ServiceNow Knowledge Base · Interaction design prototype
What’s it called?
ServiceNow naming decisions kept getting lost in chat threads and tribal memory — the same term redefined by three teams, none of them aware of the other two.
This is a working prototype of one way to approach the problem: a searchable, role-aware knowledge base where anyone can browse, members can propose a term, and admins can find the decision maker and publish it. Nine iterations in, it’s the clearest proof on this site of how I think about interaction design, not just words on a screen.
Role
Product Designer
Scope
Interaction design, terminology architecture, role-based permission modeling, front-end prototyping
Timeline
May 16 – July 4, 2026
Outcome
A functioning role-aware KB prototype: search-first entry, live type-ahead, a working suggest-and-approve pipeline, and an interactive related-terms graph
The context
A knowledge base breaks when it’s designed for only one kind of user. This one has three. A guest needs an answer. A member is shaping the language other people will search for. An admin decides when a term is ready to publish. Here’s what each one needs from the system.
The Guest:Learning to drink from a fire hose
Anyone who needs the terminology and doesn’t have it yet. New to the company, the team, or to ITSM concepts, a guest is here to learn the acronyms and how they affect the work, not to change them.
The Member:Building and defining the platform
Part of the team defining or adapting the language, whether that means proposing a new term, tagging and modifying existing ones, or sitting on the panel that decides what sticks. A member might be new to the company or a veteran from a sister team with a stake in the outcome.
The Admin:Gatekeeper to the source of truth
Approves a term once the panel responsible for WCAG, industry standards, or new terminology gives the OK, and answers for what gets published. In a smaller org, that panel might just be the product owner, or whoever is standing in for them.
The POC:Proof of Concept
This isn’t ServiceNow — it’s a concept, built from real ServiceNow terminology, that treats “who’s asking” as a first-class input. Switch roles in the top bar of the tool below. As Admin, you publish immediately. As Member, your suggestions land in a pending queue for review. As Guest, you can browse and search but not contribute — the “Add term” action disappears rather than failing quietly.
Try it: search for something (“glide,” “CMDB,” “role”), then select a result card — related terms highlight in green, scored by shared tags rather than a fixed taxonomy. Switch to Member, suggest a term, then switch to Admin and approve it from the Pending queue. That loop — propose, review, publish — is the actual interaction problem this prototype set out to solve.
Not affiliated with ServiceNow, Inc. The terminology is real; the tool is a portfolio concept.
Design evolution — five iterations, annotated
Nine versions total; four are lost to iteration. What’s below are the five still live, each annotated with what changed and why. Opens in a new tab — the version-switcher inside the tool above (in its About panel) will bring you back here.
- v4 Sidebar layout · 32 terms · DM Sans · typeahead search · inline edit and delete · working pending approve/reject panel with live count
- v5 About modal added · opens on load · kebab menu · subtle visual update
- v6 Redesigned header · 62 Airtable terms · IBM Plex · color-coded category badges · stability overlaid on card corner · pending approve/reject regressed to non-functional in this rewrite (restored in v9)
- v8 Category colors removed (arbitrary + inaccessible) · stability moved to card footer · maturity filter dropped · AI highlight introduced · role-aware add term CTA
- v9you’re on it Search promoted to the primary entry point, with a larger input and live type-ahead across terms and categories · CTA hierarchy simplified to one solid action per view · matcha green re-scoped from a static AI tag to an interactive related-terms highlight on hover or click · multi-role pending review restored: amber-highlighted proposed terms visible to every role, Admin-only approve, and session state standing in for a live Sheets/Airtable connection