Wallboard Performance Alerts

Project Context

Call centers rely on wallboards to display rotating performance metrics and other info across teams. These wallboards are designed for passive monitoring, but lacked a mechanism to proactively flag critical issues in real time.

Problem Statement

Call centers currently lack a proactive way to highlight performance metrics that fall below critical thresholds. Without real-time visual alerts, teams may miss opportunities to intervene before issues escalate. Introducing a threshold-based alert feature on wallboards would ensure that key metrics demanding attention remain visible until they recover, empowering faster response times and improved operational awareness.

Goals

• Ensure alerts are highly visible regardless of slide content
• Minimize development overhead and avoid per-slide customization
• Preserve the clarity and integrity of existing wallboard data
• Accommodate multiple alerts at once

Solution

Key Design Decisions:

• Positioning: Alerts appear in a fixed overlay zone, avoiding layout conflicts
• Styling: High-contrast visuals and subtle animations draw attention without overwhelming
• Persistence: Alerts remain visible across slide transitions until resolved
• Auto-Rotation: Multiple alerts cycle through in a horizontal scroll, ensuring all are seen without cluttering the interface

Impact

• Improved Team Awareness: The scrolling alert ticker ensured that all active alerts were seen, even during slide transitions, boosting cross-team coordination.
• Scalable Design: The overlay system adapted seamlessly to new slides, supporting future growth without rework.
• Reduced Downtime: Early detection of threshold breaches led to quicker interventions, minimizing service disruptions.

This solution didn’t just solve a visibility problem, it reshaped the operational rhythm of the call center, turning passive monitoring into proactive action.

Wireframes and Prototype

Wireframe Option 1

Pros

• High Visibility: Alerts are front and center, grabbing attention immediately
• Contextual Relevance: Appears directly over the data it refers to, reinforcing urgency
• Space Efficient: Doesn’t require additional layout space, ideal for compact dashboards

Cons

• Obstructs Data: May block important agent information, especially if the overlay is opaque or large

Wireframe Option 2

Pros

• Clear Separation: Keeps the agent data and alerts visually distinct, reducing cognitive overload
• Scannable Layout: Easier to scan agent states without interruption, especially in high-traffic environments

Cons

• Less Immediate: Alerts may be overlooked if users focus only on the agent table

Final Prototype

Choosing an overlay for performance alerts significantly improved visibility and ensured the alert data remained distinct from the dynamic content on the wallboard slides. Since the slides continuously rotate through different views, placing alerts at the bottom of each slide would make them feel embedded in the slide itself, requiring individual modifications across all slides. This approach would increase development time and reduce ROI, whereas the overlay allows for a centralized, reusable alert system that’s both efficient and scalable.

What I Learned

Leading UI checks taught me the value of proactive design governance. By mentoring teammates and refining our system collaboratively, I saw firsthand how a well-defined design system can empower creativity while maintaining consistency. It also sharpened my ability to balance flexibility with structure, ensuring our components served both individual project needs and broader organizational goals.