Case Study Enterprise UX Project

VMware by Broadcom

"Simplifying Cluster Upgrades"

vSAN Witness Host Upgrade (VCF 9.0)

vSAN Witness Host Upgrade

📄 Project Overview

👤 Role: UX Design Lead
🗓️ Timeline: 2024 - 2025
🤝 Cross-functional partners collaboration: Product Managers, UI Engineers, Solution Architects, Backend Engineers
🔵 Product: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF 9.0)

🛠️ Tools: Figma, Jira, Confluence
📚 Design Patterns / Libraries: Clarity Design System, internal VMware enterprise UI patterns for consistency

Summary
I was leading the UX design part on this project with the goal of automating the upgrade process of vSAN witness hosts in stretched clusters. This was a critical feature for enterprise customers requiring disaster recovery and zero downtime. I simplified a previously manual and error-prone process into a transparent and automated lifecycle experience within the VCF product.

Led UX design for the witness host upgrade flow, including interactions, mockups, and edge case scenarios.
Collaborated with PMs, solution architects, backend engineers, and UI engineers to ensure technical feasibility while delivering a user-friendly experience.
Focused on clarity, automation, and adherence to VMware enterprise design system patterns.

1. Design Problem

👤 User Need:

VI admins needed a simple way to upgrade vSAN Witness Hosts in stretched clusters without manual intervention.

🔵 Challenge:

Previously, Witness host upgrades were manual, error-prone, and required customers to follow release notes.
Risk of compatibility issues between witness and ESXi hosts.
A big part of customers use stretched clusters which means greater customer impact.
Needed to integrate seamlessly within the existing product SDDC Manager.

📊 Goals:

Automate vSAN Witness Host upgrades in SDDC Manager upgrade flow (cluster lifecycle)
(UX) Provide clear UI feedback for eligibility checks, upgrade status, warning and potential errors.
Reduce operational overhead while ensuring cluster stability.
(UX) Maintain consistency with vLCM and VMware design patterns.

2. UX Solution + Mockups / Walkthroughs

As UX Design Lead, I translated the complex backend requirements and product legacy into a clear and actionable UI.

📚 Key UI changes and UX deliverables

"Configure Upgrade" Wizard Enhancements:
- “Auto Upgrade Witness Host” checkbox when eligible.
- Tooltips & error messages for not eligible configurations.
- Review step showing which clusters will be auto-upgraded.
- Displayed stretched clusters with eligibility indicators for auto witness upgrade.
Pre-Check & Monitoring UI:
- Added pre-check status indicators.
- Designed info and warning messages for unsupported upgrade paths.
Cluster Inventory Enhancements:
- Witness host details (version, name, status).
- Upgrade history + info banners for skipped/failed upgrades.

💡 UX Impact:

Provided VI admins (users) with clear feedback at every step, reducing misconfiguration risk and supporting edge cases like non-eligible clusters.

UX Mockup Screens:

Gallery view, 20 screens for vSAN Witness Host Upgrade

Check the interactive Figma prototype walkthrough

Video walkthrough of the project mockups coming very soon! Stay tuned!

3. Outcome & Results

📈 Shipped in VCF 9.0 product, delivering tangible improvements:

Automated upgrades for a big part of our customers.
Reduced manual upgrade time (aligned with VMware lifecycle automation benchmarks).
Lowered upgrade errors through automation and guardrails.
Increased administrator confidence in running critical workloads with high availability.