Redhat Marketplace
Redhat Marketplace
A strategic imperative for IBM
Challenge
IBM needs a competitive software marketplace to take advantage of the RedHat acquisition.
Outcome
A modern software marketplace targeting customers already using RedHats ecosystem. The software would be tested and enterprise ready for deployment.
Role
User experience designer and front-end developer
Overview
With IBM's acquisition of Redhat, there was tremendous pressure to design and implement a competitive modern software marketplace for Redhat's Enterprise Linux (or RHEL). RHEL had become the defacto enterprise linux distro because it was well supported and had a thriving community. With growing competition from AWS Marketplace and Bitnami, the model for software distribution had changed. Developers and DevOps engineers wanted a way to download the software directly into their software stack using Docker containers (or in the case of RHEL -- operators). This makes things like prototyping software integrations faster and more reliable. With the merger with Redhat, IBM had a strategic position to capitalize of ubiquity of RHEL in the enterprise software space.
My role was to design prototypes and micro-interactions. It is immensely important to develop a sense of trust with any user, especially when they are poised to buy really expensive software on behalf of their entire company. Simple things like micro-interactions and animations have the ability to elevate a product's design, and instill this sense of trust, that we, as the seller of these products, cares about quality.