Cipher

Transforming 

Confusion 

into 

Clarity.

Redesigning training feedback to be obvious and intuitive.

Project Overview

While operating as the Senior product designer for Cipher, a security awareness training platform, I inherited designs that sometimes left our users wanting.  We received regular complaints that our feedback and results section was unclear and frustrating.  Users could not understand their scores and what the right answers were.  I was tasked with dissecting the problem and redesigning the experience to be complaint-free.

Team
  • Myself - Lead Designer
  • Engineering Lead
  • Head of Operations
Project Goals
  • Diagnose usability problems with core feedback and results experience
  • Redesign the experience to make results and scores obvious and immediately understood by end users
  • Employ visuals to increase comprehension and scannability
Results & Impact

User survey complaints about feedback and results went from consistently a few per week to virtually zero complaints upon implementation.

Chapter 1

Houston, we have a usability problem.

Shortly after taking over the design of our product, it became clear that our feedback and scoring mechanisms were not effective.  We had regular complaints about how confusing the experience was. This wasn't just a minor issue; it struck at the core of our product experience. So I appointed myself the task of transforming the feedback experience from confusing to obvious.

"I liked the content, but I don’t know why I got the score I did. I kept clicking around to figure it out because I thought I did it correctly, but I still don’t understand my score."

– Cipher User Feedback Survey Response
Chapter 2

Heuristic Diagnosis

One of the great benefits of being a senior designer is that you have a wealth of experience and your own hard-won heuristics to diagnose problems and find your way to elegant solutions.  In this case, many of the issues with the current design were fundamental and straightforward.  Not all design problems require user research to solve and here I was able to save our team’s time using my own heuristic understanding to find and correct the issues.

Chapter 3

Communicating Design

Designers must do more than simply follow the design process and handover deliverables for engineering.  They must sell their designs.  A great designer must bring the team along and create alignment around solutions so their is clarity and confidence in the path forward.  One of my strong suits is my ability to communicate design decsions. I love to sell my work and I often do so with short decks that bring the entire team along for the ride.

Chapter 4

Getting sketchy in hifi

Some projects warrant the full design process—hand drawn sketches, wireframing, prototyping, testing, refining, high-fidelity mockups, and handoff—but you don't always need to go through every step to reach the best solution. In this case, I was able to stay in high fidelity and quickly sketch out solutions by leveraging our existing pattern library. This approach allowed me to iterate rapidly, using familiar components to solve the problem efficiently and keep us moving forward without sacrificing quality.

Chapter 5

The results are in...and they make sense!

After implementing the redesigned feedback modal, the impact was immediate and clear. Where we once had a steady trickle of complaints in customer surveys about unclear results and feedback, these frustrations vanished entirely. The new design eliminated confusion, making it easier for users to understand their performance at a glance. The result? Zero complaints about this feature—proof that experience and judgement, when appropriately applied, can shortcut your route to great solutions.

“Thank you for updating the feedback in the app!  It makes way more sense now.  Most importantly, people have stopped complaining to me about this part of the training :) You rock!“

– Cipher Customer Email Following Updated Feedback

“Thank you for updating the feedback in the app!  It makes way more sense now.  Most importantly, people have stopped complaining to me about this part of the training :) You rock!“

– Cipher Customer Email Following Updated Feedback