IBM UI Enhancements
Overview
IBM.com was modernized through targeted UI enhancements that delivered a cleaner, more responsive experience without rebuilding the site’s foundational components. Working within IBM’s Carbon Design System, the team improved visual consistency, usability, and conversion readiness while keeping the existing architecture stable. Early homepage signals: - +9.6% increase in engagement rate - +25.9% increase in form completion rate Recent post-launch performance: - +21% increase in form completion across product pages - +115% increase in form completion across IBM.com
Deliverables
UI Modernization
CSS Enhancements
Component Evolution
Usability Testing
IBM.com is a high-traffic enterprise platform with a mature component architecture and a strong Carbon foundation. The opportunity was not to replace what worked, but to evolve the experience: sharpen the visual language, improve responsiveness, and make key journeys feel more contemporary and engaging.
Challenges
IBM.com needed to feel more current and visually engaging while continuing to support complex enterprise journeys at scale. The challenge was to create meaningful visible change within the existing component architecture, and to prove that the redesigned homepage resonated more strongly with users.
Insight
A ten person unmoderated usability study surfaced a clear pattern: users valued the original homepage for its clarity, structure, and easy navigation, but many found it visually bland and overly monochromatic. The strongest cues of a modern interface were intentional white space, stronger color harmony, and more refined interaction details.
Strategic Idea/Build
Build on Carbon rather than replace it. This approach reduced implementation risk, accelerated delivery, and created a scalable path for ongoing design evolution with minimal disruption to functionality.
Design Impact
We introduced a more refined UI layer: rounded corners, increased white space, animated borders, and sliding tab underlines. The work extended beyond the homepage to product, solution, and Think article pages, demonstrating how the updated system could flex across other pages.
Solution
The modernization was delivered through focused visual and interaction improvements rather than a foundational rebuild. This iterative workflow allowed the team to test, learn, and ship improvements quickly, while keeping implementation complexity and engineering effort low.
Results
Early homepage data suggested that the new UI was resonating: 70% of participants preferred the updated experience, engagement rate increased by 9.6%, and form completion rate rose by 25.9%.
