Users created a CDN resource and couldn't figure out, “Does it even work?”
Selectel is one of the leading cloud and data center service providers in Russia. One of the company’s products is a CDN — a service that helps deliver data equally fast to all users, no matter how far away they are.
I was responsible for the full user experience, including research and design, for the CDN and Cloud Storage products.
Problem
At CDN product we have a large number of support requests — over 40% of them were about the resource status. Many users didn't understand when the CDN becomes active, how to connect a custom domain, or how to check if the setup was completed successfully.
Research
I analyzed over 2,000 support tickets and watched 100+ user sessions and reviewed the full user journey from product page to resource creation and found key drop-off points where around 30% of users left.
Users filled out the form, clicked "Create", didn't see feedback, and got confused. Some saw a blocked button and didn't know what to do. This mostly affected non-technical users who relied on the UI.
Prototyping and usability testing
I prepared interactive prototypes and conducted usability testing with non-technical users. The tests went smoothly and revealed no critical issues.
Design
We've added a verification screen with CNAME setup tips, helpful instructions, and a built-in checker to confirm everything is working.
We've improved the resource creation form by adding custom domain and SSL fields, automating protocol selection, and showing a low-balance warning.
Results
The percentage of support requests related to CDN resource configuration reduced from 40% to 10%
Support team members use panel validation instead of external services to help customers
The response time to a customer on a configuration issue was reduced, because users began to attach a screenshot of the test result to the request
P.S.
Alongside my work on product tasks, I collaborated with designers from other teams to improve our design system. We created new components, discussed and documented design patterns, and developers implemented them in code.
As a result, the entire panel interface now looks fresher and more minimalistic — including the CDN resource creation form.
