A coral tracking system for KAUST's Reef Restoration Initiative
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology's Reef Restoration Initiative needed software to track 20,000+ coral specimens across laboratory tanks and ocean nurseries. The existing system relied on CSV uploads, causing constant data lag and errors. I redesigned the platform to mirror how researchers actually work: creating spatial interfaces that match physical nursery layouts and streamlining coral movements from a 15-minute process to under 30 seconds.
Client
DigyCorp
Role
Product Designer
Responsabilities
Wireframing, UX & UI Design, Prototyping, User Testing
Timeline
Q2 - Q3 2025
Before diving into design decisions, it helps to understand how coral restoration facilities actually work. Nurseries are either ex-situ (laboratory tanks on land) or in-situ (structures in the ocean). Within ex-situ facilities, corals are organized hierarchically: arrays contain tanks, tanks contain trays, and each tray holds dozens of coral fragments in a grid. Cameras mounted above the tanks photograph every tray hourly, with AI analyzing the images to track growth, mortality risk, and disease. In-situ nurseries are different, corals grow on underwater structures like trees, rack trees, and floating tables scattered across the coastline.
The core idea behind eCoral is simple: every single coral has a digital twin. Each coral in the system carries its own profile showing growth rate, mortality risk, and health status. Cameras mounted in each tank photograph the trays every hour, and an AI image recognition system analyzes the photos to update these metrics automatically. The interface makes each coral's state immediately clear. You can see at a glance which corals are thriving, which ones are at risk, and which need attention. One look at a tray map tells you everything you need to know.
I started with calls to the researchers and technicians who would use this system daily. What I learned changed how I approached the entire project. Corals don't stay put. A single fragment might start in a development tank, get moved to a growth tray, develop signs of disease, go to quarantine, recover, return to a different tank, grow for several more months, and finally get transported to an ocean nursery for out-planting. Each of these movements matters, they're part of the scientific record.
The core workflow problem was moving corals between locations. In the old system, this meant exporting data, editing a spreadsheet, and uploading it back, a process that took 15 minutes and frequently introduced errors. I designed a step-by-step interface that mirrors how researchers actually think about transfers. Select the source corals. Choose a destination. Confirm with a visual preview. Done.
In-situ nurseries presented a different challenge. Unlike the controlled grid of laboratory tanks, ocean sites are scattered across a coastline. Researchers needed to see where things were geographically. The in-situ view combines a map showing physical locations with a list showing status and capacity for each site. Icons distinguish between different nursery types, trees, rack trees, line nurseries, floating tables, using the same visual language the team already uses in their planning documents. Selecting a site reveals the same level of detail available for lab tanks: growth stages, mortality rates, task lists, and the history of every coral at that location.
The system launched in late 2025. The researchers told us that what used to take 15 minutes now takes under 1 minute, a 15x speed-up. More importantly, they trust the data now, the accuracy jumped to near-perfect. Admin time dropped too, what used to require constant manual cleanup is now largely automated, cutting working hours from 4h to 1h daily, a 4x reduction.
Coral transfers
Admin time
