for the data

    • No consensus on which metrics and charts mattered most

    • Gaps in the useful data being surfaced

    • No clear path to share insights with non-technical leadership

  • Findings were synthesized and presented to stakeholders, directly shaping the next design iteration

Synthesis & iteration:

  • Following the Round 1 interviews, findings were synthesized and presented to Glasswall stakeholders in a formal slide deck — covering what customers said, what they needed, and where the draft designs fell short

  • Feedback centered around fine-tuning the content, making the data more actionable, and elevating the value that Glasswall provides more explicitly

  • Stakeholder discussions were grounded in direct customer feedback, keeping design decisions tied to real user needs rather than internal assumptions

  • The feedback crystallized into four clear themes that drove the next iteration:

    • Importance of conveying value — the designs needed to more explicitly surface the protection and ROI that Glasswall was delivering

    • Dashboard organization — the layout and hierarchy were restructured to better reflect how admins think about and prioritize their data

    • Clarity of text and nomenclature — terminology and labeling were revised to reflect the language customers actually used

    • Clarity of data and visualizations — chart types were added and removed based on what users found valuable versus confusing, and gaps in the data being surfaced were addressed

  • The revised designs were then prepared for a second round of customer interviews to validate the changes and surface any remaining issues

Research - round 2:

  • A second round of semi-structured interviews was conducted with a mix of returning and new customers, bringing fresh perspectives alongside continuity from Round 1

  • The revised designs were presented to the group for reaction and discussion, with sessions focused on validating whether the changes had addressed the four themes identified in Round 1

  • Key outcomes:

    • Customers validated the direction confidently — the revised designs felt meaningfully improved

    • The changes made to terminology, organization, data, and visualizations resonated well, confirming that the Round 1 feedback had been heard and acted on effectively

    • Some minor concerns remained, but none that challenged the overall direction or required significant redesign

  • Findings were once again synthesized and presented to Glasswall stakeholders in a formal slide deck, and the results directly informed the final designs that were handed off to the development team and entered into the product backlog

Design outcome

  • Final designs were presented to the development team in a team meeting, walking through the rationale behind key decisions and the customer research that informed them

  • The delivered design comprised a comprehensive data visualization dashboard built around the needs of both security IT admins and C-suite stakeholders, including:

  • A summary dashboard surfacing key metrics at a glance

  • Charts showing file processing trends over time to help admins identify patterns and anomalies

  • Threat and risk visualizations making the security value of Halo immediately visible

  • File type breakdowns giving admins granular insight into what was being processed

  • Exportable reports enabling admins to share digestible, meaningful summaries with non-technical leadership

  • The feature was released in phases — core dashboard components shipped first, with additional features following in subsequent releases

  • Every design decision traced directly back to customer feedback gathered across two rounds of research, ensuring the final product reflected real user needs rather than assumptions

Impact & reception

  • Following launch, the response from both customers and internal stakeholders was positive — validating that the research-driven approach had produced something genuinely useful

  • Customer feedback came through informal comments and conversations, with users responding well to finally having a way to understand and communicate the value of their Halo investment

  • Internal stakeholders praised the work, recognizing the rigor of the process and the quality of the outcome

  • Perhaps most tellingly, the dashboard quickly became a platform for future development — customers began requesting follow-on features built directly on the foundation that had been established:

    • Filtering and date range controls to give admins more granular control over the data they were viewing

    • Additional chart types and metrics to expand the analytical depth of the dashboard

    • Sharing and export enhancements to make it even easier to communicate insights to leadership

  • The volume and nature of these requests confirmed that the dashboard had landed as intended — not as a one-time feature, but as a core part of the Halo experience that users wanted to grow

Reflection:

This project stands out as one I'm genuinely proud of. A rigorous, research-driven process led to a meaningful feature addition to a flagship product, and the positive reception from customers and stakeholders confirmed that grounding design decisions in real user feedback was the right approach.

 

One thing I’d do differently: involve engineering earlier. Some design compromises were required due to database limitations that, had they been known sooner, could have been designed around. Engineering input isn’t just valuable at handoff; it’s valuable throughout.

 

Overall, a resounding success — and a strong foundation for everything that came next.

Table of processed files

© 2026 - Alyssa Jones and Cooking with Gas Studio. 

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