Simplifying Complex Dashboard for Intuitive Decision-Making
SkillsAnalysis offered research-backed leadership and behavioral assessments, but the dashboard was overloaded with numbers and hard to interpret. I redesigned the experience to simplify benchmark scores, contextualize qualitative indicators and standardize ratings. The result: faster decisions, improved comprehension and higher task success compared to competitors.
Challenge - SkillsAnalysis positioned itself as a next-gen HR tool offering deeper insights into leadership and behavioral traits than standard personality tests. But despite its value, HR professionals struggled to understand the dashboard. The two main issues are novel scoring system and information overloaded.
Prior to addressing the user experience, we conducted comprehensive research to understand the novelty and implications of the data presented by SkillsAnalysis. This effort ensured alignment with the client's vision and mission for the product. Simultaneously, a competitor analysis highlighted the distinctiveness and complexity of SkillsAnalysis' insights compared to existing solutions. Additionally, interviews with the target audience offered a holistic perspective on typical usage patterns of such platforms.
The assessment questions were designed to evaluate leadership competencies, but responses could indicate both leadership strengths and behavioural tendencies. Since there were no definitive right or wrong answers—only different ones—the scoring resulted in personalized but irregular distributions. For fair comparisons, scores were normalized, but with a strength factor. A candidate with 90% competency but only 10% strength could be less effective than one with 50% competency but 80% strength. Regardless of how leadership and behavioural scores were distributed, their sum always equaled 100% (as the total number of questions remained constant). This meant that we could combine both the scores to eliminate the strength factor, but it would takeaway the unique insight SkillsAnalysis has to offer.
Performing heuristic evaluation and usability testing in comparison with competitors, we identified core issues that required immediate attention.
While SkillsAnalysis had a lot of rich data and insights to offer, there were too many and the existing design presented them all. Comparing competitors and interviewing the target audience informed about the information hierarchy, which had this only one primary benchmark score, while the contributing factors and the diverseness of the skills were progressively disclosed. However, SkillsAnalysis had two benchmark scores with an additional strength factor at the minimum and made it difficult for the target audience to comprehend and make a quick decision out of it.
Beyond the core benchmark scores, SkillsAnalysis incorporates additional qualitative insights—such as identifying whether a candidate is an ambivert and socially receptive. While these indicators offer valuable context for candidate evaluation, they are not absolute metrics but rather supplementary factors that can enhance selection decisions. Presenting these qualitative insights alongside quantitative scores without clear differentiation contributed to data complexity, making it challenging for HR professionals to interpret and utilize the information effectively.
In an effort to simplify the complexity of multiple benchmark scores, SkillsAnalysis introduced a tier-based recommendation system that considered various factors, including qualitative metrics like ambiversion and social receptivity. However, this tier system included sub-tiers, inadvertently adding layers of complexity. This over complication made it confusing often leading to inaccurate decision-making.
Through extensive research, stakeholder sessions, usability testing, and interviews conducted over three iterations, we not only simplified the dashboard but also showcased the unique insights SkillsAnalysis offers. This process ensured alignment with industry standards, providing a seamless user experience for audiences transitioning to SkillsAnalysis.
Result we got was faster comprehension with no loss of detail.
Result was users treated them as context, not as confusing “scores".
Result: Recruiters understood candidate evaluations instantly, while still accessing depth when needed.
The Skills Analysis main dashboard for candidate assessment plays a crucial role in summarizing key information about a candidate's leadership competencies and behavioral tendencies that may interfere with them. Despite its significance, the existing dashboard fell short of clearly presenting information and highlighting the unique insights that Skills Analysis offers. The newly updated dashboard addresses these challenges by presenting information in a more digestible way, enabling users to make faster and more intuitive decisions.
Through rigorous testing of an interactive prototype simulating the hiring process flow, including the dashboard screen, we observed significant improvements in user performance. Users were able to instantly recognize the context behind each insight without the need for additional learning or training.
Higher than competitors, proving simplified flows worked.
Recruiters could evaluate candidates quicker, boosting adoption potential.
This project reinforced the importance of balancing innovation with usability. By deeply understanding the math behind SkillsAnalysis’ scoring and aligning with business goals, I ensured the design wasn’t just visually appealing, but strategically purposeful. Every UI element supported decision-making — proving that clarity can amplify, not dilute, innovation.
This project taught me that simplifying isn’t about stripping features away it’s about structuring complexity so it feels intuitive and actionable. The biggest challenge was balancing SkillsAnalysis’ innovative scoring with recruiters’ need for clarity, but the process pushed me to think critically about hierarchy, trust, and usability. Moving forward, I plan to refine the design system for stronger brand identity, test variations of the rating system to further boost comprehension and explore integrations with applicant tracking systems (ATS) to streamline recruiter workflows. Ultimately, the experience reinforced my belief that great design bridges innovation with usability, turning complexity into confidence.
