The problem wasn't the interface.
Context
Getting to the real users —
not the assumed ones.
Approach
Delaying intuition until the problem is fully understood is the most effective method. Having good questions is far more useful than good solutions at this stage.
We visited 24 outlets across the country and interviewed dispatchers, engineers, spare-parts clerks, auditors, and coordinators. What looked like one user group was actually a dozen distinct roles — each with different information needs, workflows, and definitions of urgency.
Key Finding
Key Finding
What looked like "one user group" was actually a dozen distinct roles — each with different information needs, different definitions of urgency, and different workflows. Dispatchers were racing 12-hour SLA deadlines, monitoring 30+ orders simultaneously. Parts clerks lived and died by real-time inventory — one mismatch stalled an entire repair. Auditors cared about compliance trails, not order status. Engineers juggled multiple active cases with incomplete information. The system treated all of them the same. So everyone built their own workarounds — Excel sheets, WeChat groups, handwritten notes. People weren't using the system. They were patching around it.
Ideate + Execute
Framework
I needed a model the entire team could use to evaluate every design decision. Three modes described how frontline staff actually operated: Glance — orient fast, know what matters right now. Dive — stay in context, handle multiple threads at once. Focus — act with confidence, know exactly what to do next.
List View
The old homepage showed the same content to every role — so it was useful to no one. Most users skipped it. The redesign serves Glance mode: role-specific KPIs front and center, a centralized alert hub with three priority tiers so high-stakes signals can never get buried in routine updates.
List View
The old list was a filtering treadmill. Constant adjustments, horizontal scrolling, no grouping. Users spent their time hunting for signals the system wasn't surfacing. The redesign serves Dive mode: orders grouped by relationship, risk tags inline, quick actions that appear only when relevant. Multi-thread monitoring without losing context.
List View
The old detail page had 180+ fields in a flat wall. No hierarchy, no guidance on what mattered at each stage of the service order. The redesign serves Focus mode. A three-layer structure: the action you must take now, the context needed to decide, and everything else — collapsed until needed. Static customer info on the left. Dynamic, stage-specific content on the right. Result: 92% fewer visible fields. Nothing removed — just revealed at the right moment.
Result
Impact
I needed a model the entire team could use to evaluate every design decision. Three modes described how frontline staff actually operated: Glance — orient fast, know what matters right now. Dive — stay in context, handle multiple threads at once. Focus — act with confidence, know exactly what to do next.
List View
The old homepage showed the same content to every role — so it was useful to no one. Most users skipped it. The redesign serves Glance mode: role-specific KPIs front and center, a centralized alert hub with three priority tiers so high-stakes signals can never get buried in routine updates.
Result
List View
The old homepage showed the same content to every role — so it was useful to no one. Most users skipped it. The redesign serves Glance mode: role-specific KPIs front and center, a centralized alert hub with three priority tiers so high-stakes signals can never get buried in routine updates.