New Service: Identity Access Management (IAM) UX Design

Enhancing identity and access management with a user-centric design to improve security, usability, and administrative control

Role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Data Security

Duration

Ongoing

Overview

The Fortanix IAM service is designed to integrate seamlessly with the Fortanix Data Security Manager (DSM) platform, offering a secure and centralized solution for user and access management across Fortanix products. The IAM service aims to enhance security, improve user experience, and provide fine-grained access control to Fortanix services such as Key Insight, KMS, Tokenization, Secrets Management, and CCM.

Background

Fortanix is a data-first security company and a pioneer in Confidential Computing. We help enterprises discover, assess, and remediate data exposure risks across hybrid multi-cloud environments to maintain the privacy and compliance of their most sensitive and regulated data, wherever it may be.
Learn more about what Key Insight does.

I am one of the key “UX Designer” in the Key Insight Product Design team

I joined Fortanix as a product designer three years ago and have been working on the Key Insight product for the past 1 year. As one of 6 designers in a company with over 100 engineers and 8 product managers, I contribute to both UX and UI design across various aspects of the product. My role involves enhancing user experience, refining the interface, and ensuring seamless interaction within the platform

I've grown tremendously in the last 3 years, some key achievements of which I have listed below

Conducted UX Audit on Fortanix DSM: I have conducted a UX audit on the Fortanix DSM product, identifying several usability and accessibility issues. This helped our team establish a structured roadmap to address these challenges, improving the overall user experience and ensuring better accessibility for all users.

Contributed to the Design System: I have contributed to the design system by researching different SaaS products, defining the grid system, and establishing clear rules for its usage. This ensured consistency and scalability across all Fortanix products

The process

Our process at Fortanix is based on the Double Diamond Theory and Lean UX process. We aim to incorporate the key phases of Discovery, Definition, Ideation, and Implementation in all of our products

Overview

Background

I am one of the key “UX Designer” in the Key Insight Product Design team

I've grown tremendously in the last 3 years, some key achievements of which I have listed below

The process

Our process at Fortanix is based on the Double Diamond Theory and Lean UX process. We aim to incorporate the key phases of Discovery, Definition, Ideation, and Implementation in all of our products

Understanding the problem

Currently, Fortanix DSM users require a more structured and seamless approach to managing access across services. The existing process lacks fine-grained controls, making it difficult for organizations to enforce role-based security policies effectively. Additionally, new users need a guided onboarding experience to create and manage accounts efficiently.

My research encompassed:

Lack of visibility into user roles and permissions across multiple accounts.
Difficulty in managing users and groups efficiently.
Need for stronger authentication mechanisms such as MFA and SSO.
Limited ability to track user activity and enforce security policies.

Gathering insights

Through internal discussions and customer feedback, we identified key areas of improvement:

Streamlining the user login and account selection process.
Providing a centralized dashboard for service access.
Enhancing user and group management with better role assignment.
Advanced security controls such as MFA and SSO have been introduced.
Improving audit and logging capabilities for compliance.

Prioritization of issues

To address these challenges, the development effort is divided into critical milestones, focusing on core functionality first:

Core IAM service with user and group management.
Integration of IAM with Key Insight and expanded service support.
custom role-based access control, external directory service integration (LDAP), and extended security policies.

Wireframing the solution

To ensure an intuitive user experience, wireframes will be developed and tested for:

Account selection UI enhancements.
Role and permission management interfaces.
MFA and SSO configuration flow.
Group management and permission assignment screens.

Validating the designs

We will conduct usability testing with Fortanix administrators and security teams to validate:

Ease of user onboarding and account selection.
Effectiveness of role and group management features.
Security and compliance readiness of IAM policies.

Developing the designs

I created my high-fidelity mockups in Figma to allow the engineers to inspect the file and export the HTML and CSS code.

I worked very closely with the Front End team to spec out any missing interactions that were not covered in the high-fidelity mockups. I conducted a UX review of each front-end ticket that was implemented to ensure it was aligned with the designs before it went live.

Results and takeaways

With the implementation of Fortanix IAM, we expect to:

Enhance security and access control across Fortanix services.
Reduce administrative overhead in user and group management.
Improve compliance with security best practices through robust authentication and logging mechanisms.
Provide a scalable and extensible IAM framework for future enterprise integrations.

Key takeaways:

A structured MVP approach helps ensure the timely delivery of critical features.
Continuous user testing and iteration are crucial for refining the IAM experience.
Collaboration with engineering from the start reduces rework and aligns technical feasibility with design goals.

The Fortanix IAM service will be a cornerstone of secure and efficient identity and access management, laying the foundation for future security enhancements across the Fortanix ecosystem.

Results and takeaways

With the implementation of Fortanix IAM, we expect to:

Enhance security and access control across Fortanix services.
Reduce administrative overhead in user and group management.
Improve compliance with security best practices through robust authentication and logging mechanisms.
Provide a scalable and extensible IAM framework for future enterprise integrations.

Key takeaways:

A structured MVP approach helps ensure the timely delivery of critical features.
Continuous user testing and iteration are crucial for refining the IAM experience.
Collaboration with engineering from the start reduces rework and aligns technical feasibility with design goals.

The Fortanix IAM service will be a cornerstone of secure and efficient identity and access management, laying the foundation for future security enhancements across the Fortanix ecosystem.

Other projects

Key Insight Saas Product Design

Empowering security teams with real-time visibility and control over cryptographic key management through a data-driven security intelligence platform.

New Product: Armor(Unified Platform) Design

Built a unified security platform that integrates multiple Fortanix SaaS offerings (DSM, CCM, Confidential AI, Key Insight, IAM) to streamline service delivery and enhance visibility.

Mohan Reddy

Mohan Reddy

Mohan Reddy