Decision-oriented design in people management systems
EasyPeople
Decisions about people have a direct impact on careers, trust and retention. The issue was not displaying data, but defining how that data would be used to make decisions.
This project treated design as part of the decision-making mechanism within an SME management platform, responsible for reducing hasty interpretations and guiding decisions based on comparable and contextualised information.
The project
EasyPeople is a management platform aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, used by managers and HR teams to monitor performance and development over time.
I worked as Product Designer, responsible for product decisions, metric definition, information organisation, and interface design. The work required aligning data interpretation with the real consequences of decisions made through the system.
The interface was not treated as a neutral visualisation. Every choice influenced how managers interpreted people.
The challenge
Metrics are not neutral.
When presented without context, they lead to rapid decisions, unfair comparisons and a loss of trust from those being evaluated. The risk was turning indicators into judgments rather than decision support.
The product needed to help managers make better decisions, even under pressure, without reducing individuals to isolated numbers.
Contextual reading
Before any solution, it was necessary to understand how decisions about people occurred in practice.
The analysis focused on:
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how SMEs use data in daily operations
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which indicators genuinely influence actions
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where existing tools lead to misinterpretations
The focus was less on usage flow and more on the decision moment: when a manager consults data, what needs to be explicit and what could distort interpretation.
This prevented the repetition of common HR product patterns that accumulate metrics without criteria.
Product decisions
The primary decision was to reduce the number of displayed indicators and define clear weights among them.
Each metric was evaluated based on:
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technical consistency
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risk of isolated interpretation
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real relevance for recurring decisions
The information hierarchy was adjusted to enforce comparative reading and discourage immediate conclusions. Data was presented with temporal and relational references, rather than as absolute values.
The interface ceased to encourage control and instead supported analysis.
Prioritisation and prototyping
The dashboard architecture was defined before any visual refinement.
Low-fidelity wireframes validated hierarchy, grouping and reading sequence. The criterion was simple: a manager should be able to explain their decision based on what they saw on the screen.
The final prototype consolidated these choices, prioritising legibility and predictability, including in high-pressure usage scenarios.
Desgin role
Design acted as a mediator between data and decision-making.
This included:
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making comparisons explicit
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reducing cognitive noise
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preventing isolated metrics from driving hasty actions
The product ceased to function as an informational dashboard and became a concrete support tool for decision-making.
Observed results
Public metrics are not disclosed.
Even so, usage changes were evident. Managers began consulting more than one indicator before acting and justifying decisions based on comparative reading rather than single numbers.
Trust in the system increased as decisions became more defensible.
Learnings
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Unframed data leads to errors.
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Displaying a metric is a product decision, not a neutral act.
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Defining weight and context is as important as designing the interface.
This project reinforced that product design, in HR, assumes direct responsibility for the decisions it helps produce.
Closure
Designing people management systems requires assuming responsibility for the consequences.
In this project, design moved beyond data presentation to become an active part of the decision-making process. In human contexts, measuring accurately is not enough; decisions must be made with discernment.
