Accenture Federal

A real-time view of service readiness and supply shortfalls, for the Defense Logistics Agency.

Client: Accenture Federal
Role: UI/UX Design Consultant
Programme: Defense Logistics Agency
Timeline: 2016 – 2021
Sector: Federal, defence logistics
Platform: Web

The DLA Enterprise Dashboard prototype: the top QLIK reports, the multi-source readiness matrix as of 29 April 2019, whole-of-government sales, EBS interfund bill and collect and an activated hurricane response panel — and the hand-off that launches a QLIK report.

01 — Overview

One screen for readiness across every service.

Accenture Federal builds internal enterprise software for the Defense Logistics Agency, the organization that supplies the US military. The work here is the readiness dashboard: a single real-time view of service metrics and supply shortfalls, drawn from several sources, for people whose job is to know what is short, where, and how long it has been open.

The screen carries a great deal at once — operational and fully-mission-capable rates by service, a multi-source matrix of open and shipped orders by system and region, financial positions, and support views for live events such as a hurricane response. The design problem was density: making a wall of logistics data legible at a glance without burying the one number somebody opened it for.

What I did

Readiness dashboard — layout, hierarchy and data density
A tile system each command assembles into the dashboard it needs
Multi-source tables built for scanning rather than reading
Formal design reviews and documentation standards with the engineering team

02 — Opportunities

The questions the dashboard had to answer.

01How might we show readiness across every service on one screen without burying the exception?
02How might we make a dense multi-source matrix scannable, rather than something you read a row at a time?
03How might we let different commands build the view they need instead of shipping one fixed dashboard?
04How might we surface a live event — an activated hurricane response, say — alongside the routine numbers?
05How might we keep design, development and business leadership working to the same specification?

03 — Approach

Five areas of design work.

Readiness at a glance

All-services operational total, mission-capable and non-mission-capable rates
Industrial total and on-schedule percentage held in one band above the detail
The summary always visible, so the matrix below is a drill-down and not the entry point

A matrix built for scanning

Open, shipped and days-open read across a single row, by system and region
Colour reserved for exceptions rather than spent on every cell
Source and as-of date stated on the table, not buried in a footnote

Dashboards people assemble

An add-or-remove tile picker, indexed A to Z
Create, edit and delete your own dashboard
A tile catalogue that grows without another redesign

Events and financial position

Whole-of-government sales tracked against the fiscal year
Interfund bill-and-collect balances alongside the readiness picture
An activated-event panel that appears when a response is running and stands down when it is not

Working practices

Formal design reviews at fixed points rather than on request
Documentation and specification standards agreed across teams
Prototyping ahead of build, so decisions were tested while they were still cheap

04 — Outcomes

One place to look, built to be extended.

A single source for readiness. Metrics that had been spread across sources arrive on one screen, with the as-of date stated so nobody acts on a stale number.

Built to be extended. Because the dashboard is assembled from tiles, a new measure becomes a new tile rather than a new release.

Taken to executive level. The dashboard was presented to the Executive Board.

“I want to extend our heartfelt thanks for your heroic efforts in making the Dashboard presentation at the Executive Board meeting a success. Your dedication and hard work truly shone through, and we deeply appreciate everything you’ve done. Take a moment to bask in the glow of your achievement. You’ve set a high bar with your outstanding performance, and we are inspired to continue excelling as a team.”

Jo Brewer, PMP

Information Operations (J6), Defense Logistics Agency

05 — Walkthrough

A user-guide article titled Accessing the DLA Enterprise Dashboard, with side-by-side Desktop Access and Mobile Access cards and a Was this article helpful? yes-or-no vote at the foot of the page. — 01 Getting in. Desktop and mobile routes documented side by side, and every article ending by asking whether it helped.

The Enterprise Dashboard Framework article, explaining the framework as three cards: Dashboard Layout, Tile Framework and Data-Base Access, each listing what it contains. — 02 The framework, in three pieces — the dashboard layout, the tile framework and database access.

The tile catalogue: tabs for All Tiles, Featured, Public Layouts and My Layouts above an A to Z index, with thumbnails for Acquisition Readiness, Agency Readiness, AOR Detail, AOR Summary, AOR Supply Chain, Application BLIP, Application Experience Summary and Detail, COR Briefing, COR Detail, CCIR Summary, CCIR Mobile and the Cybersecurity Top Ten List. — 03 The tile catalogue. Every tile indexed A to Z under All Tiles, Featured, Public Layouts and My Layouts — so a new measure is a new tile, not a new release.

The Customization of Layouts article: personalisation and layout customisation shown as two annotated screens, above the rule that decides whether a dashboard is public or private. — 04 Making it yours. Personalisation and layout customisation, and the public-or-private rule that decides who else can see what you build.

An administrator’s assembled dashboard with the user-guide navigation open over it: an industry engagement outlook and contract award announcements by programme, staff readiness donuts, AOR supply chain status by class, application experience and an activated hurricane response panel. — 05 The dashboard in use, navigation open. Contract awards, staff readiness, supply chain status and an activated hurricane response, on one screen.

The Agency Readiness tile documented beside itself: current and projected fill-rate donuts broken out by MSC, J-code and region, and a deployment-team graph in which green means ready to deploy, yellow means members are missing equipment and red means a position is unfilled. — 06 Agency Readiness. Fill and projected-fill by command, J-code and region — and a team graph where green is ready, yellow is short of equipment and red is a post unfilled.

The INFOSPOT Detail tile: open and resolved incidents carried as ringed counters with elapsed time in the centre, beside the article explaining the tile’s data source and refresh interval. — 07 Age as well as volume. Incident counts ride inside a ring that also carries how long they have been open.

The INFOSPOT BLIP tile specified for mobile: three phone screens covering its data source, its visualization as a list view and its interactivity. — 08 The same tile on a phone — data source, visualization and interactivity each specified rather than left to the build.

01 / 08

06 — Prototypes

01 Digital user guide The Enterprise Dashboard’s own help system — reaching the dashboard on desktop and on mobile, FAQs and troubleshooting, and the A–Z tile picker behind All Tiles, Featured, Public Layouts and My Layouts.

02 User guide, low fidelity The earlier working file for the same guide: the director dashboard’s tile grid, the getting-started and customisation-of-layouts articles, and the table of contents that structures all seven sections.

01 / 02