Discovery

The first step in tackling this challenge was developing a deep understanding of the platform’s existing complexity and the multifaceted nature of the problem space. This meant immersing myself in the technical nuances of the product, the realities of hybrid IT infrastructure management, and the varied needs of its users. Only by fully understanding the existing model could I confidently challenge assumptions and propose solutions that felt both innovative and credible.

This understanding was built through research, close collaboration with engineering teams, and interviews with customers. Together, we explored how complex business services and their interdependencies could be visualised in a way that was both highly detailed and genuinely usable. A key focus was improving readability — enabling users to understand issues in context, identify root causes quickly, and navigate dense information environments while minimising cognitive load.

Building Blocks

Once the core structure of the visualisation had been defined, I explored a range of UI directions to elevate the overall look and feel of the platform. I ultimately developed the concept of “building blocks” rendered in an isometric style — a visual metaphor that aligned naturally with the way users would construct services piece by piece within the system.

This approach reinforced the relationship between configuration and monitoring, creating a more unified experience where the structure users built during setup was retained in the live operational view. The result was a clearer mental model of the service architecture and a more intuitive way to understand complex systems visually.

To refine these ideas, I facilitated feedback sessions with selected customers, using collaborative workshops to identify pain points and validate interaction patterns. Through this iterative process, we established a more streamlined user journey. The flexibility of the new structure also enabled more sophisticated logic-based grouping, alongside clearer definitions of service availability, dependencies, and overall health.

Icon Library

To enrich the visual design language and improve overall readability, I designed a suite of technology icons to extend the existing Opsview icon font. These new glyphs were mapped to the technologies most commonly used by our customers, helping users quickly identify components and services at a glance.

To support usability at scale, I also introduced search and filtering functionality, enabling users to quickly find and assign relevant icons to components within each service. This added a clearer visual hierarchy to complex service maps while improving speed and efficiency during configuration.

Dashboards

Often displayed on large screens within monitoring suites and data centres, these dashboards provide a high-level operational view of an organisation’s IT estate. Designed primarily for business executives and operational leaders, the summary dashboard communicates the overall health and status of critical business services at a glance.

The primary goal was clarity and reassurance — users wanted to see that systems were healthy, stable, and operating within expected thresholds. Alongside this immediate visual status, the dashboard also surfaced more nuanced operational metrics, including service availability, uptime, and SLA performance, enabling stakeholders to quickly assess business continuity and identify areas requiring attention.

When investigating a business service, its underlying components expand outward to reveal a hierarchical tree structure of dependencies and relationships. Technology-specific icons help users quickly differentiate between component types, while the health and status of each component are communicated through colour-coded states and connecting paths.

Light And Dark Theme

I also designed both day and night themes for the platform, recognising that this was not simply a visual preference but an important usability requirement for monitoring teams working across different environments and shift patterns. In darkened NOC (Network Operations Centre) settings, the night theme reduced eye strain and visual fatigue during extended periods of use, while maintaining clarity, contrast, and the immediate visibility of critical system states and alerts.