Executive Summary

My Area is the gated access zone of the ZF Aftermarket Portal — a complex B2B platform serving distributors, workshops, and fleet operators across multiple markets. The challenge was to design a scalable, flexible workspace capable of supporting highly diverse users with evolving needs, while minimizing onboarding friction and enabling long-term engagement.

 

To optimize the process, I led the experience design of the My Area concept, focusing on progressive access, modular permissions, and personalization. The resulting solution transformed the portal into a dynamic customer workspace that grows progressively with the user relationship lifecycle.

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The Brief
 

• Define UX strategy for the gated portal experience

• Designe the progressive registration and access model

• Create information architecture for My Area

• Designe flexible dashboard and feature layout

• Develop access request interaction patterns

• Collaborate with product managers and developers

• Facilitate stakeholder alignment workshops

• Support usability testing and iteration

• Integrate analytics-driven optimization principles

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Context

ZF Aftermarket operates in a highly complex B2B environment where customers vary significantly in size, maturity, and operational structure. Unlike consumer products, enterprise customers do not share a single predictable workflow. Instead, they operate within layered organizational hierarchies and evolving partnerships. Examples of target users include:

Distributors: Sales managers, Logistics coordinators, Product specialists

Workshops: Mechanics, Service managers, Owners, Warranty specialists

Fleets: Operations managers, Procurement teams, Maintenance supervisors

Each role requires different tools, permissions, and content.

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Constraints

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The project operated within several constraints.

Technical: Legacy systems integration

Business: Multiple stakeholder priorities

Operational: Global rollout requirements

Design: Need for flexibility without overwhelming users

 

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The Challenge

Designing My Area required solving a multi-dimensional problem involving identity, permissions, and experience design. The system needed to support multiple industries, roles, and partnership levels while remaining intuitive and scalable. The key challenge was not simply building a user interface, but designing a flexible interaction model capable of adapting to changing business relationships over time.

The portal needed to:

• Serve diverse user personas

• Support evolving partnerships

• Enable incremental access

• Reduce onboarding friction

• Encourage feature adoption

• Scale across markets and services

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The Problem
 

Traditional enterprise portals rely on static role definitions and fixed permission structures. These models assume that users know exactly what they need at the time of registration and that access requirements remain stable. In reality, customer engagement evolves gradually. Organizations typically begin with basic usage and expand their interaction as their capabilities and trust grow.

This mismatch created several usability and business challenges:

• Long registration forms reduced completion rates

• Users requested unnecessary access

• Support teams handled frequent permission changes

• Features remained underutilized

• Customers lacked visibility into available services

 

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The Insight
 

The most important insight from research was that access is a journey, not a decision. Customers do not need full functionality immediately. They discover value progressively and request additional capabilities when they are ready.

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This shifted the design approach from gatekeeping to enablement.

Instead of asking users to provide all information upfront, the system allows them to expand access gradually in exchange for additional data.

 

 

Design Principles

 

• Progressive Registration: Collect only essential information initially and request additional data later when it provides clear value.

• Flexibility: Allow the system to support multiple user types, roles, and partnership levels without redesign.

• Transparency: Make available features visible, even when access is restricted.

• Personalization: Deliver relevant content based on role, behavior, and organizational context.

• Continuous Improvement: Use behavioral analytics and feedback to refine the experience over time.

 

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The Solution
 

I designed My Area as a modular workspace that evolves alongside the customer relationship. Instead of a single fixed interface, the system dynamically adapts to user identity, permissions, and behavior.

The solution combines:

• Progressive registration

• Modular permissions

• Feature promotion

• Personalized dashboards

• Data-driven optimization

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Key UX Innovation

Enabled vs Disabled Features Model

Rather than hiding unavailable functionality, My Area displays both accessible and restricted features within the same interface. Enabled features allow immediate productivity.

Disabled features act as guided opportunities for growth.

This design turns access management into a discovery and engagement mechanism.

 

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User Flow

User discovers portal

→ Registers with minimal information

→ Enters My Area

→ Uses available features

→ Discovers locked features

→ Requests additional access

→ Provides required data

→ Gains expanded capabilities

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System Architecture

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• My Area operates on a layered architecture designed for scalability and maintainability.

• Identity Layer defines who the user is: organization type, role, partnership level, region

• Permission Layer determines what the user can access: feature availability, service eligibility, security rules

• Experience Layer controls what the user sees: dashboard modules, dntifications, promotions, content.

• Analytics Layer monitors user behavior and system performance: feature usage, navigation patterns, conversion funnels, feedback responses.

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Progressive Registration Model
 

The onboarding process was redesigned to reduce friction and improve adoption, to enable fast entry into the system. Contextual Data Collection is supposed to ensure relevance and reduce form fatigue. Advanced Access Enablement grants expanded permissions after eligibility validation to support partnership growth.

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Dashboard Design
 

The My Area dashboard was designed as a modular layout that supports personalization and scalability.

The tiles focus was shifted from being object-oriented to become feature-oriented. this helped to make the tiles more clear and intuitive for the customers, as they are now reflection the actions customers usually do and not the services we provide. New My Area provides quick access to key tasks, supports multiple workflows, enable flexible configuration and maintain visual clarity.

​A critical part of the design was the access request flow. Users request additional functionality directly from the interface to minimize friction, collect only required data, provide clear expectations and enable automation where possible.