Cloudways Unified UX
A redesign that contributed to a $350M acquisition
Designing for the Future, Backed by Research
Services:
Platform design
Platform design
Client:
Cloudways by Digital Ocean
Cloudways by Digital Ocean
Year:
2021
2021
Discovery & Research
Cloudways had a fragmented platform that created friction for its core users, SMB owners, e-commerce managers, and freelancers managing multiple websites daily. Interfaces looked and behaved differently across desktop, tablet, and mobile, leading to task abandonment, higher support tickets, and users shifting parts of their hosting to competitors with smoother UX.
For the business, this meant declining engagement, rising churn, and costly overhead from maintaining separate designs.
The Goal
Unify Cloudways into a single cohesive platform that felt familiar, consistent, and trustworthy across devices, while setting the foundation for future scalability.
My Role
As the senior product designer and sole researcher, I:
• Conducted research using Google Analytics, Hotjar heatmaps, surveys, and interviews.
• Built personas, mental models, and journey maps.
• Defined the strategy and MVP scope.
• Designed the new experience and developed the Atmosphere Design System.
• Facilitated cross-functional workshops to align product, engineering, and marketing.
Key Insights
• Navigation inconsistency was the top pain point across devices.
• Visual inconsistency (colors, icons, layouts) eroded trust.
• Users wanted familiar patterns, not novelty.
• Benchmarking revealed Cloudways lagged behind competitors in task success and usability, giving us clear improvement targets.
User Interviews: Listening First
I kicked off with analytics (Google Analytics, Hotjar, Qualtrics) to see where users dropped off. Then I paired data with user interviews across our key personas:
SMB Owners: needed reliability and ease, not constant re-learning.
E-commerce Managers: switched devices throughout the day and got lost in inconsistent layouts.
Freelancers & IT specialists: wanted familiar patterns that didn’t waste time.
Pain Points We Uncovered
Visual inconsistency: colours, icons, and layouts changed across devices, making the product feel “like three different platforms.”
Navigation confusion: users spent too long hunting for features like Manage Access.
High learning curve: workflows didn’t match user expectations or mental models.
Assumptions & Testing
Our assumption was that users wanted a "new look." However, testing proved they craved familiarity, consistency, and predictability over novelty.
Strategy & Defining the Problem
The problem wasn’t just visual. It was structural. Users wanted Cloudways to feel like one product, one journey, not three disjointed ones.
How do we solve this?
Build a unified design system so all devices share the same rules.
Redesign key flows (adding servers, cloning apps, managing access) for clarity and speed.
Reduce support dependency by making features self-evident.
Balance modernisation with familiarity, so loyal users don’t feel alienated.
Our Hypothesis:
If we unify navigation, streamline workflows, and establish visual consistency, users will engage longer, abandon fewer tasks, and trust Cloudways as their main hosting solution.
Design Process
Sketches & Wireframes
We started on paper and moved into low-fidelity wireframes, mapping task flows like adding a server and managing settings.
Customer Journeys & Task Models
We built user journeys for each persona, asking: Where do they get stuck? Where do they succeed?
For example:
• Old flow: locating “Manage Access” took 4 clicks and guesswork.
• New flow: added to a Quick Settings bar, success rate jumped to 97%.
Building the Atmosphere Design System
We created reusable components, scalable typography, modular layouts, and a shared colour system. This design system became the foundation of the unified experience and ensured scalability for future features.
Check out the complete Atmosphere Design System
Prototypes & Iterations
We tested flows iteratively:
Low-fidelity prototypes validated navigation structures.
High-fidelity prototypes refined typography, iconography, and responsiveness.
Each round incorporated feedback — like addressing users who felt the UI was “too empty” by adding subtle visual cues and micro-interactions.
Validation & Refinement
Benchmarking Study
Once the core design was stable, we benchmarked against three competitors. Seven critical tasks were tested (e.g., add a server, duplicate an app, manage access).
Metrics: task success, time-on-task, usability score, SEQ (Single Ease Question).
Result: Cloudways matched or outperformed competitors in 6/7 tasks, giving us confidence the new design wasn’t just better than before — it was competitive in the market.
Usability Testing
We tested with real users using surveys, heatmaps, and click-tracking.
Themes
Consistency: Fixed top nav reduced strain.
Responsiveness: Menus adapted smoothly across devices.
Familiarity: Recognisable icons sped up navigation and reduced support calls.
Leadership & Collaboration
One of my biggest challenges was aligning stakeholders.
Product worried about feasibility.
Marketing wanted business goals prioritised.
Design (my focus) needed to safeguard user experience.
I facilitated cross-functional workshops, turning conflicting feedback into aligned objectives. My leadership centred on keeping users at the core, while ensuring business needs weren’t ignored.
Lesson learned: Strong UX leadership means balancing business goals without losing sight of user trust.
Solution & Results
The outcome was a unified, scalable platform with a consistent look, feel, and interaction model across all devices.
Impact
31% reduction in task abandonment.
17% drop in support requests over 3 months.
52% increase in engagement.
User Feedback
“Everything is exactly where I need it. I don’t waste time searching anymore.”
“I can switch from laptop to phone without missing a beat. It just makes sense.”
Conclusion
This project showed me the value of blending deep research with practical leadership. By listening to users, validating through benchmarking, and guiding cross-functional collaboration, we transformed Cloudways into a platform that users trust and enjoy.
