RESEARCH + STRATEGY
ORDER TRACKING SYSTEM
Or how put up a design studio in my users’ backyard (figuratively speaking of course)
Client
US Food Distributor
Duration
6 months
Interface
Responsive Web
ABOUT THE PROJECT
As a major US food distributor, the timely coming and going of products from the suppliers to the shelves can be a source of competitive advantage. They needed a better way to track incoming orders than with excel spreadsheets and shared outlook inbox for any correspondence. I was responsible for scoping and designing a web app that would make it easier for these shipping coordinators to do their jobs.
OTHER CONSTRAINTS AND CONSIDERATIONS
SKEPTICISM
None of the designers or developers on the team were considered the target users
STEEP LEARNING CURVE
Designing workflows required a relatively deep understanding of transportation and logistics management
MY ROLE
As half of a two-person project scoping team, I was responsible for planning and leading discovery workshops and other user research. I also designed the wireframes, prototypes, and visual comps.
KEY ACTIVITIES
- RESEARCH 25%
- DESIGN 50%
- DOCUMENTATION 25%
MY APPROACH
Because I had to be conversant in transportation and logistics processes to effectively design a system to support them, I want to immerse myself in my user’s (work) world. We decided to work out of their office at a local distribution center for a month to maximize our time spent while minimizing the disruption. All discovery work was done onsite and in full view of our target users.
USER RESEARCH
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
The product owner and I spent a day with each of the five traffic coordinators to observe how they work and define what that work actually was. We were about to replace a system they had relied on for 20 years. We had to make sure we left the place better than we found it.
DESIGN
CO-DESIGN SESSIONS
During the design phase, we sat down with our target users several times a week for 30 minutes to sketch out ideas and surface any missed requirements. This continuous feedback loop helped us narrow the cone of uncertainty and arrive at a finished, user-validated design much more quickly
DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS
DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS
HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED
Prior to meeting with the traffic coordinators, we believed that their job was akin to air traffic controllers and that their workflow would be similar. We discovered that a better persona and source of inspiration is that of a detective on a case. Accordingly, we designed a system that supports quickly examining order details and reviewing emails to better understand how to resolve an issue
DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS
THE SOURCE OF TRUTH
During our observation, we watch our users navigate from email to excel and back again when trying to resolve an issue. We consolidated the contact information and activity logs from several sources into a single dashboard.
