UPS - Load Manager
UPS via Coyote Logistics
My Role
Lead Product Designer, User Researcher
A project requiring the full spectrum of the UX process from initial User research to pixel-perfect prototyping.
Where I started
When I began this project, this product was already over 7 years old and the internal UPS team (Carrier Direct) had been using it extensively every day of the week. The primary objective was to dissect a complex Transportation Management System (TMS) and really understand where user friction was coming from.
Shifting to a product-led culture
For me as a new designer coming into the project, I quickly realized that the UPS portfolio had unfortunately become a feature factory. Direct and frequent communication with actual users was almost non-existent, and our product team was simply taking “enhancement” requests directly from UPS management every quarter. Anyone who has worked on a product team knows that this is not only a grind, but also leads to a bloated monstrosity of a product that nobody is able to fix or contain.
Myself, a product manager and a project manager decided to draw a line in the sand and start talking with real users about problems they were facing with the application.
Personas
Typically one of the first deliverables for a UX project is the Persona. Even though our Product Manager had been working with this specific UPS team for a long time, there were never any true user personas developed. I set our to create these personas and really get an understanding of who are users were.
“I know this current platform like the back of my hand.”
"There is just too much going on. Usually I only need to find a single tracking note."
"I can not have my software be the reason that I am behind on these loads."
OKRs…
After getting a renewed understanding of our users and their pain points we set out to create real, concrete OKR’s that we were capable of executing on.
- Improve efficiency and reduce time to task (20% reduction on main tasks).
- Enhance user satisfaction (Achieve a minimum of 90% user satisfaction in the post-interaction surveys)
The Vision
The Load Manager Redesign project aimed to simplify and accelerate load tracking and load coverage processes for the Carrier Direct team. This specific team services thousands of loads for Amazon daily on behalf of UPS. We wanted to reduce the time it takes for users to identify issues with loads, and increase their productivity.
The Process
Over the ensuing months, I collaborated extensively with Product Managers, developers, and stakeholders, striving to align our goals. Additionally, I directly engaged with users to gain insights into their workflows. The outcome was a comprehensive overhaul, which began with a major UI facelift on the page.
Current Experience...
UI Improvements
For starters I revamped the entire user interface, optimizing available space while enhancing intuitiveness. This enhancement reduced clutter and focused on the core workflows within the page, making it more digestible and accelerating workflows.
Also, it is important to mention that all of these UI changes were driven by user feedback. In my career I have learned that it is never prudent to present a UI change as “it looks better”, or that it is my preference. Having actual user data to base a change on is key.
This change was welcomed not only by users but also by the dev team for its efficiency gains and clutter reduction.
Wireframes (Main Page)...
Final Mockups (Main Page)...
Tracking Notes Updates
During our user interviews we had identified several issues that users were having with the current tracking notes experience. The tracking notes modal was inundated with hundreds if not thousands of automated tracking notes which would come from various API’s. Most of the time these notes were less than helpful. Users needed to filter through the automated noted to find notes that were inputted by actual Carrier Direct team members, or by truck dispatchers themselves. These included “Service failures” and “Exceptions.”
I added a new UI element to tag Service failures and Exceptions in order to increase their visibility. Also, I added toggle that can filter out all of the automated tracking notes.
“Adding a Memo” feature
A common issue that we identified while shadowing users was a quirky workaround that they were doing frequently. This involved a field that was intended for Delivery Numbers, but was being used to input small bits of info pertaining to the load that was meant for other CD users to view. For Example… “New ETA 1800” would populate the field instead of an actual delivery number.
To solve this, we consolidated all of the possible reference numbers into a dropdown on the load result, and added a new feature that allows users to add a “memo”. This memo was only viewable by fellow CD users and CD management.
The Outcome
An important and obvious need for us was to have a way to analyze metrics to know if we were actually hitting the goals of our OKRs. Myself and the product ops team had installed Pendo into this workflow and were able to create funnels and establish other metrics to measure time to task.
Within a month we had seen the time to task metric that involved servicing a load (finding a load > Opening tracking notes > Adding a tracking Note) cut almost in half! Before releasing our updates it was an average of 57 seconds per load, and we had gotten it down to 33 seconds on average.
For our second OKR (CSAT) we had established a bonafide way of collecting user feedback within the app and also conducted post release user interviews. Nearly all of the feedback was extremely positive and we certainly hit the 90% benchmark with user surveys.
Key Takeaways
This project provided several valuable insights:
User-Centric Focus: truly understanding the user, and prioritizing their wants and needs was essential. Basing all of the design decisions off of concrete user feedback was a necessity.
Collaboration: Working early and often with our Dev team was essential in order to understand the scope of the work, and creating an achievable design.
Vision Over Features: Creating early OKRs and using them as a goalpost for our designs was incredibly important throughout the entire process. This ensured that every feature that we created was aligned with this vision.
The transformation of the Load Manager app showcases the power of user-centric design and a strong commitment to the true product design process.