Simplifying complex data

Witbe

Witbe has powerful monitoring tools, from traffic, to bandwidth, to UX, all around France and Europe. They are leaders on their market with clients like TV channels, ISPs, stores, banks, etc. However, developing a branded and a specifically tailored dashboard for each new client, and maintaining it, cost them resources and money. They requested to redesign an in-house user-friendly dashboard. That’s why they hired me.

Witbe wanted to break the "only engineer" access that comes with big data. It is one of their strengths in their market. However, they strongly relied on tables, and on preset charts and colors to display data. Unlike their competitors, they were not yet mobile-friendly, and they didn’t allow their users to build their dashboard on the go. Nonetheless, their expertise in coding analytics robots easily outweighed the competition.

Over the course of a few months I closely collaborated with the founders, to transition their dashboard into a comprehensive tool that display useful information to their 3 types of users: CEO, Developer, and Technician. I advocated for more data visualization, less tables. More dynamic in-depth graphs, less static data. I suggested the use of drill down to balance the use/need of tables.

The prototype was used as concept in sales pitch and helped secured rounds of funding. It was later scaled up to more than 2000+ clients across Europe.

Moodboard & visual tonality

Data visualization

Acting as a UX Design Lead, I conducted a user research with a team of Designers and Developers. We discovered users emphasized on having access to the right information (what) at the right time (when) in the right location (where), during a crisis/emergency situation.

We wanted to address the issue of eye fatigue, as Javascript developers and Technicians spend a lot of times looking at tables, numbers, and graphics on a screen. I decided to use a color palette that is not too aggressive, but that has enough contrast to draw attention, such as Schoonover’s.

We used priority accent colors and contrast, alongside with interactive design to help the users focusing on the data they are looking for. We also advocated for a preset of charts relative to what needs to be emphasized.

Down with green color

It can be unorthodox to ban green as a “everything is alright” color. Yet, after testing with users, it appears that keeping it creates more confusion. Indeed, users need to be able to instantly spot where are the issues. However, green has been kept for only two actions: dismissing a false positive, and checking an issue as resolved. We also came up with the idea of displaying a horizontal calendar for the last 3 months: it helps users to spot recurring patterns, and to react accordingly.

Unified Dashboard

Users have access to the same data, but with different angles. They can interact with it, and analyze in great detail the issues that have happened.

We used priority accent colors and contrast, alongside with interactive design to help the users focusing on the data they are looking for. We also advocated for a preset of charts relative to what needs to be emphasized.

Results

Scaled up to 2000+ clients across Europe.
Prototype used as marketing materials in forums and prospection.
Leveraged a $500k contract with Virgin Media UK