Building a light-weight and secure file sharing feature
UX/UI Designer @SpiderOak inc · 2022
Context
I was a product design lead on the CrossClave secure collaboration tool. I spearheaded and designed a solution for users in high-risk security situations expressed a need to share files with people in a more light-weight way, avoiding need to give unvetted collaborators full access to the app. We called it "SpiderOak Airlock" 🔒
MY ROLE
THE TEAM
TIMELINE
UX/UI Design
1 designer, 1 product manager and 3 engineers
Dec 2021— Feb 2022
Discovery
The design team recieved a wealth of feature requests and feedback regarding sharing files with non-user collaborators (i.e. sending files out of the app). I worked with our customer success team to identify several of these users and send a survey...
🗣️ Feedback from customer success team:
- Users are leerie of app downloads and signup processes, no matter how secure/private the service claims to be
- Needed quick, and simple... something as close to a share link as proper privacy/security will allow
- Pain to ask one-off collaborators to go through full app signup process
Design process & solution
🧪 Conducted user testing to ensure the flows were easy to understand for users.
Designed and led user teing with Maze.co
📤 File sender side experience...
For sender, the feature is discoverable within the existing action menu for individual files within the CC file browser on desktop.
Mobile app design of sender flow
📥 File recipient side...
The recieving end UI is designed as a simple web app, as shown in the mobile browser mocks here.
Design details...
Card UI for multi-file transfers
Results/Learnings
The final web app UI for the recipient side of the secure file send interaction is minimal and simple, while integrating some of the playful product illustration from the CrossClave app proper.
- Significant drop in customer support complaints regarding exporting files
- Followup with survey participants was 73% positive/satisfied