One interface for STIHL's connected fleet: from scattered data to a unified management system
2 min read · 491 words
Designed UX and UI for STIHL Connected, an intelligent fleet management system for professional operators and fleet managers.
RoleSenior UX Lead
Every figure and quote in this case study was supplied by its author. None were generated.
The Challenge
STIHL, one of the world's most recognised power tool manufacturers, was expanding into intelligent fleet management with STIHL Connected, a system designed to give professional operators and fleet managers visibility across their equipment. The challenge was not simply building a dashboard: it was making complex machine data, usage patterns, and operational signals legible to users who are on a worksite, not at a desk. Without a clear UX foundation, the system risked becoming another data dump that professionals would ignore in favour of informal workarounds.
Key Decisions
- 01
Designing for operational context, not data completeness
- Considered
- Presenting all available fleet data in full, giving users maximum information at all times.
- Chose
- I prioritised the decisions a fleet manager actually needs to make, and structured the interface around those rather than around the data model.
- What it cost
- Some data points that engineers considered important were deprioritised in the main views, which created internal tension.
A fleet manager checking equipment status before a job does not need everything; they need the right things fast. Designing to that reality meant being selective, and selectivity required pushback.
- 02
Building a design system that could carry data visualisation
- Considered
- Treating the data analysis features as a separate visual layer, styled independently from the core UI.
- Chose
- I integrated the data analysis components into a unified design system so that charts, status indicators, and navigation spoke the same visual language.
- What it cost
- This required more upfront design work and close coordination with development, slowing the earliest deliverables.
Fragmented visual languages erode trust in data products. If the analysis views looked like a different tool, users would treat them as one, and that separation would undermine the whole point of a connected system.
The Solution
The delivered system is a fleet management interface for STIHL Connected that gives operators and managers a single place to monitor equipment status, track usage, and act on data analysis outputs. The UI covers fleet overview screens, individual asset detail views, and data analysis features, all held together by a consistent component set. Navigation is structured around operational tasks rather than data categories, so a user moves through the product the way they think about managing a fleet, not the way the database is organised.
The Results
STIHL Connected launched with a complete UX and UI design, giving the business a product-grade interface for a capability it had not previously offered to customers in this form.
For fleet operators, the system replaced the need to gather machine information from disconnected sources. Equipment status, usage data, and analysis outputs now live in one place, reducing the friction of day-to-day fleet oversight.
The next step for this kind of system is always validation at scale: how operators actually move through the interface once it is in real worksites, and whether the prioritisation decisions hold up under the full range of use cases. That feedback loop is what would sharpen the data analysis features most.