← AppleFeature deep dive

Facilities
Management

One platform, from a global view all the way down to a single room.

Apple’s campuses are enormous — many buildings across many sites, every one full of meeting rooms that have to be kept working and kept busy. In 2015 the facilities team had no single place to do that job. I came in through IS&T to design one.

region view — rendered to Apple’s HIG
Check InAmericas › All LocationsB+ Favorites
AmericasLocationBuildingRoomLast 90 days ▾
Utilization
64%avg utilization▲ 4%
SepNovJanMarMayJul
Scheduled Events
81%
Confirmed
Hours Recovered
10,670
30% of cancelled recovered
Recurring
32%
of all events
Peak Utilization
64%
211 rooms
Meeting Length
30 min50%
60 min41.8%
90+ min8.3%
Utilization by Size
56%
Small
59%
Medium
63%
Large
Campuses
Infinite Loop71%
Apple Park64%
Mariani58%
Bandley52%
De Anza46%
01The problem

Two jobs, three roles, one dataset.

Facilities managers and their associates had to manage both the health and the utilizationof meeting rooms — keeping rooms functional, and understanding how heavily they’re used so the team can plan. And it wasn’t one kind of user: the team spanned facilities managers, building managers, and check-in support staff — three roles looking at the same reality from a different altitude.

Give managers all the relevant data across every building they manage — ideally from one platform every role could use for their own job.
02The question I answered first

Could a single platform really serve everyone?

It would have been easy to assume three roles meant three tools. So I went to the source — I spoke with people across the facilities team to understand what each role actually did day to day, and built the requirements out of those conversations rather than assumptions.

The answer came back yes — because what differed between roles was the view, not the underlying data. Give each role the right view into the same dataset, and one platform serves the whole team.
03Guiding principles

Easy, scannable — and, partway in, mobile.

I was handed two principles: the tool had to be easy to use, and its data easily scannable — this is a team that reads a situation fast, not one that studies it. Partway through, a third requirement arrived: it had to work on mobile.

Why mobile wasn’t a nice-to-have

The meeting-room signage across Apple’s campuses ran on iPads, and facilities work happens on your feet, walking a building — not at a desk. Every wireframe I produced carried a paired mobile view for exactly that reason.

shared nav — selectors + favorites (desktop + mobile)
Add Multiple Selections to FavoritesThu Sep 17 2015
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.com
Check in Dashboard+ Add Favorites[edit]Room 1Room 2Room 4CampusBuildingRoomDevicesWelcome, Bob
Search by Name 🔍
+Name
+Name
+Room 1
+Name
+Name
+Room 2
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Room 4
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
+Name
Add to Favorites
Mobile
Carrier12:00 PM
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.comGoogle
Check in Dashboard
🔍 Search
Welcome, Bob
+ Add Favorites [edit]
Search by Name 🔍
+ Room 1
+ Room 2
+ Room 4
Add to Favorites
PATTERNOne navigation, everywhere

Region · Location · Building · Room · Duration.

Every view shared one navigation: a selector across the hierarchy, search-by-name, and a Favorites feature so a user could pin the rooms or buildings they watch most and jump straight to them — with a graceful state for when someone favorites more than a few.

04The hardest part

One dataset, cut a dozen different ways.

The difficulty wasn’t any single screen — it was organizing a very large dataset so it could be sliced into many different sizes and kinds of pieces, and structured so everyrole could pull exactly what they needed without wading through what they didn’t. A structure built for a manager’s global planning starved a building lead of room detail; one built for room-level troubleshooting buried the manager in noise.

The breakthrough: the data was fundamentally hierarchical. I designed a drill-down that mirrored the real shape of the campus — region → location → building → room → device.

Because the structure matched reality, every person could descend to exactly the level meaningful to them and stop there. The facilities manager lives near the top; the check-in staffer drops straight to a room to debug a ticket. Same tree, different depth.

region view — the wireframe it came from (desktop + mobile)
Region View DetailedThu Sep 17 2015
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.com
Check in Dashboard+ Add Favorites[edit]Room 1Room 2Room 4CampusBuildingRoomDevicesWelcome, Bob
Region
Americas
Location
Building
Room
Duration
+ Add to Favorites
0%25%50%75%100%
Sep '14Nov '14Jan '15Mar '15May '15Jul '15
Takeover %
Recover %
Cancellation
More Metrics ⌄
Scheduled Events
81%Confirmed
Hours Recovered
10,67030% of the total of cancelled hours have been recovered.
Meeting Length
8.3% (90+ minutes)
41.8% (60 minutes)
50.0% (30 minutes)
Popular | 30 minutes   Average | 51 minutes   Median | 181 minutes
Recurring Events
32%Recurring
179,407 Single Events (68%) / 86,275 Recurring Events (32%)
Peak Utilization
64%211 rooms
Utilization By Size
56%Small 1-4
59%Med 5-9
63%Large 10+
Campus
Campus Name
Infinite Loop[Details]
Apple Park[Details]
Mariani[Details]
Bandley[Details]
De Anza[Details]
Vallco Pkwy[Details]
Mobile
Carrier12:00 PM
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.comGoogle
Check In Dashboard
🔍 Search
Hide Metrics
Takeover
Recover
Cancellation
Scheduled EventsShow | Hide
Hours RecoveredShow | Hide
Meeting LengthShow | Hide
RecurringShow | Hide
Peak UtilizationShow | Hide
CampusShow | Hide

The region dashboard as I wireframed it — the drill-down, metrics, and paired mobile view the HIG screen up top was built from.

