Case study · R&E Tours · In progress

Designing a dashboard for R&E Tours’ tour records

Role: UX/UI Designer
Client: R&E Tours
Platform: Google Apps Script · Google Drive
Timeline: In progress

The problem

Tour records live in multiple spreadsheets spread across multiple folders in Google Drive. [What that costs — time spent hunting, records that don’t match, things that slip.]

What I’m doing

I’m designing and building a dashboard that brings those records together in one place. It runs on Google Apps Script, so it lives in Google Drive right alongside the files Rick already uses. [What it lets Rick see or do at a glance.]

Where it stands

The dashboard is in the design phase. [What’s next — e.g. a prototype for Rick to test, then development.]

Context

R&E Tours is owned and operated by Rick Klimek. After I rebuilt the R&E Tours website, the next project was a dashboard for the company’s tour record keeping.

Today, Rick keeps tour records in multiple spreadsheets across multiple folders in Google Drive. In one spreadsheet, Rick tracks the itinerary and venues, calculates payments for each student, and records the staff he hires, payments made, and more. Each year he copies the previous year’s spreadsheet, so the old information carries over instead of starting fresh.

Constraints

The dashboard has to fit a small business budget, be easy for Rick to maintain without ongoing help, and feel familiar to someone who already works in spreadsheets every day. Rick also wants it to have color so it looks fun, not like another spreadsheet.

What I learned

With records this complex, I encouraged Rick to work with me one-on-one to customize each screen, so nothing was left out.

01[Finding — stated as what users did, not what they said.]
02[Finding]
03[Finding]

Key decisions

Building it with AI, inside Google Drive

I’m the designer, and I’m developing the dashboard with AI, which lets me take it from design to a working tool on my own. I chose Google Apps Script so the dashboard lives in Google Drive, right alongside the spreadsheets Rick already uses.

A dense tour spreadsheet with an itinerary, venue contacts, per-student pricing, and a block of trip costs, all on one sheet — Before: The first of two pages in a single tour spreadsheet

A low-fidelity dashboard wireframe with a trip header, summary cards for amount due, received, balance, profit, and vendors confirmed, a day-by-day itinerary table with booking status, and side panels for trip details, a school checklist, and vendor notes — After: Lofi wireframe concept

Options I weighed

Building it into his website — the site runs on WordPress, so it would have meant either piecing it together from several plugins or hard coding it, which would have taken a lot of time.
A hard-coded web app — I first considered this a year ago, but every change would have depended on me, and Rick needs something he can maintain without ongoing help.
Google Apps Script — chosen. I’ve built tools with Apps Script for other groups that use Google Workspace, and it keeps the dashboard in Google Drive, right next to Rick’s spreadsheets.

[Decision 2]

[Repeat the before / after / options pattern. Two or three decisions is plenty.]

What’s next

Next, I’ll build a working prototype, refine it through rounds of feedback with Rick, and then build the final dashboard.