Bandwidth - Inventory Management

Redesigning internal provisioning workflows for faster, clearer global number management

Bandwidth’s internal teams rely on Inventory Management to provision, organise, and maintain global telephone number inventory across multiple regions. Following the Voxbone integration, the experience became fragmented, combining inconsistent navigation, duplicated functionality, and unclear workflows.

I redesigned the system to replace fragmented workflows with a clear, predictable structure, helping teams move faster, reduce errors, and work with confidence at scale.

Faster task completion

↑ 0 %

Fewer support tickets

↓ 0 %

Reduction in navigation errors

0 %

Internal satisfaction score

0 /5

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Bandwidth Universal Platform - Inventory Management (Admin)

Role

Senior UX Designer, Lead

Duration

~5 months

TEAM

UX Manager, Product Managers, Inventory, Compliance, API & Front-End Developers

01. Problem

A critical operational tool that no longer matched how teams worked

Inventory Management supports the provisioning and management of telephone numbers across Bandwidth’s global network.

As the platform expanded through acquisitions and new market growth, the experience became increasingly difficult to navigate. Different regions followed different interaction patterns, common actions were buried within dense interfaces, and users often depended on support teams to complete routine tasks.

What began as a usability issue had become an operational challenge.

“Finding a single number could take minutes. You just had to know where to look.”

Compliance Operations Analyst

Business Impact

Provisioning delays slowed operational throughput
Support teams spent time answering avoidable questions
Inconsistent workflows made scaling increasingly difficult

User Pain Impact

Navigation felt different across regions
Bulk actions were difficult to discover
Users relied on memory instead of system guidance
Reviewing inventory often required multiple screens

02. Challenge

Understanding the complexity of global provisioning

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Legacy Voxbone interface - fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to scale

The challenge was not simply that the interface looked outdated.

The platform had been organised around countries and inherited backend structures. Operational teams, however, thought about their work very differently. They focused on tasks such as assigning numbers, reviewing status, resolving issues and managing groups.

The gap between system structure and operational behaviour was where most of the friction existed.

Key Challenges

Navigation varied across country modules
Group and TN information were mixed together
Bulk actions were hidden or inconsistent
Tables were dense and difficult to scan
Users lacked a reliable mental model of where to go next

Root Cause

Research revealed that users naturally organised work around tasks, while the platform organised information around regions and system entities.This mismatch became the primary problem to solve.

03. Objective

Creating a clear and scalable operational experience

The goal was to redesign Inventory Management around how operational teams actually worked.

I needed an experience that improved accuracy, reduced dependency on support teams and could scale as Bandwidth entered new markets.

Success meant creating a platform that was easier to navigate, easier to learn and easier to scale.

Success Criteria

Clear orientation and navigation across all modules
Faster completion of high-frequency workflows
Reduced reliance on support teams
Consistent patterns across international markets
Improved visibility into inventory status and actions
A scalable IA foundation aligned with the BluePrint Design System

04. Discovery & Insights

Understanding how teams really worked

Rather than starting with assumptions, I spent time observing operational teams during live workflows.

I watched how analysts searched for numbers, managed inventory groups, investigated issues and completed provisioning tasks. These observations were combined with a heuristic evaluation, card sorting workshops, stakeholder interviews and usability testing.

The objective was to understand how users naturally approached their work and identify where the current experience was creating friction.

Research Activities

Heuristic Evaluation
Audited the existing experience and identified recurring issues in navigation, hierarchy and interaction consistency.
Card Sorting Workshops
Conducted sessions with eight participants from Compliance Operations and Support teams to understand how users grouped tasks and information.
Workflow Observation
Observed live operational workflows to identify delays, workarounds and repeated navigation patterns.
Stakeholder Workshops
Aligned operational, product and engineering priorities around key workflows.
Usability Testing
Validated early concepts and information architecture decisions before implementation.

Legacy workflow: repetitive, unclear, and reliant on support

What card sorting revealed

One of the strongest patterns emerged during card sorting.

Participants consistently grouped work around operational tasks rather than countries or inventory structures.

Instead of thinking in regions, users thought in actions:

Manage Groups
Manage Numbers
Resolve Issues
Configure Rules

This insight became the foundation for the new information architecture.

Personas

Picture of Maria T.

Maria T.

Operations Support

Supports provisioning escalations across 12+ international regions and manages a high volume of operational requests daily.

