When data lives
in layers, risk lives
in the dark
A visual tool redesigned to surface pipe age, diameter, and risk directly on infrastructure maps, eliminating layer switching for water utility engineers.
01: THE CHALLENGE
Infrastructure data buried in layers
Municipalities managing aging water infrastructure faced a critical gap: risk maps showed where pipes were, but not why they were at risk. Maintenance decisions relied on manual layer toggling, slow, error-prone, and invisible to field teams.
Layer overload
Separate attribute layers caused visual clutter and overlapping data. Engineers toggled between views rather than seeing the full picture at once.
No contextual risk signal
Risk maps lacked pipe installation year and diameter, the two attributes that most directly explain why a section is flagged as high-risk.
Reactive maintenance
Without clear multi-attribute context, inspection decisions were driven by complaints rather than proactive, data-informed prioritisation.
02: RESEARCH
Listening to engineers in the field
Contextual interviews with municipal engineers, infrastructure managers, and field teams revealed three consistent needs: contextual awareness of pipe conditions, quick visual interpretation, and clear prioritisation of risk hotspots.
Contextual interviews
Sessions with municipal engineers and infrastructure managers, focused on map usage, decision-making workflows, and inspection triggers.
Field observation
Observed inspection workflows and live map usage to capture real behaviour rather than self-reported patterns.
Competitive audit
Reviewed existing GIS and infrastructure management platforms to identify best practices in attribute visualisation.
03: THE SOLUTION
One map. Two attributes. Zero layer switching.
The redesigned feature integrates pipe installation year and diameter directly into the risk assessment map using two simultaneous visual encodings, colour and line thickness, that engineers can read at a glance.
Colour encoding
Five-tone blue scale for pipe age. Darker means older, lighter means newer. Grey tones and dashed lines indicate missing data.
Thickness encoding
Varying line weights for pipe diameter. Thicker lines represent larger pipes. Combines with colour to enable simultaneous multi-attribute reading.
Zoom-responsive display
Visualisation adapts at different zoom levels, maintaining readability and detail whether reviewing a city-wide overview or a single street.
Scalable architecture
Modular design accommodates future attribute additions without compromising clarity or usability as the platform evolves.
04: OUTCOMES
Faster decisions.
Fewer unnecessary inspections.
The feature transformed how water utility engineers assess pipeline risk, eliminating layer switching and improving situational awareness for the entire maintenance team.
05: REFLECTION
Insights
Designing for specialists means respecting the mental models they've built over years. The solution succeeded not by replacing their workflow, but by encoding the information they already needed into the layer they already trusted.
Constraints reveal the real problem
The limit of one map layer forced a more elegant encoding solution than multiple layers would have. What felt like a constraint became the design principle.
Data has grammar
Colour and thickness each carry meaning. Mixing them requires careful hierarchy to avoid visual noise, the legend isn't optional, it's structural.
Trust the domain expert
The most valuable insights came from watching engineers interact with maps, not from asking them what they wanted.
Scalability is a design decision
Every encoding choice was evaluated for what it would mean when a third or fourth attribute needed to be added, future-proofing built in from the start.