UX/UI DesignerGeospatial Web AppClimateTech / GIS

VLM Land Monitoring Platform

VARUNA CO., LTD. · 6 months · Mar 2024 – Aug 2024

VLM satellite-based forest monitoring and environmental analytics dashboard

Design Process & Workflow

From Plot to Provincial Report

How satellite data was made readable for non-specialists: the landing page and accounts, per-metric analysis, map layers and clustering, then project management and province-level reporting.

Step 01

Brand & Landing Page Design

Designed the VLM marketing surface that has to explain a geospatial carbon product to buyers who are not GIS specialists. Satellite imagery and 3D data-layer illustrations were used to make an abstract remote-sensing capability legible before a prospect ever sees the platform.

Step 02

Authentication & Account Flows

Built the full account lifecycle — register, email verification, log in, forgot password and profile — including the error and expired-link states. For a platform holding regulated carbon data, a clear account boundary is part of the product's credibility, not just plumbing.

Step 03

Analytical Dashboard Design

Designed the per-plot analysis view where biomass, carbon sequestration, NDVI, precipitation, solar radiation, temperature and elevation each get a dedicated read. Every metric needed its own chart treatment — a bar comparison, a time series, or a colour-ramped map — rather than forcing one visual language onto different data shapes.

Step 04

Geospatial Layer System

Built the full map-layer feature set: switching between biomass, NDVI, temperature, precipitation, hot spot and elevation overlays on one continuous map. The design problem was keeping the base map readable while a colour-ramped raster sits on top of it.

Step 05

Project & Plot Management

Designed the multi-project workspace where users filter between farms, inspect plot boundaries against high-resolution imagery, and read the area breakdown table alongside the map. The linked mini-map keeps regional context while the main view is zoomed into a single parcel.

Step 06

Hot Spot Detection & Zoom Behaviour

Specified marker clustering across six zoom levels so hot spot density stays interpretable from national view down to a single district. Without a defined clustering rule, fire and anomaly markers collapse into an unreadable mass at country scale.

Hot Spot Detection & Zoom Behaviour — visual 2

Step 07

Provincial Reporting & Summary Views

Designed the choropleth reporting layer with province-level breakdowns and proportional summaries. These are the screens that get exported into carbon reporting, so the table and chart had to stay legible outside the interface.

Executive Summary & Impact

Plot-Level Analysis

One read per metric

Biomass, carbon sequestration, NDVI, climate and elevation each get a chart suited to the shape of their data.

Layered Map

Readable overlays

Satellite layers switch on one continuous map while the base map stays readable underneath.

Area to Report

From plot to province

Define an area, manage plots across projects, and read province-level summaries built for export.

VLM Land Monitoring is a web platform that turns satellite data into plot-level environmental analysis. The design covers the full path from defining an area, by drawing or uploading a polygon, through per-metric analysis and map layers, to project management and provincial reporting.

01 / Discovery & Context

Problem & Baseline

Satellite and environmental data comes in very different shapes: values compared across plots, time series, and colour-ramped rasters. Showing them all in one visual language makes each harder to read, and stacking layers on a map can hide the base map users rely on for orientation. Users also needed to define the area they care about, keep track of plots across several projects, and turn the results into reports that hold up outside the interface.

Different data shapes

Comparisons, time series and rasters each needed their own visual treatment.

Layer overload

Colour-ramped overlays could hide the base map that users rely on for orientation.

Defining the area

Users needed to set the plot they wanted analysed, by drawing it or uploading a file, with clear limits.

Readable at every scale

Hot spot markers and plot data had to stay readable from national view down to a single parcel.

02 / Architecture & UX System

Key Design Decisions

01

Area Definition by Drawing or Upload

Designed the flow for defining a plot: upload a polygon file or draw on the map, see the area size before analysing, and get clear dialogs when an area is too large or about to be deleted.

02

One Chart Treatment per Metric

The analysis view gives each metric its own read under a tab: bar comparisons for biomass and carbon, time series for precipitation, temperature and solar radiation, and colour-ramped maps for NDVI and elevation.

03

Map Layers That Keep the Base Readable

Biomass, NDVI, temperature, precipitation, hot spot and elevation overlays switch on one continuous map, with legends and colour ramps chosen so the base map stays legible underneath.

04

Hot Spot Clustering Across Zoom Levels

Specified marker clustering across six zoom levels so hot spot density stays interpretable from national view down to a single district.

05

Projects, Plots and Provincial Reports

A multi-project workspace filters farms and shows plot boundaries on high-resolution imagery beside a linked mini-map and an area table, and a choropleth reporting layer summarises results by province in tables that stay legible when exported.

03 / Verification & Evidence

Outcomes

Area	Before	After	Outcome
Area definition	Analysis needed a clearly defined plot	Draw or upload a polygon, with size feedback and limits	Clearer
Metric reading	Different data shapes in one visual language	A chart treatment matched to each metric	Easier to read
Map layers	Overlays could hide the base map	Layers switched on one map with a readable base	More legible
Hot spots at scale	Markers could merge into one mass at country scale	Clustering defined across six zoom levels	Interpretable
Reporting	Results needed to hold up outside the interface	Province-level tables and charts built for export	Report-ready

04 / Retrospective

What I Learned

→

Different data shapes need different chart treatments; forcing one visual language onto every metric made each of them harder to read.

→

On a layered map, the base map is part of the information. Overlays had to be designed so users never lost their orientation.

→

Zoom behaviour is a design decision: without a clustering rule, the same hot spot data is readable at one scale and meaningless at another.