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Software asset management, on screens people can read

Xensam shows large organisations what software they run and what they are licensed for.We redesigned its desktop platform, in light and dark.

Xensam dashboard: quick actions, total cost savings by source, computer and user status, inventoried computers over the year, cloud costs, unused licenses and the most used applications; Xensam standard reports: a filterable list of reports with their descriptions, groups and required access
2
roles, end to end Viewer and Admin, every screen made for both
Dark
mode, product-wide alongside the light theme
Tailwind
CSS handoff components planned one-to-one with shadcn-style code

Xensam is an AI-powered enterprise software asset management platform: it finds the software and hardware an organisation runs across SaaS, on-premise and cloud, and checks it against what the organisation is licensed for. We did a full UI redesign of its existing desktop platform for Viewer and Admin, a full design system and a Tailwind CSS handoff for its developers.

What runs through the platform

One chain, from what is installed to what it costs:

  1. Dashboard

    • Cost savings
    • Status
    • Trends

  2. Software

    • Overview
    • Local inventory
    • Raw inventory

  3. Licenses

    • Records
    • Compliance
    • Peak level

  4. Hardware

    • Devices
    • Data centers
    • Clusters and VMs

  5. Reports

    • Standard reports
    • Subscriptions

  6. Account

    • Notifications
    • Sessions
    • S3 storage
Depth First look
Every column a license manager needs, with the answer readable before the table.
Many modules One logic
Software, licenses, hardware and data centers filtered, edited and read the same way.
Viewer Admin
Two complete products on one set of screens, in light and in dark.

The whole estate, read top to bottom

Found
Savings, machine and user status, license waste and usage all compete for the first screen of a platform like this, and at equal weight nothing leads.
Decided
One order on the dashboard: what you can do now and what you can save, then status, then the trend, then where money goes, then what people actually run.
For the user
An IT or license manager sees the savings and the state of the estate before opening a single module.
Dashboard design
Xensam dashboard: greeting with quick actions and total cost savings by source, computer and user status rings, inventoried computers over twelve months, cloud costs and unused licenses by vendor, and the most used and deployed applications
After: the redesigned dashboard; the figures are example data

  1. What to do, what to save

    Quick actions beside the total savings, split by where they come from.

  2. The state of things

    Computers, users and cost by manufacturer, each against the last twelve months.

  3. The trend

    Inventoried computers month by month, this year against the last.

  4. Where money goes

    Cloud costs and unused licenses, vendor by vendor.

  5. What people run

    The most used and most deployed applications.

How the work progressed

From the platform as its users knew it to a system Xensam’s developers could build from.

  1. Discovery

    What the existing platform did, screen by screen, from a user’s seat

    Artifact A review of the live product with Viewer access, its palette taken apart

  2. User Flow

    How software, licenses, hardware, data centers, reports and the account connect

    Artifact Information architecture, user flows and screen maps

  3. Wireframes

    Where dense tables, filters and charts sit, before any styling

    Artifact Wireframes for the core modules

  4. Moodboards

    Which look lets dense data stay calm

    Artifact Three style directions drawn on the same screens

    Three style directions for Xensam, each drawn on the same dashboard

  5. UI & Design system

    One set of components for tables, filters, charts and forms, in light and dark

    Artifact Final desktop UI for Viewer and Admin, a full design system and UI kit

  6. Delivery

    What developers needed to build it in their own stack

    Artifact A clickable prototype, screen maps, and components planned one-to-one with shadcn, handed off for Tailwind CSS

From the first sign-in to every module

Found
A platform this broad is entered through one door and then spreads over software, licenses, contracts, computers, users, hardware, data centers, security, organisation and reports.
Decided
Every flow mapped screen by screen before the UI, from creating an account to each module, then one side menu that groups the modules into general work, other tools and support.

  1. Signing up

    Email, password and terms on one screen; a missing password or unticked box is named in place.

    Open the full map
    Sign-up screen map fragment: Create an Account in its default, error and filled states

  2. Logging in

    Every way a login can fail drawn as its own state, so each error says which field is wrong.

    Open the full map
    Log-in screen map fragment: Welcome Back in its default, error and focused states

  3. Getting back in

    Recovery by email, a resend, then a new password, each step ending on a clear confirmation.

