CLIENT:
concept for HR SaaS Tech
ROLE:
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PRODUCT DESIGN
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UX RESEARCH
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PROTOTYPING
TIMELINE:
3 Days (Concept)
TOOL:
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FIGMA
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AI Development tool
Overview
This was inspired by a friend who was works as a Managerial role in a company and is trying make development plans for his team.
The concept explores a Supervisor Dashboard designed to help managers monitor team skill health, identify gaps early, and guide employee development through actionable insights.
The project was completed as a 36-hour design challenge (includes research), focusing on delivering a scalable product concept rather than a polished production-ready system.
(Note: Some features are intentionally simplified or non-functional, with the focus placed on the key interaction areas.)
The Challenge
In organizations, employee skill data is often trapped in silos—LMS platforms, performance reviews, and manual spreadsheets. Because these information are fragmented across different systems, it becomes difficult to form a clear and unified understanding of workforce capabilities.
Problem
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HR teams cannot easily identify skill gaps across departments
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Supervisors struggle to assess team readiness for projects
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Development opportunities are often reactive instead of proactive
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Managers spend time manually compiling information instead of making decisions
Opportunity
The goal of this concept was to design a dashboard that enables supervisors to:
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Quickly understand team skill health at a glance
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Identify employees who require upskilling or support
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Track training progress and credential readiness
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Take timely and informed actions to support employee growth
Ultimately, the system aims to move managers from reactive oversight toward proactive skill development
Assumption
To frame the design, several assumptions were made based on typical enterprise environments.
The concept assumes:
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A 500–1000 employee organization with multiple departments
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Existing HR and learning management systems storing employee data
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Defined role-based skill frameworks and proficiency targets
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Supervisors primarily accessing dashboards through desktop environments
For this exploration, the prototype focuses on the Creative Department (approx. 120–150 employees) using simplified sample data to illustrate the experience, while designing a framework that can scale across departments.
Problem Statement
How might we move beyond static reporting and transform skill gap detection into actionable insights, so managers can immediately take clear steps to address critical capability gaps instead of relying on static reports?
Design Approach
To address these needs, the dashboard was designed around three core principles.
Clarity over complexity
Large teams generate dense data. Visualizations and layouts were chosen to simplify interpretation and reduce cognitive load.
Workflow:
Scan → Identify → Act
Supervisors should be able to:
• scan team status quickly
• identify issues
• take action immediately
Progressive Disclosure
Instead of overwhelming the dashboard with details, deeper information is revealed through drill-downs and detail pages.
Key Features
Below are 3 key features that I would like to surface for the project.
Feature 01: Skills Overview
A toggleable chart and list view allows supervisors to easily compare skill levels across the team and identify areas where development may be required.
The visual chart highlights trends and weaknesses at a glance, while the list view supports deeper analysis and targeted actions.
Hover interactions provide additional context such as:
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number of employees with skill gaps
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number currently undergoing training
Clicking a skill (eg. Communication Skill) reveals a deeper breakdown of employees who may need support.
Bar chart provides an at-a-glance comparison of proficiency across the entire skillset.
List view provides gap analysis with clear status indicators for skills that need attention where supervisors can take targeted actions.
Skill Detail Page
The skill detail page surfaces employees whose current proficiency falls below the target level for that role.
Supervisors can:
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review individual skill gaps
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see ongoing training related to the skill
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recommend relevant learning courses
Bulk actions allow supervisors to recommend training to multiple employees at once.
Feature 02: Team Matrix
Moving away from list-view fatigue, the Team Matrix provides a heatmap view of employee proficiency across different skill categories.
Using a 9-point rating scale, color gradients allow supervisors to quickly identify patterns:
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skills where the team performs strongly
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employees who may require development support
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comparisons between individuals in the same role
Filtering and search tools allow managers to focus on specific roles or skill areas.
Hypothesis: Centralizing proficiency data into a spatial heatmap could reduce managers’ decision fatigue by up to 40%.
Employee Profile
The employee profile provides a consolidated view of:
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competency scores across five skill dimensions
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strengths and areas for improvement
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certifications and expiry status
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recent training activity
A radar chart visualizes strengths and development areas, helping supervisors understand an employee’s development progress and identify learning paths.
The pop-up panel provides lightweight visibility into ongoing team development.
Feature 03: On-the-go Management
Although supervisors primarily use desktop dashboards, mobile access was also considered.
The mobile version adapts the layout into responsive card modules. The interface adapts to prioritize urgent notifications and quick credential checks via a streamlined mobile experience.
Collapsible modules help reduce excessive scrolling and make it easier to navigate key information on smaller screens.
This ensures the dashboard remains usable for quick status checks on the go.
Design Decisions
Visualization choices
Bar charts, heatmaps, and radar charts were chosen because they allow supervisors to interpret large amounts of skills data quickly.
These visuals support pattern recognition and reduce the need for manual comparison.
Visualization choices
The dashboard hierarchy prioritizes:
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overview insights
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team data
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actionable follow-ups
This structure supports fast scanning and decision-making.
“Recommend” instead of “Assign”
Training actions use 'Recommend' instead of 'Assign'.
This reflects a coaching-oriented management style commonly found in larger organisations, encouraging development rather than enforcing compliance.
Future Opportunities
With additional time, the concept could be expanded through:
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Advanced filtering
Proficiency range filters and multi-skill comparisons would support deeper analysis.
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Smarter training recommendations
Courses could be automatically suggested based on role expectations and skill gaps.
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Predictive insights
Trend analysis could help supervisors identify risks before gaps widen.
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Improved mobile experience
Further interaction patterns could be refined for mobile-first workflows.
Reflection and Next Step
This project explores how better data visualization and workflow design can help organizations make more informed decisions about workforce development.
The exercise reinforced the importance of:
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simplifying complex organizational data
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designing workflows that support quick decision-making
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balancing high-level insights with actionable depth
While the concept focuses on a creative team, the framework can scale across industries where skill readiness and continuous learning are critical.
