ShipScope

Constraint

AIS coverage depends on receiver density and geography. The interface cannot pretend the data is complete.

Decision

Build a map-first experience with honest gap framing — show what the data can and cannot tell you, and use plain language rather than raw technical fields.

Proof

Live at shipscope.dreamcreative.io. Free public access, no account required.

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The problem

This year, watching what was moving on the water started to feel like it mattered. Ongoing conflicts, supply disruption, Suez Canal traffic — these things affect everyday life in ways that are hard to picture from a news headline.

I wanted to see the data directly. The actual vessels, their positions, their movement. I also had no idea AIS signals were transmitted via radio until I started digging into it, which once you know it makes the whole system feel more interesting — and more obviously imperfect.

The build

The hardest part of ShipScope was not the interface. It was finding a free API with data worth visualising. Most AIS providers charge for anything beyond sparse coverage, and the free tiers rarely have enough density to make the map feel live. Finding a source that worked took longer than building the product around it.

Once that was solved, the design question was simpler: how do you make vessel positions, headings and timestamps readable rather than technical? The answer was a map-first layout with plain status language — no jargon, no raw field dumps. Just enough to understand what a vessel is doing and where it is headed.

AIS has gaps. Geography, receiver density and satellite availability all create blind spots. The interface acknowledges that rather than papering over it.

The result

ShipScope makes the water observable. It takes a technical public-data source and turns it into something anyone can scan, question and understand — free, no account, live at shipscope.dreamcreative.io.

It is also a reminder that the infrastructure underlying everyday life is almost always more interesting than it first appears.