POSTMAN, 2023
Reduced time taken by developers in discovering new content and finding team resources
Team
Design manager
Product manager
7 engineers
My role
Qualitative Research
Conceptualization
Design
Usability testing
Dev handoff
duration
4 months
background and problem
My journey in the Search team
38%
people reported difficulty in discovering APIs they require
30%
people reported lack of knowledge of existing resources
29%
people reported lack of available time to spend in discovery of those resources
But what is Postman?
Postman is an API platform for building and using APIs. Postman simplifies each step of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration so you can create better APIs—faster.
So what do the devs want?
They want to optimize 2 things: Getting to APIs they were already using faster, and sending requests from new APIs faster.
focus areas
lets surface relevant resources contextually!
All design directions walked the chaotic journey of design and were morphed into stronger, holistic designs by the end of the journey.
Improve resource discoverability in the recents section on home page
surface most vewed requests in public workspaces
enable search through request url bar
design process of the recents section
Crafting the ideal recents section for Postman users
I revamped the Recent Workspaces section to provide a smart list of all recently used elements. A user can sift through all or filter based on category to find exactly what they need, and save time getting to the resources they were using.
The existing recents section
I revamped the Recent Workspaces section to provide a smart list of all recently used elements, which the user can categorize using filters.
I've shown few of the contesting explorations amongst many alongside the selected one.
Exploration 1
Initially, the section showed 5 recent workspaces only. Based on filters, it now shows 5 collections and 5 requests as well.
Exploration 2
A smart list that incorporates a significance measure pre-searched results and displays across categories.
Exploration 3
The list by default displays results for all categories, and can be filtered by category.
Exploration 4 ✅
Surfacing the filters out of a dropdown for easier filtering.
Other features
Recently sent requests in team workspaces
Devs usually stick to a workspace for a job they need to do. Recently sent requests are surfaced on the workspace page to easily get back into a task.
Most viewed requests in public workspaces
New APIs are difficult to understand since they are new. Most used requests are surfaced to enable the user to start using the API.
Intelligent request search
The request URL bar also acts as search, showing relevant results from the user's workspace, other teams and the global inventory, auto-filling data for quick sending.
signing off!
Retrospective
This project was jam-packed with a lot of work, exploration and discussion with stakeholders. It feels almost impossible to boil down my learning, but if I had to, here they are!
Perks of being new to the domain
Doing this project was super fun and super stressful too, since I navigated a domain that I knew nothing about. I brought unbiased opinion to the table since I wasn't deep rooted in developer workflows that could tunnel my thinking.
Developers are your friends
I also tackled understanding this complex domain smartly, by learning the fundamentals quickly and managing complexity by leaning on my engineers. Asking questions daily and being in constant uncertainty was my passive state throughout the internship.