05The views, by altitude

Scannable at every level.

The detailed views carried a real metrics dashboard — utilization, cancellation, takeover and recovery rates up front, with an expandable set of secondary tiles — plus a date-range chooser and, at the room level, a device table (last seen, iOS, client build). Cancellations surfaced a “3-strike” no-show view.

ROOMBring it online

Drop to a single room and act on it.

At the room level the same scannable dashboard reappears — utilization and sparklines up top, an online/offline toggle to bring a room back, and the device table beneath it. Troubleshooting is where the drill-down ends and the work begins.

room view — bringing a room online (wireframe)
Room View Bringing OnlineThu Sep 17 2015
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.com
Check in Dashboard+ Add Favorites[edit]Room 1Room 2Room 4CampusBuildingRoomDevicesWelcome, Bob
Region
Americas
Location
SCV
Building
Mary 3
Room
Meeting Room 1
Duration
days
OfflineBring Online
+ Add to Favorites
0%25%50%75%100%
Sep '14Nov '14Jan '15Mar '15May '15Jul '15
Takeover %
Recover %
Cancellation
More Metrics ⌄
Devices
5 Devices[add device]
iPad-SCV-012m agoiOS 17.2b4421[edit]
iPad-SCV-025m agoiOS 17.2b4421[edit]
iPad-SCV-031h agoiOS 17.1b4390[edit]
iPad-SCV-043h agoiOS 17.2b4421[edit]
iPad-SCV-051d agoiOS 16.6b4102[edit]
Mobile
Carrier12:00 PM
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.comGoogle
Check in Dashboard
🔍 Search
Show Metrics
DevicesShow | Hide
5 Devices
room view — rendered to Apple’s HIG
Meeting Room 1
SCV · Mary 3
Online
Utilization
72%this room
SepNovJanMarMayJul
Takeover
12%
Recover
88%
Cancellation
4%
Devices+ Add
Conf Room iPad
Last seen 2m ago
iOS 17.2
Front Panel iPad
Last seen 6m ago
iOS 17.2
Overflow iPad
Last seen 1h ago
iOS 17.1
Spare iPad
Last seen 2d ago
iOS 16.6

The same room view, rendered to Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines.

room details — events, no-shows, 3-strikes drill-down
Room View DetailsThu Sep 17 2015
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.com
Check in Dashboard+ Add Favorites[edit]Room 1Room 2Room 4CampusBuildingRoomDevicesWelcome, Bob
Region
Americas
Location
SCV
Building
Mary 3
Room
Meeting Room 1
Duration
days
Onlinebring Offline
+ Add to Favorites
0%25%50%75%100%
Sep '14Nov '14Jan '15Mar '15May '15Jul '15
Takeover %
Recover %
Cancellation
More Metrics ⌄
Events[View Details]
Event NameSep 17
Event NameSep 16
Event NameSep 15
Event NameSep 14
Event NameSep 12
Event NameSep 11
No Shows[View Details]
NameSep 17
NameSep 15
NameSep 14
NameSep 12
NameSep 10
NameSep 08
3 Strikes[View Details]
NameSep 16
NameSep 13
NameSep 11
NameSep 09
NameSep 06
NameSep 02
Devices
5 Devices[add device]
iPad-SCV-012m agoiOS 17.2b4421[edit]
iPad-SCV-025m agoiOS 17.2b4421[edit]
iPad-SCV-031h agoiOS 17.1b4390[edit]
iPad-SCV-043h agoiOS 17.2b4421[edit]
iPad-SCV-051d agoiOS 16.6b4102[edit]
Mobile
Carrier12:00 PM
IS&T Web
https://istweb.apple.comGoogle
Check in Dashboard
🔍 Search
EventsShow | Hide
No ShowsShow | Hide
3 StrikesShow | Hide
DevicesShow | Hide
DRILL-DOWNMore metrics, on demand

Depth without clutter.

Secondary metrics — Events, No Shows, the 3-Strikes no-show policy — expand only when a user asks for them, so the default read stays fast while the detail is a click away for whoever needs it.

Figures shown in these screens are illustrative sample data, standing in for Apple’s.

06The role model

Same dataset, four permission shapes.

The roles turned out richer than three flat labels — but all feeding off one dataset.

Building Manager

Review online rooms/devices, room utilization, compare building performance, inventory.

Facilities Management

All of that plus cross-campus summary stats, site performance, and capacity planning.

Check-in · Regional Admin

Device status with a focus on offline rooms, check-in/cancellation detail, edit room attributes, update iPad display messaging.

Check-in · Super Admin

Full access — room-detail debugging, room/device management, troubleshooting support tickets.

Where it landed

A validated structure that shipped.

This was a Phase 2 redesign — a Phase 1 tool existed, and part of the brief was to make navigation more useful and collapse it to a more manageable size. I carried it from research and requirements through to a completed set of design journeys.

The designs were finished before my engagement ended, and the tool shipped afterward. What it delivered was a validated drill-down architecture — grounded in real conversations with the team — that served three roles, each at its own altitude, from a single dataset.

What it taught me

How much detail sits behind a single room on a map.

Two things stuck: working productively within a rigid existing design system — treating the constraint as part of the problem — and building frameworks for genuinely detailed datasets in a far more structured way than before. Making that legible is what the whole project came down to.