Improving work efficiency
Designing a testing tool
Cyrex Swarm began as an in-house solution for load testing Cyrex’s client projects, but it quickly evolved into a standalone product. However, it needed significant improvements, particularly in terms of user experience and interface design. That’s when I joined the Cyrex Swarm product team, responsible to design and develop the product’s first major revamp.
On the client side of Cyrex Swarm, we designed the platform to offer a seamless flow for users to quickly execute load tests on pre-configured environments. The experience emphasizes clarity and efficiency, featuring real-time test visualizations, highlighted key metrics, intuitive data tables, and clearly defined primary actions—all aimed at reducing friction and helping users focus on meaningful insights.
For the admin side, used by Cyrex’s internal team, we focused on enhancing usability by creating a system that prioritizes fast navigation and easy management of projects, clients, and test environments. The goal was to minimize cognitive load and enable admins to manage complex configurations with confidence and speed.
key takeaways
·
Continuously learning new things: another project, another area of expertise I had no prior knowledge of. There were plenty of “What’s this?”, “What’s that?”, and “What’s this and that?” moments. The Build Manager had highly technical requirements, guidelines, and terminology that were completely unfamiliar to me at first. Fortunately, Avalanche Studios’ excellent documentation and open communication made it much easier to acquire the knowledge needed to design the product.
·
A tool for everyone. The Build Manager is designed as a central part of the game development process, providing access to users with different roles, goals, and levels of expertise to perform specific tasks based on their responsibilities. Creating a product that could seamlessly adapt to various user roles while maintaining a cohesive core structure was a significant challenge.
This required a deep understanding of specific use cases and role-based requirements. Fortunately, the Avalanche Studios team was there to support us. Developing in-depth user flows was challenging but crucial for visualizing how the product could be optimized for every role.