The Unified UX redesign wasn’t just about modern visuals, it restored confidence, strengthened loyalty, and future-proofed Cloudways in a competitive SaaS landscape.
Discovery & Research
Cloudways had a fragmented platform that created friction for its core users, SMB owners, e-commerce managers, and freelancers managing multiple websites daily. Interfaces looked and behaved differently across desktop, tablet, and mobile, leading to task abandonment, higher support tickets, and users shifting parts of their hosting to competitors with smoother UX.
For the business, this meant declining engagement, rising churn, and costly overhead from maintaining separate designs.
The Goal
Unify Cloudways into a single cohesive platform that felt familiar, consistent, and trustworthy across devices, while setting the foundation for future scalability.
My Role
As the senior product designer and sole researcher, I:
• Conducted research using Google Analytics, Hotjar heatmaps, surveys, and interviews.
• Built personas, mental models, and journey maps.
• Defined the strategy and MVP scope.
• Designed the new experience and developed the Atmosphere Design System.
• Facilitated cross-functional workshops to align product, engineering, and marketing.
Key Insights
• Navigation inconsistency was the top pain point across devices.
• Visual inconsistency (colors, icons, layouts) eroded trust.
• Users wanted familiar patterns, not novelty.
• Benchmarking revealed Cloudways lagged behind competitors in task success and usability, giving us clear improvement targets.
User Interviews: Listening First
I kicked off with analytics (Google Analytics, Hotjar, Qualtrics) to see where users dropped off. Then I paired data with user interviews across our key personas:
SMB Owners: needed reliability and ease, not constant re-learning.
E-commerce Managers: switched devices throughout the day and got lost in inconsistent layouts.
Freelancers & IT specialists: wanted familiar patterns that didn’t waste time.
Pain Points We Uncovered
Visual inconsistency: colours, icons, and layouts changed across devices, making the product feel “like three different platforms.”
Navigation confusion: users spent too long hunting for features like Manage Access.
High learning curve: workflows didn’t match user expectations or mental models.
Assumptions & Testing
Our assumption was that users wanted a "new look." However, testing proved they craved familiarity, consistency, and predictability over novelty.
Strategy & Defining the Problem
The problem wasn’t just visual. It was structural. Users wanted Cloudways to feel like one product, one journey, not three disjointed ones.
How do we solve this?
Build a unified design system so all devices share the same rules.
Redesign key flows (adding servers, cloning apps, managing access) for clarity and speed.
Reduce support dependency by making features self-evident.
Balance modernisation with familiarity, so loyal users don’t feel alienated.
Our Hypothesis:
If we unify navigation, streamline workflows, and establish visual consistency, users will engage longer, abandon fewer tasks, and trust Cloudways as their main hosting solution.
Design Process
Sketches & Wireframes
We started on paper and moved into low-fidelity wireframes, mapping task flows like adding a server and managing settings.
Customer Journeys & Task Models
We built user journeys for each persona, asking: Where do they get stuck? Where do they succeed?
For example:
• Old flow: locating “Manage Access” took 4 clicks and guesswork.
• New flow: added to a Quick Settings bar, success rate jumped to 97%.
Building the Atmosphere Design System
We created reusable components, scalable typography, modular layouts, and a shared colour system. This design system became the foundation of the unified experience and ensured scalability for future features.
Check out the complete Atmosphere Design System
Prototypes & Iterations
We tested flows iteratively:
Low-fidelity prototypes validated navigation structures.
High-fidelity prototypes refined typography, iconography, and responsiveness.
Each round incorporated feedback — like addressing users who felt the UI was “too empty” by adding subtle visual cues and micro-interactions.
Validation & Refinement
Benchmarking Study
Once the core design was stable, we benchmarked against three competitors. Seven critical tasks were tested (e.g., add a server, duplicate an app, manage access).
Metrics: task success, time-on-task, usability score, SEQ (Single Ease Question).
Result: Cloudways matched or outperformed competitors in 6/7 tasks, giving us confidence the new design wasn’t just better than before — it was competitive in the market.
Usability Testing
We tested with real users using surveys, heatmaps, and click-tracking.
Themes
Consistency: Fixed top nav reduced strain.
Responsiveness: Menus adapted smoothly across devices.
Familiarity: Recognisable icons sped up navigation and reduced support calls.
Leadership & Collaboration
One of my biggest challenges was aligning stakeholders.
Product worried about feasibility.
Marketing wanted business goals prioritised.
Design (my focus) needed to safeguard user experience.
I facilitated cross-functional workshops, turning conflicting feedback into aligned objectives. My leadership centred on keeping users at the core, while ensuring business needs weren’t ignored.
Lesson learned: Strong UX leadership means balancing business goals without losing sight of user trust.
Solution & Results
The outcome was a unified, scalable platform with a consistent look, feel, and interaction model across all devices.
Impact
31% reduction in task abandonment.
17% drop in support requests over 3 months.
52% increase in engagement.
User Feedback
“Everything is exactly where I need it. I don’t waste time searching anymore.”
“I can switch from laptop to phone without missing a beat. It just makes sense.”
Conclusion
This project showed me the value of blending deep research with practical leadership. By listening to users, validating through benchmarking, and guiding cross-functional collaboration, we transformed Cloudways into a platform that users trust and enjoy.
The Unified UX redesign wasn’t just about modern visuals, it restored confidence, strengthened loyalty, and future-proofed Cloudways in a competitive SaaS landscape.
