Rovi went through several acquisitions and as a result, was facing a common IT problem—multiple internal applications, all with distinct access rights running on multiple servers, environments and locations. I first worked with their software engineering managers on evaluating and reducing the number of applications and consolidating ownership.

My design solution was to utilize a single login for what seemed (from the user’s perspective) one contiguous application. In actuality, it would be several diverse applications running within a common framework and interface. As a result, users would no longer need to learn several completely different applications and maintain multiple usernames and passwords. Instead the intelligence of the system determined which applications the user had access to. Furthermore, the system allowed for copying data objects between the distinct applications, instead of tediously copying and pasting.

To the end user, the experience was smooth and consistent, with functionality standardized (to the best degree possible) among the entire suite of applications ranging from finance and legal to engineering and QA (15 in all).

I began by creating global-level logic flow diagrams (macro level flows were primarily determined by the individual applications) before granulating down to each application. A cost benefit analysis was created to further determine what level of individual application modification was possible. Next, I created wireframes in Adobe Illustrator and a series of page comps in Adobe Photoshop. Once the design was finalized, a prototype “proof of concept” was created for the most heavily used (help desk) application. Once analytics can guarantee ROI will be achieved, the rest of the applications in the suite will follow.