Twenty vendor tools, one dashboard.
Making enterprise network management legible for the people on site.
- Role
- UX Designer
- Team
- Sole Designer
- Timeline
- 18 Months
- Type
- Full-time
At a glance
3 min read
- Problem
- Managed Service Providers juggled 4–20 vendor systems to manage enterprise networks, wasting hours on context-switching and troubleshooting across fragmented tools.
- Insight
- MSPs didn't need a better dashboard. They needed one dashboard. And LiDAR-based spatial mapping could replace the guesswork in access point deployment.
- Result
- Deployment time cut from 30 to 10 minutes per access point, 50% cost reduction vs vendor hardware, adopted by 7+ global enterprise clients.
7+
Global enterprise clients
50%
Cost reduction vs vendor hardware
10 min
Deployment per AP (was 30 min)
“MSPs don't need more features in their dashboards. They need fewer dashboards. The real design problem was consolidation without oversimplification.
Imagine you are standing in a warehouse holding an access point, and the software that is supposed to help you mount it is organised by vendor rather than by building. To place one device you open four systems, none of which knows where you physically are.
The technicians I shadowed were doing exactly that: thirty minutes per access point, most of it spent navigating rather than installing.
The Problem MSPs Actually Had
Three weeks shadowing engineers: four tools, three context switches, one troubleshooting task. Nobody asked for a missing feature.
I spent the first three weeks shadowing MSP engineers at two partner companies. The pattern was consistent: a technician would start in Cisco Meraki to check network health, switch to a vendor-specific portal to troubleshoot an access point, open a spreadsheet to cross-reference the deployment map, then call a colleague to confirm the physical layout of the site.
Four tools, three context switches, one troubleshooting task.
When I asked what frustrated them most, nobody mentioned missing features. Every complaint was about fragmentation:
"I know what's wrong. I just can't find the right screen to fix it."
The tools weren't bad individually. They were bad together, and no single solution covered the scope, so MSPs were forced to use all of them.
What I Found in Competitive Analysis
Meraki, UniFi and SolarWinds took 18 to 35 minutes on identical tasks. None addressed the actual workflow: see the site, place the APs, deploy, verify.
I audited three dominant tools MSPs were using: Cisco Meraki, Ubiquiti UniFi and SolarWinds. I ran identical tasks in each: deploy an access point, diagnose a connectivity issue, generate a client report.
Lower is better
| Response | Value |
|---|---|
| Cisco Meraki | 22 min |
| Ubiquiti UniFi | 18 min |
| SolarWinds | 35 min |
None of them addressed the core workflow: see the site, place the APs, deploy, verify.
Early Wireframes
Two iterations toward a site-centric layout: floor plan first, vendor menus never.
View the early wireframes
The first wireframe explored a site-centric layout, with the network topology mapped to the physical floor plan rather than the vendor hierarchy.
The second iteration refined the three-panel layout: site selector on the left, spatial view in the center, device details on the right.
The Research That Shaped the Solution
Eight technicians across three companies, three findings: navigation mirrors buildings, deployment is spatial, status must be glanceable.
I ran contextual inquiry sessions with 8 MSP technicians across 3 companies. Every session followed the same format: watch them complete a real task, then ask what they would change.
Three findings redefined the scope:
- Navigation should mirror physical sites, not vendor menus. Technicians thought in terms of buildings and floors, not Cisco vs. Ubiquiti.
- Deployment is a spatial problem. Placing access points requires knowing the floor plan, signal coverage and cable routes, not just device specs.
- Status needs to be glanceable. Operators wanted a single screen showing site health, not a dashboard per vendor.
The Solution: One Dashboard, Every Vendor
Venue overview, LiDAR floor-plan capture, and drag-and-drop access points with IP ranges assigned automatically.
Navigate and Monitor Venues
The venue overview replaced the vendor-switching workflow. Every site appeared as a card with real-time health status (green, amber or red), and one tap drilled into the full topology.
Add Site Layout
The LiDAR-based layout tool let technicians upload a floor plan and auto-detect wall positions. From there, they could drag APs into position and see estimated coverage before deploying a single device.
Add Access Points
Once the layout was set, adding access points was a single drag-and-drop. The system automatically assigned IP ranges, suggested channel configurations, and flagged conflicts with existing hardware.
Outcomes
30 minutes per access point down to 10, a 50% cost reduction, and 7+ global enterprise clients.
The reported project outcomes show deployment time dropping from 30 minutes per access point to 10 minutes, a 3× improvement; costs 50% below the vendor-locked hardware baseline; and adoption by 7+ global enterprise clients within the first year. These are observed rollout outcomes, not results from a controlled study.
"What used to take our team 30 minutes per access point now takes just 10 minutes. That's real efficiency you can measure."
— Operations Director, managed network services provider
The project taught me that the hardest design problems aren't about features. They're about consolidation: making five tools feel like one without losing the depth that made each of them useful.
7+
Global enterprise clients
50%
Cost reduction vs vendor hardware
10 min
Deployment per AP (was 30 min)
3x
Faster deployment efficiency
