Before / After Comparison
Use the slider to explore how the interface evolves from branch performance, which is presented as raw proportions without context, where performance is contextualized with targets, variance, and trends, transforming static data into actionable insights for faster, more informed decisions.

Executive Summary

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This case study demonstrates how a legacy ERP reporting experience was transformed into an operational decision tool for Stratum Aerospace Corporation, a fictional mid-sized aerospace systems integrator headquartered in El Segundo, California. Stratum supports both commercial aviation and U.S. federal defense programs, operating a multi-site manufacturing network across the United States with approximately 1,200 employees and an annual revenue of roughly $450 million.

An internal company report titled, Quarter-to-Date Branch Revenue, presented branch contributions as a percentage of total company revenue using a static data grid and a pie chart. While accurate, the report lacked critical context—providing no visibility into performance against targets, emerging trends, or operational risk. In a distributed organization supporting both commercial and government contracts, this limited visibility increases the risk of delayed or misaligned decision-making.

Using the same underlying data, augmented with revenue targets, the experience was redesigned into a responsive dashboard. Branches were reorganized into geographic regions, performance variance was introduced, and a 12-week revenue trend provided temporal context. These enhancements were implemented within the constraints of the legacy system, without requiring a full platform rebuild.

This case study illustrates how targeted experience-layer modernization can convert static reporting into actionable insight—reducing cognitive load, improving decision speed, and aligning stakeholders across commercial and federal programs around a shared operational view.

This case study focuses on:

• Structuring information to support time-sensitive decision-making
• Structuring information to support time-sensitive decision-making
• Modernizing legacy ERP experiences without full system replacement
• Improving data visualization and interpretability
• Enabling cross-device accessibility within constrained environments

Design Challenge

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Stratum Aerospace has a rarely used legacy report that accurately displays quarter-to-date branch contribution—but fails to support decision-making. While the report updates continuously and accurately reflects proportional contribution, it provides no context for decision-making.

The report answers “what percentage did each branch contribute QTD?” but fails to answer the more critical questions:

• Is a branch performing against its revenue target?
• Is performance improving or declining?
• Where is the organization at risk?

Without this context, decision-makers are left to interpret raw data manually, increasing the likelihood of delayed, inconsistent, or misinformed responses—particularly in a distributed organization supporting both commercial and federal programs.

UX Context

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This experience is designed for decision-makers operating within a distributed manufacturing organization, where performance data must be reviewed quickly and acted upon in real time.

Primary users include regional leaders, operations managers, and executive stakeholders responsible for monitoring revenue performance across multiple branches. These users often operate in time-constrained environments—reviewing data between meetings, on the production floor, or while traveling between sites.

The legacy reporting experience required users to interpret raw data, compare multiple sources, and manually assess performance. This created delays, inconsistencies, and an increased reliance on external tools to fill information gaps.

The redesigned dashboard shifts this workflow by presenting performance data with built-in context—combining revenue, targets, trends, and regional structure into a single interface. This enables users to quickly assess business health, identify risk, and take action without leaving the system.

Problems Identified

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While the report accurately reflects proportional revenue contribution, it introduces several operational risks due to missing context and limited interpretability.

No performance benchmarking
Revenue is not measured against targets, making it impossible to determine whether a branch is meeting expectations or underperforming.

No trend visibility
The report provides a static snapshot without indicating whether performance is improving, declining, or becoming volatile over time.

High interpretation burden
Decision-makers must manually interpret raw percentages, increasing cognitive load and introducing inconsistency across teams.

Shadow system risk
In the absence of actionable insights, branches are likely to create unofficial tracking tools to monitor performance—resulting in fragmented data, reduced trust, and misaligned reporting.

Proposed Solutions

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To address the limitations of the legacy report, the experience was restructured into a real-time revenue dashboard designed to support decision-making rather than passive observation.

The solution focuses on introducing context, reducing interpretation effort, and aligning performance visibility across the organization. By combining revenue data with targets, trends, and regional structure, the redesigned experience enables decision-makers to quickly assess performance, identify risk, and take action without relying on external tools.

This approach transforms the report from a static, percentage-based view into a centralized operational interface—reducing the need for manual analysis and eliminating the conditions that lead to shadow reporting systems.

Dashboard Capabilities

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The redesigned dashboard introduces a set of capabilities focused on improving clarity, reducing interpretation time, and supporting real-time decision-making:

Centralized company performance view
Displays total QTD revenue alongside regional contributions, providing immediate visibility into overall business health.

Regional organization of branches
Groups branches geographically to support scalability and enable faster identification of localized performance patterns.

Revenue targets and variance visibility
Aligns branch and regional revenue with defined targets, making performance gaps and overperformance immediately visible.

12-week revenue trend analysis
Provides temporal context to identify momentum, volatility, and emerging risks beyond a static snapshot.

Progressive drill-down by region and branch
Allows users to move from high-level summaries to detailed performance without overwhelming the interface.

Cross-device accessibility
Ensures the dashboard is usable across desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone environments, supporting decision-making beyond the office.

