Introduction
Flare is the flagship product of Madcap Software. It is the world's number one dedicated technical authoring software.
My Role
As the Lead UI/UX Designer, I completely redesigned its interface.
The Problem
Flare has a growing number of competitors entering the technical authoring market. The UI had started to show its age so it was decided to embark on a complete UI redesign to keep up with the latest trends and to keep the lion's share of the marketplace. It also needed to switch over to vector art icons to look more sharp on 4k monitors and to become future-proof.
The old UI:
The Goal
The goal was to update the UI with 3, user selectable flat design themes, and to replace the over 1,000 button icons with fresh modern vector art replacements.
Impact
The redesign received overwhelmingly positive reviews from new and existing users alike. It continues to grow in user counts and maintains its stronghold as the number one technical authoring software the world over.
Early Ideation
The early concepts focussed on not moving the UI around which would cause existing users to have to relearn this powerful software but instead to freshen the entire UI up with modern design theory. This meant flattening the embossed areas, squaring off the round corners, and choosing clean sharp icons.
Testing
This redesign was tested at every stage by select customers as well as our US, Europe, and South America QA teams. Their feedback guided every step of this immense project.
Final Design
Here is the final design that went live.
Development
Working hand in hand with the development and QA teams for over a year, we took this project from moodboards and hand drawn wireframes to a complete and successful redesign.
Future Steps
Flare will always be on the forefront of adding cutting edge features with machine learning and an AI powered chat help desk to name a few.