01
The problem space
A fleet manager opens the day needing status across the whole operation — not five tabs and a spreadsheet. Missed signals mean delayed deliveries and unsafe flights.
Strategy & Research · Personal project
How to design a B2B dashboard
A research case study — not a client ship. A reusable structure for dense operational dashboards, applied to drone fleet management.
RoleResearch · Sole designer
ScopeDense SaaS dashboard patterns for drone ops
DomainB2B dashboard structure
StakeholdersFleet managers (research personas)
DesignersSole designer
Why this exists
Ops dashboards fail when everything looks equally urgent.
Fleet managers need one view of orders, drones, weather, safety, and disruptions. Without a clear hierarchy, they hop tools, read spreadsheets, and miss the failure that matters now. This study defines what must be readable in five seconds — and what can wait.
02
The structure
Nine design practices: user needs → end goal → dashboard type → five-second rule → KPIs → IA → context → minimalism → aesthetics.
03
The example
Pickup → hub → last-mile delivery on drones. Same patterns apply to MSP ops, logistics, or any multi-signal control room.
Framework
Nine practices that shaped the deck
Each practice becomes a chapter in the slide deck — jump to any of them below, or walk the full sequence.
Understand the user
Fleet manager jobs, alerts, and decision moments.
Define the end goal
Clear overview, faster triage, fewer delays.
Pick the dashboard type
Operational / analytical slices for delivery ops.
Five-second rule
Status and risk readable before any drill-down.
Choose KPIs carefully
Orders, drones, issues — not vanity metrics.
Information architecture
Must-know vs nice-to-know layout zones.
Provide context
Benchmarks, labels, annotations, related pages.
Keep it minimal
Density without decorative chrome.
Make it aesthetic & usable
Colour, type, and components that scale.
Drone info
Flight data
Weather
Comms logs
Delivery details
Pickup details
Safety protocols
Alerts
Full study · 55 boards
Brief → research → structure → UI
Use the chapter pills to jump, or arrow through every board. This is the complete original deck — title, brief, journey map, principles, low-fi, hi-fi annotated screens, colour system, and learnings.
Tip: use ← → keys to move through the deck.
What this proves
The same structure travels
Drone delivery was the sandbox. The hierarchy — overview first, alerts second, detail on demand — is the same pattern I later applied on enterprise ops surfaces like MSC and security readiness.
Research
Assumptions named
Built with limited domain access — learnings and future proposals (predictive maintenance, dynamic routing) are documented in the closing boards.
Design
Low-fi → hi-fi
Wireframes establish zones; annotated hi-fi screens show how “must know / important / nice to know” land in the live UI.
Transfer
Reusable for B2B
Swap drones for tenants, backups, or therapy sessions — the five-second rule and KPI discipline still hold.
Confidentiality note: This project is under NDA. Design is complete and moving into development.
Interface redrawn and figures synthesized for case study presentation.
The core architectural logic and UX constraints remain true to production.
More work
View all work