PROBLEM 01
Progress estimated, not measured
Contractors reported round percentages such as 10% or 20%, without measured volume.
Risk: invalid payment data and losses discovered only at audit.
CASE STUDY 02 · Construction & Government · Under NDA
Designing 100% Traceable Construction Progress for Public Infrastructure
How I designed a monitoring platform that replaces estimated progress with verified evidence, for office teams and field crews.
- Client
- Provincial government agency
- My role
- UI/UX Designer · Freelance
- Timeline
- Sep 2026 – Nov 2026
- Platform
- Web app · Android field app
Under NDA — product name, client and logos are hidden. Screen data is sample data.
Hundreds of projects a year, many roles, one chain of trust.
A provincial government agency manages hundreds of construction packages across multiple regions each budget year. Reported progress affects contractor payments, so it must be accurate and traceable at audit.
Contractors & supervisors
Report and verify work on site, often with mixed digital literacy and weak signal.
Contracting officers & admins
Approve reports, validate baselines, assign packages and act on critical contracts.
Leadership & auditors
Need an overview and a clear drill-down, rather than data entry.
- 01Contractor submits
- 02Supervisor verifies
- 03Officer approves & locks
Why progress data could not be trusted.
Stakeholder interviews in the client’s requirement documents pointed to four problems. Each one became a design target.
PROBLEM 02
Reporting scattered across tools
Daily, weekly and monthly reports moved through messaging apps, spreadsheets and shared drives.
Risk: slow recaps, copy-paste errors and untraceable evidence.
PROBLEM 03
Deviations detected too late
There was no early signal when a project fell behind its plan.
Risk: escalation for critical contracts started too late to recover.
PROBLEM 04
Previous tools were not adopted
Two previous systems failed because they were heavy and complicated, not for lack of features.
Risk: a third tool that people work around instead of using.
Design the system, then every role on top of it.
What I was responsible for
- A design system shared by the web and mobile apps
- Role-specific flows, menus and interface design
- Fast prototypes and weekly reviews with the client and PM
- Developer handoff and implementation review
How I approached it
- 1.Map each role’s jobs from the requirement documents into flows and menus
- 2.Build a design system first so web and mobile share one language
- 3.Prototype fast with an AI-assisted design tool and review weekly
- 4.Hand off and review implementation against the design
Measured, not estimatedTasks before chartsColour, icon & labelBuilt for the field
Every decision traces back to a problem.
SOLUTION 01 · Daily field report
Replace estimates with measured volume and proof.
Progress was a guessed percentage, and previous tools were too complex for small contractors.
- 01Use four short steps: site conditions, resources, work progress and preview.
- 02Mark required fields and show inline errors.
- 03Capture volume per work item, show remaining quantity, and take evidence photos with location using the in-app camera.
- 04Preview exactly what the supervisor will see.
WHY IT WORKS
The percentage is calculated from evidence, so nobody has to type a number.
SOLUTION 02 · Rules in the flow
Make wrong data hard to enter.
Reporting rules that depend on trust alone do not reliably prove where and when work was reported.
- 01Select a package before reporting.
- 02Restrict package selection to a 150 m radius and show distances for out-of-range packages.
- 03Allow one report per day and show the current day’s reporting status.
WHY IT WORKS
Rules that relied on trust are now part of the interaction, so data arrives in a state the office can rely on.
SOLUTION 03 · Verification chain
One traceable path from field to approval.
Evidence needs to remain traceable from submission through verification and approval.
- 01Require supervisor on-site check-in and signature before verification.
- 02Show the officer the submission and verification trail, constraints and deadline.
- 03Approve and lock in one action.
WHY IT WORKS
Only verified, locked volume counts toward progress and payment.
SOLUTION 04 · Role-based dashboard
Start each day with tasks, not charts.
Office teams need to know which work needs their attention, not just see a collection of charts.
- 01Use summary cards that reflect each role’s work.
- 02Group the to-do list with deadlines and direct actions.
- 03Place plan, actual and deviation side by side in the package table.
WHY IT WORKS
The first screen answers “what needs me today?”, which is the question each role actually has.
SOLUTION 05 · Early warning
Surface deviation before it becomes a crisis.
Late signals left teams with too little time to act on critical contracts.
- 01Show a deviation banner on packages past tolerance, together with the next scheduled step.
- 02Compare plan against verified progress using an S-curve.
- 03Group the escalation pipeline by handling stage, with overdue items first.
WHY IT WORKS
Deviation is visible where people already work, and every critical contract shows its next step.
Iterating with the people building and using it.
The project is in active development. Designs move from weekly client reviews to developer handoff, and implemented screens are reviewed against the design system.
Designing for adoption, not just for features.
Designing for adoption, not just for features. The work brings a shared interface language, role-based workflows and evidence-led reporting into one monitoring platform.
- A design system shared by web and mobile
- Web modules for monitoring, execution and contract governance
- Field-app flows for contractors and supervisors
- Role-based views, starting with officers and admins
Start from the job
Mapping each role’s jobs first made a large requirement set manageable.
Design for trust
The most valuable interactions are the ones that make wrong data hard to enter.
Iterate in the open
Weekly reviews and fast prototypes kept decisions concrete and visible to the client.
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