Work

Rapid Risk Assessment for Marine Terminals

Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Rapid, Constraint-Led Design
Cross-Functional Collaboration

Project 3: Aiding marine terminal engineers (client users) to assess and calculate risk.

Image of an oil platform

Project Summary

  • Client: Abyss Solutions
  • Role: UX Designer (Rapid Prototype)
  • Duration: March 2023 – May 2023
  • Focus: Risk assessment tool for marine terminals, UI simplification, cross-functional co-design

In my third project at Abyss, I was tasked with rapidly designing a working prototype for the Equipment Sheet (ES) product, aimed at simplifying how marine terminal engineers assess and calculate operational risk. Operating under significant time constraints, the goal was to replace spreadsheet-heavy workflows with a clearer, more reliable interaction model that could be validated with clients and inform Fabric’s future modular roadmap.

Team & Collaboration

  • Worked with the Head of Product, Product Manager, and 2 Engineers
  • Balanced individual ownership with hands-on co-design sessions using Retool (a no-code platform)
  • Maintained alignment with the core team building Fabric Version 2

Challenge

Marine terminal engineers needed a faster and more accurate way to calculate operational risk, especially while on site. Their current workflow relied on dense spreadsheets with dozens of columns, increasing the chance of oversight and slowing down critical decisions. The company also saw this demo as a scalable entry point for expanding Fabric’s capabilities to other parts of the oil platform infrastructure. Any solution needed to be usable on-site, support fast judgment calls, and remain auditable for compliance purposes.

Scope & Constraints

  • Initial allocation: 2 days for design
  • Negotiated timeline: 1 week (still highly compressed)

Approach:

  • Co-designed in 2-hour blocks with engineering
  • Researched while iterating, using internal documentation and previous insights
  • Kept product manager updated for weekly client check-ins
  • Replaced formal user stories with a simplified end-to-end flow walkthrough to prioritise shared understanding and speed.

Design Strategy

Simplification & Collaboration
  • Translated a complex flow presented by the product manager into a clear, functional user flow
  • Guided the engineer through each step, using plain language and shared screens
  • Used Retool to build the working demo collaboratively in real-time The emphasis was on reducing cognitive load while preserving traceability of risk inputs.

Information Architecture & Future Alignment

  • Recognized that this tool might become part of Fabric’s modular platform
  • Proactively restructured the ES Sheet interface to support future integration
  • Secured buy-in from the Fabric V2 team to ensure continuity and cross-product cohesion

Outcome

  • The final design was presented to the client by the Product Manager
  • Received client approval to move forward with beta development
  • Internally positioned as a pilot model for broader risk assessment tooling within Fabric

Learnings

This project reinforced the value of direct co-design and clear information structure when delivery timelines are compressed. Early attention to information architecture helped ensure the solution could scale beyond a one-off use case.

Next Steps

The ES Sheet was prepared for pilot use at a full Marine Terminal, pending evaluation for wider rollout across oil platform infrastructure.