IBM Patterns: Contact Us · Victor Tran Design

Chapter 01 | An incubator brief

Six weeks to imagine a better front door.

I chose the IBM.com Contact Us experience from the incubator assignments and joined four other designers to propose what its future state could be.

My official role was Visual Designer, but the work crossed disciplines. I conducted several early sponsor-user interviews, helped guide team decisions, and took a larger hand in the mid- and high-fidelity artifacts as the concept became tangible.

Five-person team · 2021 · six-week concept. This was collaborative work. I helped connect research, interaction decisions, visual direction, prototype, and final story.

Chapter 02 | The dead end

Useful if you already knew IBM.

The old experience offered little guidance to people who were new to IBM or unsure where to take a question.

If you were a primary customer with a representative, you had a shortcut. For someone without an established IBM relationship, the page could become a dead end. The team also saw the receiving-side burden: many categories, poorly differentiated support destinations, and requests that still needed to be sorted by people.

We combined sponsor-user interviews, competitor analysis, and search data. Two problems stood out.

Historical IBM Contact Us experience showing a list of destinations beside an empty general contact form — **Before | 2021 Contact Us experience**The old page pairs a long list of destinations with a general contact form.

Research theme 01

Support overload

Support destinations were difficult to distinguish, so inquiries could reach the wrong team.

Research theme 02

Inconsistent entry points

Help options varied across product pages.

Chapter 03 | A route before a form

Make the next destination visible.

We shifted the emphasis from a general form to clear choices about where to go next.

The concept brings support, sales, learning, and other routes forward, with contact options for people who still need help.

The goal was to get people closer to the right information or person.

Mid-fi explorations | February 23, 2021

How the routing model took shape.

These explorations show how the team moved from a directory to grouped choices, direct contact routes, and an option to reach a person.

Mid-fidelity Contact IBM exploration organizing support, sales, academic services, careers, directories, and MyIBM as explicit routes — **Mid-fi exploration | Route directory**This version makes the destinations explicit in a directory.

Mid-fidelity Contact IBM exploration combining topic cards with a general contact form — **Mid-fi exploration | Topic cards and form**Topic cards guide the choices, with a general contact form below.

Mid-fidelity Contact IBM exploration showing a grid of support destinations and direct contact routes — **Mid-fi exploration | Routing grid**This version groups more destinations and provides direct contact options.

Team explorations from our February 23, 2021 presentation; individual screen authorship is not attributed.

Visual direction | Humanizing the front door

Making the front door feel more human.

I remember wanting the page to feel warmer and more helpful. The copy and imagery reflect that intent, with choices people could understand without knowing IBM's internal structure.

XD prototype hero showing two people working together at a laptop beside the words Contact IBM, We're here to help — **XD prototype hero study | Collaborative help**The image of two people working together supports the invitation: “We're here to help.”

Preserved future-state hero showing a smiling person beside the words Contact IBM, We're here for you — **Hero concept | We're here for you**

A warmer welcome.

Both headlines address the visitor directly and offer help.

Recognizable situations.

The concept groups support, sales, careers, learning, partners, and general inquiries into recognizable choices.

A person still within reach.

Contact information and assisted routes remain available when self-service is not enough.

Close-up of the 2021 future-state Sales routes arranged as six destination cards — **Sales routes at a glance**Six cards organize the sales destinations by topic.

Close-up of the 2021 future-state navigation for IBM Careers and Learn — **More than support and sales**Careers and learning sit alongside support and sales in the same navigation.

Close-up of contact information and the final general inquiry, IBM Support, and IBM Sales fallback routes — **Help when the choices aren't enough**General inquiries, support, and sales remain available at the end of the page.

Chapter 04 | Final playback

Carry the work beyond the room.

Our final presentation connected the research to the routing and interface decisions.

Final playback chapter card showing Bradley and Paige in The Saga To-Be — **Final presentation | The Saga To-Be**Bradley and Paige returned in the To-Be chapter to introduce the proposed experience.

I am still especially proud of the final playback and the way our team made the concept understandable beyond the sprint.

Program feedback recognized my presentation storytelling, the way I helped co-lead the team, and how I connected user needs to research evidence.

Paraphrased from private program feedback.

Chapter 05 | Influence and reflection

What carried forward.

We shared the future state with the team responsible for the real Contact Us experience. I later recognized parts of its direction in the page.

The useful idea was simple: make the next destination clear and keep a person within reach.

Influence and concept boundaryThis is a bounded first-person recollection. Similarity in later versions does not prove exact lineage, sole authorship, or direct implementation.

A route to someone real.