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MinIO: Designing Cloud Storage for a Faster World

Team

Omar, Steph, Migue, Jader

Industry

Cloud Storage & Enterprise Solutions

Year

2024

Services

Web App, Design System, Website

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MinIO’s object storage platform handles massive datasets in cloud-native environments. While the technology was robust, the user experience needed to match its capabilities. Our goal was to create designs that simplified complex workflows, enhanced usability, and supported MinIO’s growth with intuitive designs.

Shortcut partnered with MinIO to elevate their products through clear, efficient design. Over nine months, we delivered:

March → June 2024

Enterprise Object Store (AIStore)

AIStor offered enterprise-grade functionality but was complex to navigate. The task was to create a simpler, more accessible interface that maintained its advanced features.

April → August 2024

UI Toolkit: Scaling Design Across Products

We established a modular foundation using 'Tokens' to define typography, colors, and spacing, which formed the core visual language. Our process was iterative and agile, with weekly syncs with the MinIO team to ensure we were consistently aligned with their evolving needs. Efficiency was a key consideration, focusing initially on restructuring existing components before introducing new ones based on user feedback and MinIO’s product roadmap.

March → June 2024

After building and rigorously testing every necessary component, we meticulously documented them, ensuring developers could implement the toolkit seamlessly. This comprehensive effort culminated in the first version of the MinIO Design System, successfully applied to their flagship product, AIStor.

To this day, we continue to add to and expand the system, reflecting the growing needs for other MinIO products over time.

September → December 2024

Open Source Console UI

AIStor offered enterprise-grade functionality but was complex to navigate. The task was to create a simpler, more accessible interface that maintained its advanced features.

September → December 2024

Website Redesign for AIStor Launch

MinIO’s website needed an upgrade to resonate beyond their technical audience, to resonate with enterprise IT audiences and effectively showcase the AIStor launch.

The Shortcut

We embraced fast exploration, initially considering a wide range of visual directions before focusing on a "favorite" solution, moving from a "messy kitchen" of ideas to a polished "diamond".To avoid sacrificing quality, we developed a scalable section toolkit, using reusable sections to rapidly expand the design across all sixty-eight pages of the website.

“Shortcut has provided immense value to our company, not just through the quality of their work, but also through their rapid response to our ever-changing requirements, which is essential given the nature of our projects. They significantly impacted our way of working, introducing a fresh and modern creative approach”