Bringing DPX from Java GUI to a modern web experience
Designing a more seamless backup experience across diverse platforms during a phased interface migration.
Context
DPX and vStor help organizations back up data across diverse environments, from virtual machines to tape and other infrastructure. The work included moving DPX’s established Java GUI to a modern web UI while expanding capabilities across both products.
Problem
The product needed to support different platforms and vendors, each with its own capabilities and challenges, while aiming to give users a seamless experience. During the migration, users also needed to work with both the legacy and new interfaces, so some capabilities and workflows had to function across them. The primary audience was IT administrators, whose work relies on specialist terminology shared across the industry and familiar from competing products. The interface needed to respect that vocabulary, even where a term might seem less intuitive to a general audience.
Research and proto-personas also reflected a wide range of users: from long-time administrators who had used the product for years to newer, younger administrators who expected simpler software and were used to different language and interaction patterns. The experience needed to feel clear and approachable without becoming overly casual; in a high-stakes backup product, its tone also had to communicate stability, professionalism, and trust.
This made redesign decisions more nuanced: changing a familiar term or interaction could improve usability, but it could also create confusion or add relearning costs. Each change needed to offer enough benefit to justify that disruption.
Because data backup is high-stakes, users also needed to feel confident about what was happening to their data without having to do excessive manual checking.
My role
Over five years working on DPX and vStor, I was the company’s sole UX designer, working across UX, UI, and graphic support. I conducted desk research independently and collaborated with the Product Owner, Sales, and Support. I prepared wireframes and prototypes in Figma and used FigJam in the design process; later, I also explored AI-assisted prototyping. I built custom Figma plugins with Claude to support workflow needs before similar capabilities were available natively in Figma. I contributed to preparing the design system and, with AI support, its Storybook. I worked closely with developers day to day during sprints, supporting the team through Jira.
For around three years, I also had a one-hour session with an external UX designer every two weeks; these sessions later came to an end.
Process
I used desk research and proto-personas to explore the different audiences and their expectations. Alongside the design work, I started a grassroots discussion group that met every two weeks and was open to interested people across departments. It gave colleagues a regular space to raise frustrations, ideas, and concerns about the project and discuss them together.
Placeholder content: Add research sources and explain how findings and discussion themes informed design decisions. Include rejected directions and rationale without exposing confidential details.
Solution
The team shipped simpler backup workflows with fewer steps, automating eligible tasks behind the scenes so users did not have to perform them manually. Reports, charts, and event information helped make backup activity easier to understand. Across different platforms and vendors, the aim was to reduce manual effort and make the experience feel more seamless and reassuring.
Placeholder content: Add approved product visuals and clarify which features worked across both the legacy and new interfaces.
Impact
Over five years, the team delivered extensive functionality across DPX and vStor. GuardMode was added during my time on the products, and I worked end to end on its UX: exploring how the capability should fit into the product and collaborating closely with developers as it was added.
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Learnings
Placeholder content: Add what you learned about translating an established desktop product into a web experience and extending its capabilities.