Making data
connect.

During my internship at Fiserv, I was tasked with redesigning a UX research dashboard for executives—a user group with very little time to spare.

The challenge was to help someone digest complex, multi-project data in 1–3 minutes without stripping away the depth they might need.

How do we make information understandable at a glance, while giving users control over their own path through the data?

The 1–3 minute window was a design goal, not a measured usability result.

I found unexpected inspiration in a familiar phrase: “Explain it to me like I’m 5.” Not because executives need childish simplification, but because children’s toys teach complex concepts through intuitive, hands-on interaction.

I explored research papers on children’s toy design and interaction design, looking for principles that could translate into a data experience. Physical, puzzle-like interactions offered a way to make abstract relationships easier to understand.

The core concept became data cards designed like puzzle pieces on a sandbox interface. Connecting related cards opens a window summarizing the relationship between those data points.

This gave executives the freedom to explore what mattered to them while retaining a high-level view of project and product performance.