    Open the full map
    Password recovery screen map fragment: the email sent confirmation and resend states, the step to open the email, then Create Password
Xensam side menu: Dashboard; General with Software, Licenses, Contracts, Computers, Users, Hardware and Data center; Other tools with Security Center, Organization and Reports; Support with Settings and About

One menu for every module

Work first, then other tools, then support; a module opens its own pages in place.

  • Product information architecture
  • Side menu and top bar
  • User flows and screen maps
  • Entry points for every module

Five jobs Xensam’s users come to it for

In the order a license or IT manager meets them.

Seeing what the estate runs

Found
Installed software arrives as thousands of raw records, and a license manager needs the applications behind them, who makes them and whether they need a license.
Decided
Three levels of the same data: an overview of trends and costs, a managed inventory of applications with their installations, and the raw records with the executable each one came from.
Software overview: license-requiring applications by month, total cost savings, installations by manufacturer, top categories, savings on unused software and the most used and deployed applications
Software inventory table: application, manufacturer, whether it requires a license, category, total and used installations, with filters in every column
Raw software inventory: product name, description, manufacturer, version and executable file for each record

Knowing where licenses stand

Found
A license position is a number per application and metric, and a long table of them hides the few that are short.
Decided
Compliance as a table that marks each row by its state, a surplus or a shortfall against what is required, with the history of any application a click away, metric by metric.
License compliance table: application, manufacturer, default metric, category, compliance and requirement, with a shortfall row in red and an exact match in green
Compliance detail for EQUA IDA Modeler 4: compliance by installations and by processors over six months, each with its current value

One record per license

Found
What was bought, under which contract, until when and for which applications sat in different places.
Decided
A license record that holds it all in one view: the license and its metric, the contract and end of life, order details, custom fields, notes, files and the applications it covers, with assignments, comments and history in tabs.
License record for Adobe After Effects 2021: license type and metric, contract with invoice number and end of life, order details, custom fields, notes, files and covered applications

Hardware and data centers in the same logic

Found
Devices and data centers were managed in screens of their own, with their own way of filtering and reading.
Decided
The same table pattern as software and licenses, extended to devices and to the clusters, hosts and VMs of each data center, with the totals on top.
Xensam’s earlier platform: the hardware list header with a rows-per-page select, Save, Layout, Filter and Columns buttons above the column names and empty filter fields
Hardware list: device name, type, primary user, primary computer, organisation, region and cost center
Data center Stockholm DC-1: total hosts, VMs, processors, cores and hypervisor, then its clusters with hosts, VMs, processors and cores

Notifications people can tune

Found
Releases, expiring licenses, contracts and comments all want attention, and one switch for everything means people switch it all off.
Decided
Each notification set by channel, email or in-app, and for licenses and contracts only for the items a person owns.
Notification settings: releases, licenses, general and contract notifications, each with on, owned or off for email and in-app

One design system under every module

Found
Dashboards, charts, tables, filters, forms and management modules all had to look and behave alike, without anything drawn twice.
Decided
A full design system from the foundations up: colour, type, tokens and variables, light and dark themes, and a component library planned one-to-one with shadcn-style code so developers could build it in Tailwind CSS.

One header on every screen

Search, theme, messages, notifications and the profile in the same place in every module, each drawn for every state it can be in.

  • Xensam header states: the search field at rest, search results for computers, the profile menu with My Profile and Sign Out, the profile name under the pointer, and a notification dot on the bell
    Header: At rest, searching, with the profile menu open, under the pointer and with a new notification.

One menu item, every state

The same Software item at rest, under the pointer and selected.

  • The Software side menu item with its count badge at rest, under the pointer and selected
    Default, hover, selected

Where the platform ended up

Xensam’s core desktop product redesigned and handed off in full: software, licenses, hardware, data centers, reports and the account under one menu and one set of components, for Viewer and Admin, in light and dark, with a design system, a clickable prototype and a Tailwind CSS handoff.

We designed it; development was not part of our scope.

roles, Viewer and Admin, with full screen parity
2
themes across the product
Light + dark
web application
Desktop
CSS handoff, shadcn-aligned components
Tailwind

In the client's words

The design work gave us concrete interface concepts to review for software asset management. We appreciated the visual direction and the way the delivered screens organised the product’s information.

Alexander Strömberg Product Enablement Manager, Xensam

5.0

Is your product too specialist to hand over?

License metrics, compliance positions, clusters and VMs: we designed Xensam around the work its specialists already do. Bring us your platform, and we’ll learn its domain before we redraw it.

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What we brought to Xensam

The product

The interface and its system