NGINX, owned by F5 Inc., is the world's most popular web server software, powering around 40% of the top websites globally.
NGINX One SaaS Console is a cloud-based management platform designed to simplify the deployment, monitoring, security and scaling of NGINX instances.
As the sole UX designer for NGINX, I owned the end-to-end design process of the entire product and collaborated with product management and engineering to take it from conception to launch and beyond.
Prior to NGINX One, NGINX had UI-based products with various modules bundled in a product offering called "NGINX Management Suite". These products were primarily designed for on-premise deployments and had limitations in terms of functionality, ease of use, and integration with modern cloud environments.
In mid-2023, the F5 Leadership team suddenly decided to phase out the NGINX Management Suite and focus on NGINX One as the primary management solution for NGINX deployments. The decision was driven by the need to address customer demands and reduce bloat from the existing product suite.
The NGINX product team had 4 months: from October 2023 to February 2024, to design and deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Due to attrition and prior restructuring, I was the sole UX designer for the entire product unit.
With the pressure of time running out and the engineering teams waiting on designs to get started ASAP, I had to deliver fast while also ensuring the new product would solve the problems from the previous one. I collaborated closely with product managers and engineers everyday to define the product vision, gather requirements, and create user-centric designs that addressed the key pain points of our target users.
How might we simplify the management and monitoring of NGINX instances, improve understanding of NGINX configurations, and reduce operational complexity for platform and security operations teams?
Some of my core responsibilities and the challenges I faced were:
Problem: Users needed a centralized view of their instances' health and performance.
Solution: I designed a primary dashboard that provided an at-a-glance, holistic view of the entire NGINX fleet. This included visibility into key metrics like resource utilization (CPU, memory, disk), network traffic, and clear status indicators to immediately flag instances requiring attention. Additional visualizations at instance list and individual instance detail levels added to the overall experience.
Problem: Editing raw NGINX configuration files was intimidating and risky.
Solution: A multi-layered experience to build user confidence when editing. This included an editor with auto-completion, an integrated AI Assistant to understand and "chat" about the config code in plain English, helpful prompts and recommendations, and a version history feature that allowed users to see a log of changes and roll back to a previous state with a single click.
Problem: Ensuring configuration consistency across dozens or hundreds of instances was challenging.
Solution: The concept of "Config Sync Groups" allowed users to create logical groups of instances (e.g., "production-api-gateways") that shared a single NGINX configuration. A change made to the group's configuration is propagated to all member instances, eliminating the need for manual synchronization or external tools.
Problem: Manually tracking SSL/TLS certificate expiry is difficult, and can lead to security warnings and service outages.
Solution: A centralized certificate inventory where users could view all their certificates, see which instances or groups they were applied to, and receive prominent alerts for any certificates nearing their expiration date. I also designed a workflow for integrating the SaaS console with Let's Encrypt.
Problem: Applying and auditing NGINX App Protect security policies across a fleet was complex.
Solution: A system where security policies were treated as reusable, version-controlled objects. SecOps teams could define a policy once and then easily attach it to multiple instances or groups, ensuring uniform enforcement.
Problem: Poor visibility into which instances were affected by CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) made it hard to prioritize remediation.
Solution: Data visualization features and a security section that automatically correlated the user's instance fleet with a CVE database. It proactively flagged which specific instances were impacted by a vulnerability, presenting the information in a prioritized and easy-to-understand view.
This project was a period of immense professional and personal growth.
It was incredibly satisfying to see a large, technically complex product that I had designed
come to life and be genuinely appreciated by customers. While working alone was tough, it exponentially
improved my communication and time management skills. I learned invaluable lessons in UX-related diplomacy,
coordinating across different roles and teams to build consensus and drive projects forward. Most
importantly,
it taught me how to communicate expectations realistically, how to strategically say "no" to protect product
focus, and how to build a foundation of trust in the power of user experience.
