ChargeLync - Internal Operations Platform
Reduced dispatch friction and improved decision speed for operators handling high-volume support requests.
Project overview
Why the system failed under real operational pressure
Through discussions with support teams and analysis of 12,000+ system logs, I identified three critical breakdowns:
No Historical Context
Operators could see current station status but had no visibility into connection patterns or recurring failures. It was impossible to distinguish one-off glitches from recurring failures.
Fragmented Information Architecture
Critical information like station details, support tickets, commands, and logs were scattered across different pages. Diagnosis required juggling tabs and relying on memory.
Log Noise Over Signal
OCPP logs contained the answers operators needed, but they were buried under hundreds of heartbeat messages with no meaningful filtering. These weren't usability bugs, they were decision-making failures.
Design Goal
Enable operators to answer one question quickly and confidently:
"Do I need to dispatch a technician, or can this be resolved remotely?"
This meant prioritizing interpretability over completeness, especially under time pressure.
Key Design Decisions & Tradeoffs
Decision 1: Consolidate diagnostics into a single station overview
Alternatives considered:
Keep separate pages and add cross-links
Create a customizable dashboard
Why I rejected them:
Cross-links preserved context switching
Custom dashboards added cognitive overhead and slowed onboarding
Final decision:
A single station overview page that surfaces all critical diagnostic signals at once, with deeper detail available through tabs.
Tradeoff:
Less flexibility for power users
Mitigation:
Advanced diagnostics moved to dedicated tabs rather than hidden behind customization
Decision 2: Surface patterns, not raw data, by default
Problem: Operators did not need any more data, they needed clarity.
Decision:
Show uptime trends and connection patterns instead of raw logs
Highlight anomalies first
Hide heartbeat messages by default
Tradeoff:
Reduced transparency for edge- cases by default
Mitigation:
Full log access preserved through filters and drill-down views.
Decision 3: Integrate support tickets directly into diagnostics
Why this mattered:
Operators often dispatched technicians without realizing a station had unresolved or recurring issues.
Decision:
Embed a support ticket summary directly into the station overview:
Open tickets
Resolved tickets
Work orders
Impact:
Operators could immediately see if a problem was isolated or part of a pattern, changing dispatch decisions in real time.
The Solution
Consolidating diagnostics into a single decision surface
Everything needed for diagnosis is on one screen. Operators no longer assembled content manually, The system did it for them.
Turning raw protocol logs into actionable diagnostics
Reduced log scanning time from minutes to seconds and restored trust in log data as a decision-making input.
Scaling diagnosis from individual stations to system-wide health
Location page evolved from a static list into an operational dashboard. This allowed operators to identify systemic issues across locations rather than reacting station by station.
Workflow Comparison
The redesigned workflow brings station status, ticket history, and relevant logs together to support dispatch decisions.
Validation
I tested prototypes with 5 operations team members using real incident scenarios.
Test Scenario:
"Station 24PO went offline yesterday. Determine if you need to dispatch a technician."
Old Interface
Average diagnosis time: 18 minutes.
Operators opened 4–5 tabs and manually searched logs to piece together diagnostic information.
New Interface
Average diagnosis time: 7 minutes.
Operators checked support tickets, filtered logs to connection events, and identified the daily 6 a.m. connection pattern.
Key feedback
"Being able to filter to just errors or just connection events is a game-changer. I don't have to dig through heartbeats anymore." —Tech Support Member
Results
Testing
In moderated testing with five operations team members, average diagnosis time fell from 18 to 7 minutes.
Post-launch
The redesign contributed to a 15% reduction in support tickets, tracked by the operations team.
The redesigned interface brought diagnostic information into one workflow, helping operators review the context needed to choose between a remote fix and a technician dispatch.
Learnings & Reflections
Visual hierarchy and information prioritization were central to making dense diagnostic information easier to use.
Clear defaults helped focus the workflow, while filters and detailed views preserved access to deeper diagnostic information.
Familiar patterns such as tabs, filters, and summaries were a practical fit for connecting information scattered across tools.
Involving field technicians earlier could have helped refine dispatch criteria and filtering priorities.
This project reinforced the value of combining clear UI with the context people need to make time-sensitive decisions.
