Kairos: ensuring infrastructure safety

Context

Kairos was commissioned by Consorzio Fabre — an alliance of universities, research institutions, and public and private entities — as part of a national digital census and risk-assessment effort for Italy’s bridges and viaducts. It’s developed by Geckosoft in collaboration with Kairos’ team of engineers, and used by municipal inspectors, field operators and infrastructure engineers to monitor structural, foundational, seismic and hydrogeological risk.

Problem

Field inspectors needed a single system to score risk across four different categories, filled in on site, often in remote areas with no connectivity. A raw score wasn’t enough either: engineers and municipalities had to understand why a bridge scored the way it did, backed by national regulation, so they could act on it rather than just file it away. Designing for that meant building an interface hundreds of operators, many working in high-stakes environments, could rely on under pressure, in the field, and often offline.

Concept

A risk score is only useful if it explains itself — Kairos had to go from risk to action, not stop at a number.

Solution

As lead designer, I defined the product and led UX/UI for Kairos across two connected flows:

• Operators log structural, foundational, seismic and hydrogeological data directly on site, designed to hold up without connectivity — inputs sync once the operator is back online.

• An expert system combines these inputs into a single risk score per bridge, backed by national regulation. It doesn’t stop at the number: every score comes with clear, traceable reasoning, so engineers and municipalities can see exactly where to intervene and make faster decisions in time-sensitive scenarios.

Results

Kairos is live today, used by hundreds of operators across Italy — from municipal inspectors to national infrastructure engineers — supporting real-time decisions and long-term maintenance planning for the country’s bridges and viaducts.