Design Constraints

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The redesign was developed within the limitations of a legacy ERP environment, requiring a careful balance between modernization and system compatibility.

Legacy layout architecture
The original system relied on table-based layouts for structural rendering, limiting responsiveness and flexibility. Transitioning to a responsive grid required working within existing backend constraints.

Fixed desktop baseline
Designs were anchored to a 1366 × 768 resolution to reflect common enterprise workstation and tablets in (horizontal view) environments.

Performance-sensitive environment
The solution avoids heavy client-side processing, prioritizing lightweight components and efficient rendering to maintain system performance.

Operational cadence alignment
All data and visualizations follow a manufacturing week cadence, ensuring consistency with existing business reporting cycles.

Compatibility with existing front-end patterns
The design leverages Bootstrap 5’s grid and lightly modified components to standardize layout and behavior without requiring structural backend changes.

Key Design Decisions

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The dashboard was structured to improve clarity, scalability, and usability across devices while reducing unnecessary cognitive effort.

Regional grouping of branches
Branches are organized by geographic region to reduce visual complexity and support scalable growth. This structure allows decision-makers to identify localized performance patterns before drilling into individual branches.

Thousand-level revenue scaling
Revenue values are displayed in thousands (e.g., $325K) to reduce visual noise and improve readability in data-dense environments.

Responsive breakpoint strategy
The interface is designed to function across desktop, tablet, and smartphone breakpoints, ensuring consistent access to key performance data regardless of device.

Progressive simplification on mobile
On smaller screens, non-essential elements are reduced or removed to preserve clarity and prioritize the most critical performance indicators.

Performance Considerations

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The redesign prioritizes performance and scalability to ensure compatibility with a legacy ERP environment.

Constrained data scope
Data sets are limited to regional and branch-level summaries to reduce processing overhead and maintain fast load times.

Lightweight data visualization
Visualizations are implemented without animation to minimize rendering cost and ensure consistent performance across devices.

Scalable information architecture
Regional grouping allows the interface to scale naturally. As branch counts increase, the experience defaults to higher-level summaries to prevent interface overload.

Efficient rendering approach
The layout uses a responsive grid rather than a JavaScript-heavy single-page application, reducing client-side complexity and improving stability in constrained environments.

Impacts

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The redesigned dashboard improves decision-making efficiency and reduces operational risk by transforming fragmented reporting into a unified, actionable experience.

Eliminates shadow reporting systems
By providing complete, contextualized performance data, the need for unofficial tracking tools is removed, improving data consistency and trust.

Establishes a shared operational view
Revenue, targets, variances, and trends are presented in a single interface, aligning leadership teams around a consistent understanding of performance.

Improves speed and accuracy of decision-making
Key performance signals are immediately visible, reducing interpretation time and enabling faster, more informed responses.

Enables localized and strategic insight
Regional grouping allows decision-makers to identify geographic patterns and target interventions more effectively.

Supports real-time access across environments
Cross-device accessibility ensures performance can be monitored and acted upon from the office, factory floor, or in transit.

Reduces reliance on manual analysis workflows
By embedding context directly into the interface, the need for spreadsheet exports and parallel analysis is significantly reduced.

What This Work Represents

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Legacy enterprise systems are long-lived, operationally critical platforms that cannot be easily replaced. Rather than pursuing full system overhauls, this work demonstrates how targeted experience-layer modernization can improve usability, reduce cognitive load, and support better decision-making within existing constraints.

This work reflects an approach to legacy ERP modernization that prioritizes clarity, scalability, and decision-making effectiveness without requiring a full rebuild.

1. Pattern-Based UX Assumptions

This case study is based on recurring patterns in a legacy ERP environment. Rather than relying on formal user research, the redesign applies established UX principles to address common breakdowns in enterprise reporting.

In similar systems, users often:

• Export data to spreadsheets for analysis
• Create unofficial tools to track performance
• Manually calculate variances
• Compare multiple reports to infer trends

2. Information Prioritization

Legacy reports frequently present data without hierarchy, requiring users to determine what matters.

This redesign introduces:

• Direct alignment between revenue and targets
• Automatic variance and percent-to-target calculations
• Regional grouping for scalable organization
• Simplified numeric formatting for readability

The goal is to reduce interpretation time by making performance signals explicit.

3. Cognitive Load Reduction

Rather than increasing backend complexity, the focus is on reducing front-end interpretation effort.

Key strategies include:

• Pairing visual indicators with numeric values
• Color supports interpretation, but key information is always visible without relying on color alone
• Segmenting trends over a 12-week period to reduce short-term bias
• Structuring information by region to manage scale

The objective is not to present more data, but to make existing data easier to understand.

4. Modular Modernization

Instead of proposing a system overhaul, the report is treated as a modernization unit.

The redesigned dashboard:

• Coexists within the legacy ERP framework
• Replaces rigid table-based layouts with a responsive grid
• Supports incremental rollout without disrupting existing workflows

5. Designing Within Constraints

Legacy ERP constraints are not obstacles—they are design boundaries.

