MVP1 in progress
1.5 months
Enterprise web
UX/UI Designer
A 20-year-old query form that looked like an engineering tool, turned into a guided search that anyone at SLB can use, without losing the power HR and IT rely on.
1.5 lakh+
records in the directory
45%
of all LDAP usage is search
20 people
interviewed across roles
The directory behind everything at SLB
LDAP is the source of truth for people, access and groups. Microsoft AD, SharePoint, Outlook groups and building access all depend on it.
Directory
Corporate directory — SLB’s internal source of identity data.
1.5 lakh+
Records — People, contractors, students, groups and IT sites.
6+ systems
Connected everywhere — AD, SharePoint, Outlook and access systems.
20+ years
Never rethought — Features were added on top over time.
The legacy home page. Hover the red dots to see what got in people’s way.
Why Search first
Changing everything at once was too risky, so the redesign is phased. Search was the safest place with the most value.
45%
Most used feature
Nearly half of all traffic is search, so every improvement is felt daily.
Search 45% Everything else 55%
Read-only
Safe to redesign
Admin screens edit records that change access across systems. Search doesn’t.
Nothing changes. Search only reads data, so a redesign cannot alter anyone’s access.
People ↔ Groups
The foundation
Open a person to see their groups, open a group to see its members. Later phases build on this.
Person ⇄ Group — Open a person, then check which groups they belong to.
The phased plan
MVP1
Search, profile view (read-only)
MVP2
Edit people and groups
Later
Admin console, audits, approvals
Retire
the legacy portal
Who searches, and for what
I interviewed managers, employees, HR, IT support and directors, ran KT sessions with product, HR, IT and business owners, and audited the live portal. Pick a role to see what they actually do.
What this meant for the design: a big, simple search bar for everyday lookups, and a separate Advanced Search for the people who need precise, multi-rule filters.
Engineered, not designed
Everything the backend could offer was put on one screen, and the important feature got lost in the chaos. Select the red dots to see what I found and what I changed.
50+
Raw attributes in one dropdown
2
unlabeled attribute dropdowns
7
presentation formats to choose from
40–60
Fields in one long record
The attribute dropdown. Fifty-plus raw fields, from Distinguished Name to Oracle ID.
The record page. Every field has the same weight, and every user sees every button.
Four decisions that shaped the design
Changing everything at once was too risky, so the redesign is phased. Search was the safest place with the most value.
Familiar, not technical
Kept the nine fields people really search by: name, alias, GIN, job title, employment type, city, country, department and manager. Rewrote jargon in plain words.
Complexity is optional
A big search bar for everyday lookups. Advanced Search for HR and IT, one click away.
Filters read like a sentence
“Country contains India” instead of LDAP attribute syntax, with grouping for multi-level rules.
Meaning over structure
Corporate Directory and Active Directory data are split, related fields grouped, key facts first.
Five ways to search, and where I stopped
Before designing the builder I mapped the kinds of search that exist, from exact match to AI. Select a type to see what it does and what it would take at SLB.
The takeaway: the safest improvement was to make querying LDAP itself easier, with plain-language rules and grouping, instead of adding a new search layer on top of sensitive data.
Where I found the pattern
Rule builders I studied before designing mine. Hover or tap a card to pull it out of the stack.
Advanced Search, the hard part
HR needed things like “designers in Pune or Mumbai who are full-time”. I took the best ideas from the tools I studied and rebuilt them for SLB, then built a working prototype to test it with real users.
Rules that read like sentences
Attribute, operator and value read as one line, like “Country that contains India”.
AND / OR at every level
Choose AND or OR for the whole search, and again for each group.
Group by selecting
Tick two or more rules and press Group Selected to build multi-level logic.
Choose what comes back
Optionally pick up to five attributes to show in the results.
Try it yourself :
Find designers in India with 5 years of experience
Add a rule for country, one for job title and one for years of experience.
Pune or Mumbai, plus one more rule
Add two city rules, select both, press Group Selected and set the group to OR. Then add another rule.
Leave out anyone wiht UX in their title
Add a rule : Job does not contain UX
Pick your own columns
Choose up to five attributes to return, then press Search.
Final Results
Rule builders I studied before designing mine. Hover or tap a card to pull it out of the stack.
Want the full walkthrough?
Parts of the research and iterations are confidential. I’m happy to go through the complete process in a conversation.