Designing a data dashboard for Australian exporters
UX CASE STUDY | DAMIEN LUTZ
Overview
About
Challenge:
Exporters distrusted how government would handle their data, making it hard to know what data they’d actually share to support a new “risk-based” export model — and limited access to exporters meant we couldn’t always design with them directly.
Client:
Dept. of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF)
My Role:
Lead User Researcher
Key Outcomes
7 themes sparked clear directions
By surfacing exactly what would make data-sharing worthwhile for exporters
Research made reusable to save time and cost
Profiles of unique user roles preserved nuance for future teams and spared them access issues
Rich insight with lasting influence
Shaping not just the dashboard but the bigger vision and later design phases
Discovery
We had to represent exporters we couldn’t access directly
Exporters were tired of speaking to researchers, or simply too busy with seasonal production work. So rather than designing with them directly, I built profiles from previous research, interviewed third-party administrators who process applications on their behalf, and used these insights to support dashboard concept design and testing.
Exporters were hard to reach
Tired of researchers, or busy with seasonal production work, ruling out direct co-design
Trust in data-sharing was already low
The risk-based model needed exporters to share more, against existing distrust of government data handling
Made existing research work harder
Reviewed previous exporter research to build profiles representing exporters in their absence
Mapped the process from the inside
Worked with regulatory staff to find what data was available and what blocked exporters
Found a way in through third parties
Interviewed exporter administrators to capture roles, responsibilities, and data needs first-hand
Turned insight into direction
Summarised business process, data, and systems insights to guide the development team
Summarising previous research
Mining previous research
I reviewed existing customer research to summarise needs and pains around applying for, monitoring, and collecting export licenses and permits.
Analysing previous exporter research (Blurred for privacy)
Exporter Profiles
I created three exporter profiles, representing the three business sizes where needs and pains differed most.
Exporter Profiles
Mapping the export staff process
To understand regulation from the government side, I mapped internal staff processes.
Mapping government regulation export processes (blurred for privacy)
Data available to offer exporters
Exporter actions that blocked or slowed processes
Systems used, and risks to data integrity
Third-party interviews surfaced what exporters actually wanted
Using the profiles as a guide, I interviewed third parties representing each exporter profile — to map their process, capture their pains, and identify manual or integrity breaks.
Method: 1 round, 3 participants (one per profile), 1-hour contextual observation and interview.
Research plan, data flow mapping, and combined insights
“Give us a position in the queue or ETA.”
“Send us notifications when something is wrong and what we can do about it.”
“There’s no point showing an RFP is ‘in process’ if we can’t do anything about it.”
What exporters they handled, and how
How exporters used data for their own purposes
What government data might help them
Detail on export actor roles and responsibilities
Complex rearch visually summarised
Exporter and third-party roles map
I created profiles to summarise the needs and pains of third-party exporter administrators.
DAFF exporter and third party roles map
Business process summaries
I summarised business process, data, and systems insights with the Service Designer, to inform the development team’s system redesign.
Profiles to summarise the needs and pains of third-party exporter administrators
Design and testing
Testing confirmed 7 themes the dashboard needed to address
Using insights from the interviews, I worked with the UX Designer to develop several dashboard concepts, then tested them with exporters and administrators.
Method: 2 rounds, 6 participants, 1-hour moderated sessions — interview, concept testing, card sorting
Exporter Data Dashboard concepts for testing
High-value data options to explore
Filling gaps and offering an all-in-one service
Removing barriers
Clear, meaningful, simple interface
Flexible, customisable, scalable
Data transparency and security
Participant snapshots, built for nuance and reuse
I summarised participants into key profiles to guide design.
However, the exporter third-party roles I encountered were so varied in responsibilities, processes, and needs—depending on the business—that collapsing them into one profile risked generalised solutions that wouldn’t actually solve real exporter needs.
A single profile, built for one project’s specific goals, can also miss pains and needs that matter to a different project later.
Preserving the nuances of user roles
So, I also created individual “participant snapshots” for each person tested, capturing their specific context and nuances for our designs, and for future teams to reference, whatever problem they’re trying to solve.
Making research reusable to save time and cost
This mattered even more given how hard these participants were to access in the first place—future teams could draw on real, detailed insight without needing to re-interview people who were already difficult to reach.
Participant Snapshots from DAFF exporter user research
Outcomes
We packaged our insights into handover documentation for the team who’d build and own the exporter dashboard. My contract ended before that build began, but the work remained on the roadmap for the export service’s evolution.
A trust problem solved with evidence, not assumption
Testing surfaced exactly what data-sharing terms exporters would actually accept, replacing guesswork with real direction
A process built for an absent user
Profiles and third-party interviews let the dashboard be designed accurately even without direct exporter access
Hand-over documentation that kept earning its keep
Used well beyond the original brief, into the bigger product vision and later design phases
My research informs future dashboard features