Turned a purely analytical dashboard into an actionable tool that helps maintenance teams quickly understand what needs attention and make day-to-day decisions.
Context
The existing dashboard had been implemented directly in code by the engineering team, with a strong focus on displaying data rather than supporting user decisions. As the product evolved, so did user needs — maintenance teams required a more operational, actionable overview instead of a collection of static, analytical screens.
Within a six-day timeframe, I translated complex Excel datasets into a clear, structured dashboard focused on surfacing what requires attention and enabling faster day-to-day decisions. The concept was also used in product presentations to communicate the platform’s value to potential clients.
Details
Company:
Bob Desk (2025)
Role:
Solo Product Designer
Tools:
Figma, ProtoPie
Overview
The dashboard needed to turn complex maintenance data into a clear, actionable interface, helping users quickly find insights, prioritise tasks, and make informed decisions. The original design was metric-heavy and not action-oriented: it showed historical analytics with little hierarchy. As the product evolved, users needs changed and required an operational dashboard that would help them get insights within a few seconds and make faster decisions.
My idea was to move from pure analytics to operational overview. The displayed data needed to be actionable for the day-to-day tasks and help maintenance managers make quicker decisions.
Challenge
Designing a data-rich dashboard in just six days was high-pressure. The interface had to:
- Clearly display large volumes of maintenance data.
- Be changed from purely analytical to the operational one.
- Surface the most actionable metrics first to support daily descisions.
- Be fully localised in French.
- Impress key prospective clients during a high-stakes presentation.
Some of the low-fidelity iterations
Solution
Without the possibility to have the direct access to the users, I gathered the insights from the stakeholders who shared with me users feedbacks from previous interactions. They also guided me through the user’s workflow so that I could better understand the questions the dashboard should be answering. I took the iterative approach exploring different solutions (some of the iterations you can see on this page).
To address the challenges of complexity and time constraints, I focused on clarity, efficiency, and collaboration throughout the design process:
- Simplified data for quick understanding: defined the priorities based on the end user's goals. Improved hierarchy by grouping metrics into clear categories and visualised them so users could interpret information fast.
- High-fidelity design from the start: worked in mid-to-high fidelity to accelerate decision-making and ensure the dashboard reflected the final product vision. All ideas and hypothesis were discussed and validated with the product team and the stakeholders.
- Changed the layout adding extra outer margins to improve scannability and add spacing consistency.
- Introduced the date selector in the header that acts as a global filter so users can see the change over time. It reduced interaction complexity because users only need to change the time range once instead of adjusting multiple widgets.
- Tested multiple approaches: presented alternative layouts for data display, ensuring the chosen solution maximised usability and efficiency. My choice of the data visualisation ways was based on the type of the insights users need to get within first seconds looking at the card.
- Engaging micro-animations: added subtle interactions to guide attention and make complex metrics easier to understand at a glance.
Some of the iterations
Results
The final dashboard transformed complex maintenance data into a clear, intuitive interface that answered the most important question users have: what’s happening right now. Due to the layout and hierarchy improvements, the dashboard became more scannable while still containing lots of data to help users make faster decisions. The hover states were introduced to help users get more precise information when needed without over cluttering the UI.
Beyond usability, the design also supported a high-stakes presentation, helping the company demonstrate the product. The new design direction received positive feedbacks from new potential clients.