About NTTool

The Affiliates Management App (NTTool) was an internal CRM used by affiliate managers to run partnerships across multiple brands, including CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and Intego Antivirus. It connected campaign data, landing pages and financial transactions, making it one of the most important products for paid user acquisition.

Over time, operational changes and new security requirements exposed critical usability issues. The tool no longer matched team workflows, created unnecessary support overhead and slowed down daily decision-making.

TL;DR

Goal:

Redesign the Affiliates Management App to reduce workflow friction, improve usability across multiple brands, and comply with new cybersecurity requirements.

Role:

UX/UI lead, conducted user research, mapped critical workflows, redesigned login and dashboard experience, unified visual system, and collaborated with product, dev, and security teams for rollout.

Issues:

Repeated logins when switching brands
No in-app password recovery, high IT support load
Mandatory 2FA requirement added by cybersecurity team
Cluttered dashboards with no filtering or sorting

Recommendations:

Unified login with in-app brand filter
Built-in password recovery and integrated 2FA
Simplified data hierarchy with filtering and sorting
Unified dark/light modes and revised microcopy

Result:

85% fewer IT tickets for password resets
70% faster brand switching within sessions
Landing page mapping errors reduced from 15% to 5%
Onboarding time cut from 3 weeks to under 2 weeks
Usability ratings increased

Window:

4 weeks (2 weeks research & design, 2 weeks testing & iteration)

Project Goal

The Affiliates Management App was the central platform for managing partnerships across CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, ExpressVPN, and Intego Antivirus.

It connected campaigns, landing pages, and financial data, making it one of the most important tools in the company’s subscriber acquisition strategy.

With operational changes and stricter IT policies, the tool no longer supported managers effectively. Switching brands required repeated logins, password resets depended on IT, dashboards were cluttered, and mandatory 2FA added friction. The goal of this project was to streamline core workflows, unify the visual system, and integrate security requirements without slowing down daily work.

Research Approach

To understand where the tool failed, I conducted interviews with six affiliate managers across CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and ExpressVPN.
Each test team included one senior manager with three or more years of experience and one junior with less than a year in the role. Sessions focused on everyday tasks such as logging in, switching brands, creating new affiliate ads, and reconciling payouts.

In addition, I reviewed technical constraints with the product and cybersecurity teams. Mandatory 2FA had to be integrated, password reset needed to align with existing IT systems, and mobile access was restricted by policy. This combination of user feedback and system requirements gave me a clear picture of pain points and the boundaries for viable solutions.

Identified Design Pain Points

Brand switching created unnecessary friction

Managers had to log out and log back in every time they switched between brands. This repetitive step slowed down daily work and made multi-brand management inefficient.

Results

85% reduction in IT tickets after introducing self-service password recovery and integrated 2FA.
70% faster brand switching following the introduction of a unified login with in-app brand filter.
10% increase in data accuracy (landing page mapping errors down from 15% to 5%) after optimizing data hierarchy and adding filtering and sorting.

Onboarding time cut by 50% (from 3 weeks to under 2) due to clearer microcopy and guided flows.
Usability ratings increased significantly in the test phase, following the introduction of a unified design system and simplified task flows.
100% user preference for dark mode after unifying the color system and setting dark mode as the default.

Conclusion

The redesign of the Affiliates Management Tool resolved critical workflow and security issues while aligning the product with new operational needs. By streamlining login, introducing password recovery and 2FA, reorganizing data presentation, and unifying the visual system, the tool became faster, easier to use, and more consistent across brands.

The improvements not only reduced support overhead but also made managers more effective in handling multi-brand operations. This project demonstrated how targeted UX changes in an internal B2B tool can directly support business growth by enabling teams to work with greater speed and confidence.

Password resets relied on IT support

With no in-app recovery flow, every password reset required opening a support ticket. This process was disruptive for managers and costly for IT, especially during mandatory password change cycles.

Dashboards were cluttered, data was hard to read and edit

Financial data was presented in dense blocks with no sorting or filtering. Managers often felt lost while adding new data, leading to errors and wasted time.

Visual design was inconsistent

The tool mixed brand-specific color palettes with both dark and light themed elements. What once worked when brands were separate now created confusion in a unified environment.

Implemented Solutions

Brand switching disrupted daily workflows

Impact: Managers lost time logging in and out to handle different brands. This slowed campaign monitoring and created unnecessary repetition.

Solution: A unified login with an in-app brand filter allowed managers to switch context instantly without re-authenticating, while keeping data separated by brand.

Users can switch data source using the brand switch in sidebar menu

Redesigned log in flow provided clear and unified experience and integrated the mandatory two-factor authentication

Password resets created heavy IT dependency

Impact: Every password reset required a support ticket, which delayed access and increased IT workload.

Solution: A self-service recovery flow was added using an existing IT module, paired with integrated 2FA. This reduced IT tickets and aligned the tool with security requirements.

Users no longer required manually create password reset tickets, improving user experience, reducing app availability issues and reducing IT team's workload

Dashboards made difficult to extract insights and perform actions

Impact: Cluttered data blocks with no sorting or filtering and repeating action elements made financial and performance monitoring error-prone and time consuming.

Solution: A clearer hierarchy was introduced with type scale, grouped actions, and new filtering and sorting controls. Managers could now isolate data quickly and reduce mistakes.

Clearer hierarchy, data sorting, pagination and grouped actions

Visual inconsistency confused users

Impact: Mixing brand palettes with both dark and light themes created a fragmented experience.

Solution: A unified color system was applied across brands with both light and dark themes available. Dark mode was set as default, based on strong user preference, and accessibility ratios were improved.

Visual consistency by creating an unifying color system. Light and dark modes were introduced to reduce potential accessibility issues

Complex flows increased onboarding time

Impact: New managers struggled with unclear steps when creating and editing affiliate ads and handling financial tasks.

Solution: Microcopy was rewritten to guide users through processes with validation and error prevention introduced, reducing task completion time and decreasing errors ratio.

Clearer actions, two-step data deletion flow and action completed validation

Clearer copy on data creation flow, intuitive grouping of actions and action completed validation

Optimizing Affiliates Management app