Needs fast visibility into TN history, status changes, and grouping logic without cross-checking multiple systems.

Biggest frustration:

“I spend too much time figuring out where something lives before I can actually fix it.”

Picture of Alex R.

Alex R.

Compliance Ops Administrator

Manages high-volume provisioning across multiple regions and needs quick visibility into groups, filters, and status changes.

Frustrated by having to click through multiple screens to complete simple actions.

Biggest frustration:

“I know the data exists. The hard part is finding it quickly.”

Journey Mapping

Mapping the provisioning journey highlighted where users repeatedly left their current task to find supporting information.

The biggest delays occurred when:

Searching for numbers
Validating status information
Reviewing assignment history
Performing bulk actions

These findings directly influenced the navigation model, filter structure and workflow redesign.

Key insights

Users relied on memory rather than navigation Many users could complete tasks only because they knew where information lived from experience.
Bulk actions were hidden Common actions were buried within menus and often overlooked.
Group and TN data were mixed together Users struggled to distinguish between inventory-level and number-level actions.
Filters did not reflect user behaviour Search and filtering options were structured around system logic rather than operational workflows.
Inconsistency increased errors Different regional experiences reduced confidence and created unnecessary mistakes.

The research also highlighted opportunities beyond the initial redesign. These ideas were not part of the first release but emerged from recurring behavioural patterns observed during discovery.

Intelligent navigation

Surface relevant next steps based on workflow context.

Context-aware actions

Recommend the most relevant actions based on selected inventory.

Smarter filtering

Suggest commonly used filter combinations to reduce search effort.

Predictive guidance

Identify potential errors before actions are submitted.

05. IA & Workflow Redesign

Reorganising the platform around how teams actually worked

The research made one thing clear. Users thought about their work in terms of tasks, while the platform organised information around countries and inherited system structures.

As a result, analysts regularly repeated the same navigation patterns across multiple regions simply to complete related tasks. The redesign shifted the experience from a country-based structure to a task-based model. This created a more predictable mental model and reduced the amount of navigation required to complete common workflows.

• Country-based navigation fragmented workflows
• Bulk actions hidden within nested menus
• No clear hierarchy or orientation
• TN and Group information mixed together
• Dense tables with poor scanability
• Limited visibility into status and history

• Four task-focused modules, Groups, TNs, Alerts, Templates
• Separated Group and TN management
• Standardised filters and table structures
• Contextual navigation and breadcrumbs
• Actions surfaced where users needed them

• Predictive alerts for issues and expirations
• AI-assisted provisioning suggestions
• Automated number state transitions
• Operational dashboards with real-time insights

Al-Enhanced

Why four modules?

Card sorting and workflow observation revealed that nearly every task fell into one of four categories:

The new structure reflected these natural user groupings rather than backend system architecture.

What changed structurally?

Persistent top-level navigation replaced country drill-down
TN and Group information moved into separate experiences
Filters redesigned around operational workflows
Breadcrumbs improved orientation
Bulk actions surfaced directly inside workflows

06. Wireframing & Iteration

Exploring structure before visual design

The task-based IA was not the first solution explored. Several concepts were tested before arriving at the final model.

Concept One

Enhanced country navigation
This retained regional structures while improving visual hierarchy.
Users still struggled because they needed to move between countries to complete related work.

Concept Two

Regional hub model
This grouped countries into larger operational regions.
Although navigation improved slightly, users still thought in tasks rather than geography.

Final Concept

Task-based architecture

Groups
TNs
Alerts
Templates

This structure consistently performed better during testing and aligned closely with the mental models revealed during research.

Design Principles

These principles directly informed every major design decision throughout the project.

Reduce cognitive load
Separated Group and TN information into dedicated views.
Standardise patterns
Applied consistent table, filter and action layouts across all modules.

Improve wayfinding
Introduced persistent navigation, breadcrumbs and contextual page titles.
Progressive disclosure
Displayed advanced functionality only when relevant.

07. Design Execution

Making dense operational workflows easier to navigate

The goal wasn’t to reduce complexity, it was to make it usable. Internal tools tend towards density.

There is always more data to show, more filters to support, and more actions to expose. The challenge was not to strip that back unrealistically, but to create a visual hierarchy that let users focus on what mattered at each step.

I introduced persistent structure, contextual actions, and clearer separation between data types so users could stay oriented while moving through large, high-volume workflows.

