Designing a Unified Performance Portal for Swiftwave
Client
Swiftwave (under NDA)
Type
UX Strategy & Product Design
Background:
Swiftwave is a global ship management company overseeing crewing, technical operations, and compliance across a large, diverse fleet. Following a merger, the company inherited a patchwork of legacy systems. Some tracking safety inspections, others emissions, others maintenance schedules; none of which talked to each other. This reulted in reporting that depended on manual spreadsheet work, dashboards that existed in silos, and no single place where a fleet manager, ship owner, or compliance officer could see the health of the operation at a glance. As Swiftwave pushed toward AI-readiness and a more scalable data architecture, it became clear the front-end experience needed the same overhaul as the back-end.
Team Composition
Team Lead
Designer
Challenge
Ship fleet management isn't a single job, it's a dozen overlapping ones. A ship owner cares about safety scores and inspection history. A fleet manager wants operational and environmental KPIs. An internal admin needs to manage users, organizations, and access across dozens of client companies. Any one of these people, using the same platform, needed to find *their* relevant data fast — without wading through modules meant for someone else's job.
The solution:
We worked on the design of a modular performance portal. A single dashboard system that reorganizes a dozen disconnected data sources into role-aware, scannable views.
Modular dashboard architecture. Built the portal around a persistent side navigation covering Dashboard. Each its own module, but sharing one visual and interaction language so switching between them feels seamless
A general overview that actually orients you. The landing dashboard surfaces the numbers that matter across the whole fleet at a glance. So no one has to go module-hunting just to answer "how are we doing today?"
Domain-specific dashboards with consistent visual grammar. Each module follows the same pattern. So the mental model transfers even as the underlying data changes completely from one section to the next.
Designed for dense, technical data without overwhelming the reader. Maritime compliance data is inherently numeric and jargon-heavy. We used consistent chart types, risk-tier color coding (Low/Medium/High), and progressive disclosure to keep each screen readable rather than reference-manual dense.
Self-service admin tooling. Designed User and Organization management flows (add/edit users, assign roles, manage organization records) so admins could handle access and account management themselves.
Mobile-responsive customer portal. Designed a condensed mobile experience with a collapsed menu and touch-friendly filters, so fleet and safety data is legible and usable away from a desktop. A hard requirement given how much of this audience works from a ship, not an office.
White-label-ready visual system. Built the UI so branding could be swapped per customer without touching layout or component structure. Laying the groundwork to eventually offer this portal, customized, as a product to its own clients.
Learnings
Enterprise dashboards live or die on information hierarchy, not visual polish. With this many data domains under one roof, the real design work wasn't decoration. It was deciding what deserves a headline number, what belongs in a chart, and what should stay hidden until someone asks for it. Designing for personas you'll never sit next to is harder than it sounds. Ship owners, fleet managers, and internal admins all use the same shell but need different truths from it. Getting the role-based structure right mattered more than any single screen. A design system pays for itself fastest when you build for reuse from day one. Treating white-labeling as a first-class requirement, meant the component structure stayed clean enough to support a future none of us could fully spec out yet.
Testimonial
From day one, Navid impressed me with his enthusiasm, dedication, and strong work ethic. He was always eager to learn, adapt, and push the boundaries of design to create meaningful user experiences. Navid’s ability to balance user needs with business goals made him a valuable asset to our team. Whether it was conducting research, refining UI designs, or collaborating with developers, he approached every challenge with a problem-solving mindset. His passion for UX was evident in his attention to detail and his commitment to delivering high-quality work.
Senior UX Engineer (Manager), SELISE Digital Platforms
Selected Work