What TimeDriver Taught Me About Data-Heavy Screens
Lessons from redesigning an operations dashboard where drivers, jobs and live maps compete for space.
- Published
- Reading
- 2 min read
- Tags
- Project notes, Dashboards
TimeDriver is an operations dashboard for transport teams: drivers, jobs, live maps, feedback and incident reports, used by people in different roles with different jobs to do. I redesigned it in 2021, and it shaped how I approach dashboards.
When every feature wants space
As TimeDriver grew, each new feature claimed a little more of the screen. More roles meant more views, more data meant longer tables, and an interface that was never designed for either had everything competing for attention.
One skeleton, learned once
I started with a new layout system and a component library, so every screen shares the same skeleton: navigation, filters, the data, then the details. When every screen follows one pattern, people only have to learn it once.
On each data-heavy screen I asked what someone opens it to find. It's rarely every column. Someone scanning jobs wants the status, the driver and the time, so those get the strongest contrast and the most predictable position, and everything else steps back.
What I learned
Consistency is a feature. On a tool people use all day, a predictable layout is worth more than a clever one.
Put actions next to the data they act on. If someone has to scroll back to the top to find the button, the layout is working against them.