A lab's entire chemical inventory — visible at a glance, manageable by anyone.
Live Demo
Five sections — inventory, cost tracking, alerts, usage analytics, CSV export. Everything accessible without writing a single line of code.
Try the sidebar, search, filters, and the Add Chemical form.
ChemPion — interactive dashboard prototype.
Design Decision 01
When I observed how lab staff actually checked inventory, their first question was never "show me everything" — it was "is anything wrong?" This led to the decision to make status the dominant visual element. Color-coded pills (green, amber, red) let users scan urgency before reading a single number.
The color system mirrors how researchers physically scan shelves — checking labels for expiry dates and low quantities. The dashboard digitizes that same instinct.
Design Decision 02
The original system required Python knowledge to add or update chemicals. But the people who manage inventory day-to-day are lab assistants and graduate students — not developers. The redesign replaced every code-level action with a form-based UI, removing the technical barrier entirely.
Before — to add a chemical
After — to add a chemical
Click + Add Chemical
Fill the form.
Done.
Design Decision 03
The dashboard opens with four KPI cards: total chemicals, total value, expiring soon, and low stock. This layout was chosen because conversations with lab members revealed that their inventory check always starts with the same question: "do I need to order anything?" Four cards answer that without scrolling.
Earlier iterations showed six or eight metrics. Reducing to four forced prioritization — only the numbers that drive action made the cut.
Design Process
The design started by mapping the existing workflow: how lab members currently check stock, what triggers a reorder, and where the Jupyter notebook breaks down. Three patterns emerged from these conversations.
These patterns informed the layout: KPI cards at the top for instant status, a filterable table for detail, and a persistent sidebar for switching between views without losing context.
The Problem
ChemPion started as a Jupyter notebook — a developer's tool for tracking lab chemicals. Functional if you knew Python. Inaccessible if you didn't. The data was all there. The interface wasn't designed for the people who needed it most.
Result
The same data, redesigned for the entire lab. Five fully functional sections, real-time search and filtering, form-based workflows for all common actions, and one-click CSV export.