Interface and visual design for security software

Liquid Machines is security software that allows companies to manage the permissions users have for documents -- reading, modifying, printing, etc. I designed the administrator interface for the system.

CHALLENGE
Permissions are very flexible, both in what they control and how they are assigned. A user may have one level of authorization because of the department they work in, but additional privileges as a senior executive. The effects of these overlapping permissions needed to be clear and easy to manage for non-technical people without relying on the IT department every time a change was needed.

SOLUTION
Much of the hardest work was in defining a simple and consistent set of rules for how policies overlap and combine. The resulting permissions for actions are then displayed and managed with simple icons and non-technical language.

We made it easy to examine permissions by user or by class of documents, and extensive cross-linking helps users track the policy inheritance when permissions overlap in complex ways.

MY ROLE
I worked closely with the technical team to define the conceptual model and policy hierarchies, created all interface and visual design, and coded the front-end HTML for the admin system.

www.liquidmachines.com