01

Structure and hierarchy

Sticky headers, persistent filters, and clearer grouping helped users stay oriented while navigating dense data views.

02

Context-aware actions

Actions such as Assign, Remove, and Export appeared based on user selection

03

Visibility and feedback

Clear status indicators and grouped data reduced guesswork

Three workflows that defined the redesign

Assign a number to a group

Previously required multiple screens, redesigned into a single contextual flowSearch, filter, assign, confirm, redesigned as one contextual flow.

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Inventory Management (Admin) - Number to a Group

Review TN status & history

A consolidated view showing full lifecycle without cross-referencing

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Inventory Management (Admin) - Number Status and History

Remove expired TNs in bulk

Bulk filtering and actions replaced repetitive row-by-row processes

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Inventory Management (Admin) - Removing Number Bulk Tool

Design System Integration

Every component was built using Bandwidth’s BluePrint design system.

Reusable filter, modal, and table components
Accessibility considerations including focus states and keyboard navigation
Detailed Figma specifications for engineering handoff

This ensured consistency, scalability, and faster delivery.

08. Guided Walkthrough

What the new journey looks like

The redesigned experience gave users a clearer path through the tasks they performed most often. Each step was designed to feel natural and predictable.

STEP 1

Choose the right module

STEP 2

Filter by region, status, or context

STEP 3

Review the relevant details

STEP 4

Take action in context

STEP 5

Confirm the result with confidence

09. Testing & Outcomes

Validating the solution

The redesigned workflows were tested through usability sessions and A/B comparisons with internal teams.

Methods

Usability Testing
Moderated sessions with Compliance Ops and Product Support teams
Task Completion Analysis
Measured speed and accuracy across key workflows
A/B Comparison
Benchmarked the redesigned flows against legacy patterns

The biggest shift was not just speed, it was confidence.

Users stopped asking where to go next. The system finally matched how they thought.

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Inventory Management - Usability Test

"For the first time, I do not have to think about where things are. I just go straight there."

Compliance Ops Analyst

"Bulk actions alone have saved me so much time."

Operations Administrator

10. Impact

A scalable foundation for global provisioning

This redesign went beyond improving a single tool. It established a scalable model for how internal systems at Bandwidth could be structured, designed, and delivered. The IA and interaction patterns introduced in Inventory Management became a reference point for future tools, shifting the organisation towards more consistent, system-driven design.

This work did not just improve a tool, it changed how internal systems were designed moving forward.

35%

Faster task completion

27%

Fewer support tickets

30%

Fewer navigation errors

4.6 / 5

Internal satisfaction score

Business

Product

User

A foundation, not just a facelift

The redesign did more than improve one internal tool. It created a repeatable model for structuring high-volume operational workflows at Bandwidth. The IA and interaction patterns introduced here became a reference point for future internal products.

"The new layout finally makes sense. I can find, filter, and fix issues faster without asking for help."

Compliance Ops Analyst

“This redesign drastically improved team efficiency — one of our most successful internal UX upgrades.”

Product Manager, Bandwidth

11. Future Opportunities

Where this work can evolve next

The redesign created a stronger operational foundation. The next step is to build intelligence and visibility on top of that structure.

Predictive alerts to surface issues early

Surface provisioning issues before they escalate

AI-assisted validation to reduce errors

Help users complete actions correctly the first time

Predictive approval estimates

Set better expectations during high-volume workflows

Operational analytics dashboards

Give teams visibility into efficiency and inventory health

Reflection

“Good internal UX removes friction quietly.”

This project reinforced a pattern I’ve seen across complex systems work. Internal users deserve the same level of care, clarity, and intentional design as any external customer. The teams using Inventory Management didn’t choose the tool; they relied on it to do their jobs. Improving that experience wasn’t an enhancement it was essential.

It also highlighted the importance of getting information architecture right early. Those decisions shaped every interaction that followed and prevented downstream rework. Finally, working within BluePrint showed the multiplier effect of design systems creating reusable patterns that extended beyond this project and accelerated future work.

Clarity isn’t decoration, it’s what makes complex systems usable.

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Bandwidth’s internal teams rely on Inventory Management to provision, organise, and maintain global telephone number inventory across multiple regions. Following the Voxbone integration, the experience became fragmented, combining inconsistent navigation, duplicated functionality, and unclear workflows. I redesigned the system to replace fragmented workflows with a clear, predictable structure, helping teams move faster, reduce errors, and work with confidence at scale.

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