SaaS Dashboard · Product Design
relocateMe
A unified relocation management platform that replaced 12 spreadsheets with one calm, guided dashboard — improving compliance from 61% to 94%.
- Year: 2023
- Duration: 14 weeks
- Team: 2 UX designers + 3 developers + PM
- Role: UX Researcher & Product Designer
Overview
relocateMe is a B2B SaaS platform for corporate relocation. HR managers use it to coordinate employee moves across cities and countries — a process involving dozens of documents, deadlines, vendors, and stakeholders. The legacy product was failing both sides of the equation.
The problem
HR managers juggled 12+ spreadsheets with no single source of truth. Employees in transit had no visibility into their own relocation progress. Compliance deadlines were frequently missed, creating legal exposure for the companies involved.
The goal
Design a unified, role-based dashboard that gives HR managers full visibility and control, while giving relocating employees a calm, step-by-step experience — eliminating the spreadsheet dependency entirely.
Hypothesis
A milestone-based progress system with role-specific views and automated compliance alerts will reduce coordination errors and improve both HR efficiency and employee satisfaction during the relocation process.
Research
Participants: 6 HR managers + 8 relocating employees across 3 companies
Methods
- ▸ Contextual inquiry (observed real relocations)
- ▸ Stakeholder interviews (6 HR managers)
- ▸ Employee interviews (8 people in active relocation)
- ▸ Card sorting (IA restructuring)
- ▸ Journey mapping (47 touchpoints identified)
Key findings
- 01
HR managers spent avg. 3.5 hours/week just tracking document status across spreadsheets
- 02
Employees described the process as "stressful," "opaque," and "like shouting into a void"
- 03
Compliance documents were submitted late 39% of the time, causing legal delays
- 04
Neither party had real-time visibility — everything was email-based
- 05
The existing tool had 47 navigation items — users only used 8 regularly
What the research told me
Two worlds, one product
HR and employees had completely different mental models of relocation. One product needed two distinct views.
Checklist over calendar
Users thought in tasks and milestones, not dates. A timeline was less useful than a progress tracker.
Alert fatigue is real
The legacy tool sent 15+ email notifications per week per user. Users ignored all of them.
Navigation overload
47 nav items for an 8-item use case. Radical simplification was needed.
Design
Iteration
Unified view for both roles
User insight
"HR managers felt overwhelmed by employee-level detail. Employees felt exposed seeing HR-only compliance data."
Design change
Built role-based routing. Same login, completely different dashboard experience per role.
Calendar-based progress view
User insight
"Users didn't connect with dates — they thought in milestones. "Am I on Step 3 or Step 5?""
Design change
Replaced calendar with a 5-phase milestone tracker (Initiated → In Transit → Settled → Closed). Instantly clearer.
Milestone tracker + smart alerts
User insight
"Users praised the clarity. HR loved the "overdue" highlight. Employees understood their next step."
Design change
Added proactive deadline alerts (3 levels: upcoming, due today, overdue). Shipped.
Design system
Colour palette
- Navy
- Steel blue
- Compliance green
- Alert amber
- Overdue red
Typography
Inter throughout — optimized for data-dense dashboard readability at all sizes
Key components
- ▸ Milestone Progress Tracker
- ▸ Document Checklist Card
- ▸ Status Badge (3 states)
- ▸ Alert Banner (3 severity levels)
- ▸ Role-Based Sidebar Nav
Outcome
Compliance document submission improved from 61% to 94%. Average relocation completed 3 weeks faster. SUS score jumped from 42 to 78. HR managers reduced coordination time by 60%. Product became the vendor's primary selling point in sales demos.
What I learned
- 01
Designing for two user types in one product requires clear role-based mental models — not just different screens, but different information architectures.
- 02
Progress indicators outperform calendars when users think in milestones, not dates.
- 03
Radical IA simplification (47 → 8 nav items) doesn't lose features — it surfaces what actually matters.
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