Softchoice Self-Serve Portal

The Softchoice Self-Serve Portal redesign began as a strategic extension of the SAM+ Hub launch. SAM+ was being developed as a polished new product, but it would live inside an older authenticated experience alongside orders, invoices, account administration and other commerce journeys. The gap between those environments risked weakening the new product and preserving friction for every customer using the portal.

I made the case to digital leadership that the launch required a better home. The resulting initiative refreshed the portal while preserving its core functionality, aligned the authenticated experience with Marketing and Brand and deployed at the same time as SAM+ Hub.

As UX Strategy & Product Design Lead and Softchoice’s sole UX practitioner, I owned the experience strategy and end-to-end design delivery for the initiative. I identified the broader platform opportunity, built the case for investment and set the experience direction across the authenticated customer journey. I then translated that strategy into the information architecture, interaction design, visual system and prototypes, while supporting implementation through design QA. I also aligned digital leadership with Marketing and Brand, connecting the authenticated platform to the broader Softchoice customer experience.

This was a separate initiative from SAM+ Hub, even though the two were intentionally launched together. My role was to connect them strategically and ensure that customers encountered one credible platform. I had no direct reports on the work. The leadership challenge involved expanding scope through evidence and influence, then carrying the experience from concept through implementation.

The existing portal had grown around separate functions. Orders, invoices, account administration and workflow tools used different navigation assumptions and visual patterns. Customers could complete tasks, but the experience lacked a coherent mental model and felt disconnected from the public Softchoice brand.

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SAM+ Hub raised the quality bar. Launching it inside the old shell would create an abrupt transition between a modern product and the journeys customers used before and after it. That inconsistency carried practical risk: customers would still need to navigate the same fragmented environment to manage purchases, invoices, approvals and users.

The redesign also had to preserve core capabilities. A complete platform rebuild was outside the initiative. I needed to improve hierarchy, navigation, clarity, responsiveness and accessibility while working with the functions and delivery constraints already in place.

Frame the portal as one customer environment

I mapped the relationship between the public website, authenticated navigation, SAM+ Hub and the existing commerce journeys. This exposed duplicated concepts, unclear labels and inconsistent transitions. The strategy positioned the portal as a common shell for customer tasks instead of a collection of unrelated pages.

Align the experience with Marketing and Brand

I worked with the Marketing team to connect the authenticated platform to the public site's brand expression. The collaboration covered visual language, navigation continuity and the point at which customers moved from public content into account-specific work. This gave the portal a recognizable Softchoice identity while respecting the needs of a task-oriented product.

Prioritize structural changes with broad value

The redesign focused on elements that improved several journeys at once: global and lateral navigation, information hierarchy, responsive behaviour, accessibility and shared components. This allowed the initiative to raise the quality of the environment without rebuilding every workflow from first principles.

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The strategic case came from comparing the existing portal with the new SAM+ Hub experience and tracing how customers would move between them. Targeted research and workflow analysis then focused on areas where terminology and structure created unnecessary effort.

Navigation needed two levels

Customers needed continuity with the public Softchoice website and a clear way to move among authenticated tasks. A global top navigation supported the broader relationship, while a lateral navigation organized account-specific journeys. The two-level model made the transition into self-serve visible without isolating the portal from the brand.

Customer language mattered

Internal labels did not always match customer expectations. Renaming the workflow builder as approvals made its purpose clearer. Reviewing how customers understood standards lists and approval tasks helped refine the structure and reduce interpretation effort.

Related tasks belonged together

Orders and invoices were managed as separate destinations even though customers often used them in sequence. Bringing them into a more connected structure supported a clearer commerce mental model and reduced unnecessary navigation.

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I designed a shared shell with public-site continuity at the top and persistent access to authenticated tasks at the side. The model created a stable orientation point for SAM+ Hub, orders, invoices, account management and approvals. It also supported responsive layouts so the hierarchy remained usable across devices.

I consolidated related commerce destinations, clarified account and user-management flows and refined terminology around approvals. For account creation, I reduced the decision flow to two or three clicks compared with the previous experience. The redesign also introduced consistent accessibility treatments and a shared component base across the portal and SAM+ Hub.

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The SAM+ entry point was designed as a state-aware widget so the portal could communicate availability, progress or required action without forcing customers to enter the product first. I managed the end-to-end design and worked with delivery partners to implement the portal and SAM+ experience for a coordinated launch.

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The redesigned portal launched alongside SAM+ Hub, giving the new product a coherent branded environment from its first customer release. The work also improved the surrounding order, invoice, account and approval journeys used by customers who were not participating in SAM+.

Task-flow comparison showed that account creation could be completed in two or three clicks, reducing the number of decisions required in the previous experience. The shared design system, responsive patterns and accessibility standards created a reusable base for continued platform work.

Softchoice's NPS programme did not isolate digital-channel performance, so I do not use NPS as evidence for this case. The defensible outcomes are the coordinated launch, measurable workflow simplification and the extension of a common experience system across the authenticated platform.

This case reflects a recurring theme in my work: product quality depends on the journey surrounding the product. I recognized that SAM+ Hub's value could be diluted by the platform in which it lived and expanded the conversation to the complete authenticated experience.

The leadership contribution was connecting those dots early enough to change the launch. I secured support for a broader scope, aligned with Marketing and Brand and executed the system needed to make it real. The result supported the flagship product while improving the platform for a wider customer base.

The account-creation improvement is based on a direct workflow comparison with the previous portal. Launch scope and system-level outcomes come from project documentation. Digital NPS is excluded because the available NPS measure did not separate the authenticated experience from other channels.