SAAS Web Design
Transforming decades of consulting into a SaaS platform for fleet managers
Utilimarc integrates and unifies data from any source to help large fleets manage their operations. Historically, their value came from consultants building custom reports to combine siloed systems into actionable insights. This worked, but it was slow and provided only a snapshot in time.
The challenge was to combine 20 years of applications, reports, and consulting methods into a single SaaS platform that delivered live insights from combined data sources to every client.
Combining data sources into actionable insights
I was the UX/UI Designer responsible for research, wireframing, prototyping, and design system creation. I collaborated closely with Utilimarc’s data scientists to design visualizations, and worked with local and international developers to ensure seamless implementation.
Our primary users were fleet managers for large commercial fleets. We interviewed existing clients as well as municipal and corporate fleet managers. After coding and affinity diagramming the interviews, several key insights emerged:
Too Much Data
Fleet managers often struggled with a high volume of siloed data across multiple disconnected systems making it difficult to use it for operational planning.
Financial Constraints
Fleet managers are financially driven, they are asked to provide the most cost efficient services by planning their inventory and practices with data-backed decisions.
Real-time Need
They wanted real-time insights to make proactive decisions, rather than waiting for monthly or quarterly reviews for our manual consulting.
Data Approachability
Many of our users were not data experts, so visual clarity and guidance was essential for them to see the value in their data
Organizational Socialization
Managers needed to share insights easily with leadership, requiring visuals that could be exported or presented quickly.
Our team's affiinity diagramming workshop
Based on these insights, we determined several key design goals for the platform:
Guide Towards Value
Design our visualizations and reporting to be clearly actionable to support decision making, even if they were not technical experts.
Quick Insight Delivery
Our platform needs to save time by accessing insights without waiting for consultants. Data should be displayed in dashboards that allow for at-a-glance insights as well as the ability for users to intuitively drill down into the data on their own.
Identify Outliers
One of the quickest ways to reduce total budget is inventory management. Our platform needed to help users easily determine vehicles that are outliers in key areas such as underutilization, high cost of maintenance and fuel usage.
Organizational Socialization
Managers needed to share insights easily with leadership, requiring visuals that could be exported or presented quickly.
With the interview data and Utilimarc’s existing consulting practices, we began shaping the new platform.
Wireframes and IA
We mapped core workflows like accessing fleet performance, drilling into exceptions, and generating reports. Wireframes were tested with clients who provided feedback that shaped the product direction.
Data Visualizations
Working with Utilimarc’s data scientists, I designed visualizations that revealed trends and outliers in fleet performance. Interactive elements guided fleet managers toward the most relevant insights.
Design System
To ensure consistency, I created Utilimarc’s design system in Figma. It included:
Typography and color standards
A full library of components with states and variations
Guidelines for responsive design and accessibility
This system became the foundation for all new platform features, allowing developers to move quickly and ensuring design consistency across the product.
Example components and styles from Utilimarc design system
The new SaaS platform gave fleet managers a real-time, unified view of their operations that had previously only been available through time-consuming consulting reports. Early client adoption showed significant reductions in support requests and faster access to critical insights, freeing consultants to focus on higher-value strategic guidance.
Client Adoption
In the first year of our platform being released, we converted over 70% of our consulting clients to full time subscribers.
Although the success of this transition was due in part to the quality of our design, our team owes a huge acknowledgement to our Account Executive team's ability to socialize the platform.
Over 75% Reduction in Tickets
We knew that releasing the product early would result in a high amount of early support tickets. By working with our Customer Success team and engaging directly with clients to determine their root causes, our design improvements showed an over 75% reduction in monthly submitted support tickets between launch and the
Happy Customers
"Utilimarc feels like part of our team. Their platform helps us ensure that we are making the right decisions when it comes to managing our fleet. We’re able to coach our drivers, predict maintenance costs and drastically reduce safety incidents."
Fleet Director for LG&E KU Energy