Optimal Reality

Bringing live transport operations and possible futures into one shared decision-making view.

Project story

Optimal Reality brought live operations, spatial context and prediction into one decision-making environment. I helped shape the proposition and pitch, then carried that vision into its first Situation Awareness application for a major Australian transport organisation.

Operators needed to see how networks, incidents and possible futures connected, while retaining the detail required for different roles and decisions.

Working within a multidisciplinary team, I led the visual and interaction direction from operational flows through responsive, high-fidelity interfaces and design-system foundations. As delivery grew, I moved from hands-on design into guiding other designers and maintaining coherence across UX, UI and engineering.

Situation Awareness in use

The 360° case study shows the Situation Awareness application in use, with operators exploring live network conditions, incidents and operational detail across the interface.

Testing the proposition

We tested the proposition against seven priority use cases, defining the decisions, states and controls each role needed before moving into production.

Optimal Reality route planning and operational watchlist interfaces displayed across a large monitor and laptop.
A field of iPad interfaces showing maps, routes, operational details and controls across different Optimal Reality scenarios.
Optimal Reality future-state interfaces displayed on a large curved monitor and a laptop, combining maps, incidents and network performance.

Building with Atomic Design

I used Atomic Design to build the interface from foundational styles into reusable components and patterns. It gave the expanding application a consistent logic, instead of resolving every screen in isolation.

Optimal Reality building blocks showing typography, colour, map treatments, markers, device states and location components.

Designing the map as an interface

The design system extended into the map itself. In Mapbox Studio, I explored a spatial visual language for roads, lanes, labels, routes and operational overlays, including how they changed across zoom levels. I also used Kepler.gl and deck.gl to investigate 3D and data-rich views, testing how movement, density and change could remain legible without overwhelming the operator.

Mapbox Studio exploration of a dark lane-level map style, showing route colours, line widths, patterns and zoom behaviour.
Mapbox Studio view of a custom dark Melbourne basemap with restrained roads, labels, buildings, water and landmarks.
Kepler.gl spatial exploration showing layered tram routes and data controls across a three-dimensional map of Melbourne.

Scaling across roles and screens

I translated that logic into a reusable component library that could adapt across tasks, roles and screen sizes while preserving a shared operational language. It also created a common structure across UX, UI and engineering for rolling out, maintaining and extending the product.

A tall inventory of Optimal Reality navigation, controls, forms, panels and operational interface components on a dark canvas.

Prototyping the whole experience

I connected the high-fidelity flows in Figma to test complete operational journeys, not isolated screens. Seeing every state and transition together showed how the whole application needed to behave.

A wide Figma prototype map with many Optimal Reality screens connected by dense interaction paths.

Across six months, we shaped seven priority use cases into a coherent, testable application, with a reusable design foundation for continued delivery.

From foundation to offering

Optimal Reality continued beyond the initial Situation Awareness application, growing into a broader Deloitte Australia offering for live decision and simulation systems across transport, energy, utilities and other complex physical networks.