This approach ensures:

• Lightweight, non-animated visualizations
• Scalable structure through regional grouping
• Compatibility with standard enterprise display environments (1366 × 768)
• Cross-device access without backend changes

Why This Matters

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Decision-makers require clarity, not interpretation. Transforming this report into a dashboard shifts the experience from passive reporting to active decision support.

Immediate visibility into performance
Revenue, targets, and variances are presented together, providing a clear and current view of business health.

Faster identification of trends and risk
Regional grouping and time-based data make performance patterns easier to detect and act upon.

Consistent interpretation across teams
A single, structured interface establishes a shared understanding of performance, reducing conflicting conclusions.

Access beyond the desktop
Mobile and tablet support enable real-time monitoring and response, regardless of location.

This modernization delivers value not through visual redesign alone, but by reducing cognitive effort and enabling more aligned, timely decision-making across the organization.

Revenue Performance Dashboard

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A centralized, real-time view of company, regional, and branch revenue performance, combining targets, variances, and trend data to support fast, informed decision-making.

Design Before

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The original Quarter-to-Date Branch Revenue report presented branch performance as a percentage of total company revenue using a data grid and accompanying pie chart. While the report provided an accurate snapshot of proportional contribution, it was designed primarily for static reporting rather than active decision-making.

The layout relied on a table-based structure with limited hierarchy, requiring users to interpret values manually and compare information across multiple elements to understand performance.

The accompanying pie chart relied on hover interactions to reveal branch-level details, requiring users to move their cursor across individual segments to access specific data.

Before — The Legacy Report
Displays contribution percentages but lacks context for performance, trends, or risk.

Lack of performance context
Revenue was presented as a percentage of total, without reference to targets, making it difficult to determine whether a branch was performing well or underperforming.

No visibility into trends
The report provided a single point-in-time view, offering no indication of performance over time or emerging risk.

High cognitive load
Users were required to manually interpret data, compare values, and derive meaning without guidance or prioritization.

Inefficient data visualization
The pie chart reinforced proportional distribution but did not support actionable insight or comparison beyond basic contribution.

Fragmented decision-making workflow
To fully understand performance, users would need to reference additional reports or export data for further analysis.

Designed for reporting, not action
The experience answered “what happened,” but did not support “what should be done.”

Critical information hidden behind the interaction
The pie chart’s branch-level detail required hover interaction, making it difficult to scan, compare, or use in fast-paced or touch-based environments.

Not accessible across devices
Hover-dependent interactions limit usability on tablets and mobile devices, reducing accessibility for users outside a desktop environment.

Design After

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The redesigned Revenue Performance Dashboard transforms the legacy report into a real-time decision-support interface. Revenue data is presented alongside targets, variances, and a 12-week trend, providing immediate context for evaluating performance.

Branches are organized by geographic region to improve scalability and highlight localized patterns. The layout shifts from a rigid table structure to a responsive grid, enabling clear hierarchy and cross-device accessibility. Key performance indicators are surfaced at a glance, reducing the need for manual interpretation and external analysis.

Before — Revenue Performance Dashboard
Provides a unified view of performance, targets, and trends to support timely, data-driven decisions.

Key Observations

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Performance is contextualized
Revenue is directly aligned with targets and variance, making it immediately clear whether performance is on track or at risk.

Trends replace static snapshots
The introduction of a 12-week trend provides temporal context, allowing users to identify momentum, volatility, and emerging issues.

Cognitive load is reduced
Key metrics are prioritized and structured, enabling faster comprehension without requiring manual comparison or calculation.

Information hierarchy is intentional
The layout emphasizes the most critical signals first, with regional grouping and drill-down supporting deeper analysis as needed.

Designed for scalability
Regional organization and responsive layout ensure the interface can adapt to increasing data volume and additional branches.

Supports action, not just reporting
The experience enables users to quickly assess performance, identify areas of concern, and make informed decisions within a single interface.

Mobile Design Introduction

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The mobile experience adapts the dashboard for quick, high-frequency access in time-constrained environments. Designed for use on the move, it prioritizes the most critical performance signals—revenue, targets, and trends—while simplifying layout and reducing visual density.

Rather than replicating the desktop experience, the mobile version restructures information into a vertical, scrollable format with progressive disclosure, enabling users to quickly assess performance and access additional detail as needed.

Mobile View
The dashboard adapts to smaller screens by prioritizing essential metrics and simplifying layout without losing critical context. Decision-makers can monitor performance, track trends, and assess risk in real time from any device.

Key Observations (Mobile)

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Prioritized information hierarchy
High-level performance indicators are surfaced first, allowing users to quickly assess overall business health before engaging with detailed data.

Progressive disclosure through accordions
Regional and branch-level details are collapsed by default, reducing cognitive load while still providing access to deeper insights when needed.

Touch-first interaction model
The interface avoids hover-dependent interactions, ensuring full functionality across mobile and tablet devices.

Simplified visual structure
Non-essential elements are reduced or removed to maintain clarity and usability on smaller screens.

Supports real-time, in-context decision-making
The mobile experience enables users to monitor performance and respond to changes without needing access to a desktop environment.