Logistics App

Product design - UI/UX Design - UX Research - Product management - Business management

Project Overview

I applied to a logistics tech startup in my area called I'll Go Get It in the fall of 2020 as a designer with a broad job description. As the first designer hired, I was initially tasked with designing marketing materials for the platform which was soon to be built. Soon after that, the pandemic hit and employees were laid off making me 1 of 2 employees that remained. This case study will take you through my role as a designer, researcher, and manager while explaining some of the processes and research techniques I used to do my job.

My Contributions

My team and I built the MVP for this product with 40 stores signed up, 20 delivery drivers, and 10 technical employees. My responsibilities included:
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‍- Lead and contribute to the design proccess from start to finish
- Facilitate internal discussion with former drivers
- Manage multiple external development teams
- Deliver user experience design solutions & documentation
- Oversee implementation and mentor jr. designers

Problem & solution

During the pandemic, transporting store products was difficult for many small and local businesses. This resulted in possible increased lengthened delivery times, improper management, and or loss of packages.

I'll Go Get's business was to tackle this problem by building a 3 sided marketplace system which would support a network of entities (including itself) to enable consumers to purchase items from an online marketplace and have it delivered the same or next day.

Application Structure

Each entity (retail stores, marketplace users, delivery drivers, and delivery firms, and of course I'll Go Get It) needed their own platforms to manage all potential data.

I lead the design proccess and managed several external development teams to build the ecosystem we needed. It was important to think about speed and scale each step of the way.

As a non-engineer, I thought it was interesting that you can cleverly control the flow of data through a system, leveraging what hits the server and what doesn't to maintain speed of communication between users.

About this study

I worked on all entity platforms, but the remainder of this case study focuses on the I'll Go Get It driver app and the I'll Go Get It customer relations management platform(CRM).

Market Research

The product evolved as I was designing- new features were added and removed on a daily basis. I researched other platforms regarding the drivers app in the space and took note on things such as onboarding UX and UI around map systems.

Onboarding & Communication

Some visuals were never asked of me, but I made them just in case future hires were added to the project. I created pitch decks used by the founder during fundraising and negotiated/wrote contracts for freelance workers when extra help was needed.

User perspectives

Our customers weren't the only people who would be using our platform. Our internal associates would also be using the product. That being said, it was important to keep the goals in mind respective to each party.

My team consisted of individuals who had worked in delivery driver supervision and also in law enforcement I spoke with these individuals to gain customer perspective, identifying goals from both the business and customer end. I then identified similarities and made conclusions from these findings.

Personas

One of the selling points of the platform was the ability for drivers to quickly onboard and become a driver without the hassle of extensive onboarding experiences.

During my time at I'll Go Get It, I overheard stories about legacy delivery drivers and how they were fed up with working under large delivery firms who required extensive paperwork and oversight. Drivers wanted something more flexible.

I formed key insights and created personas to get a better understanding of meeting wants, needs, and pain points.

Task flow #1:
Driver app: Consignment

Drivers needed a way to choose a job of their liking, learn about what time that job needed to be done, and also learn about how to get to the job destination. I clarified my thinking through flowcharts such as this one.

User flow and site map

I needed a way to explain where this user flow would exist amongst the rest of the application. In order to communicate this, I created a sitemap of the entire application and highlighted where exactly this user flow would be located.

View the full site map here.

Task flow #2:
CRM: Dispatch support

I’ll Go Get It associates (dispatchers) needed a way to help drivers when emergencies occur on the road. At this point, I was extremely excited to discover that I would be designing a UX around an interactive map used to track and assist drivers.

Below you'll see how I mapped out a "Rescue Mission" proccess for drivers in the case that an emergency should arise. This involved creating a cross functional emergency system involving I'll Go Get It associates (dispatchers), the driver in need (Rescue), and the driver to assisting the driver in need (Rescuer).

A "hand off" situation was also invented so the responsibility of the driver in need (Rescue) could be deferred to a new driver (Rescuer) via the manual intervention of dispatch (I'll Go Get It) allowing the task to still be completed successfully and on time. The driver in need was relieved of any negative rating due to the emergency situation not being the drivers fault.

User flow and site map

The sitemap below outlines the full information architecture for the CRM used by dispatch (I'll Go Get It) to carry out this rescue mission.

The highlighted bubbles indicate the specific area within the UI dispatch used to complete rescue missions.

Team collaboration and internal testing

I had a whiteboard in my office and when I wanted to run ideas by my team I would sketch them out to make sure they made sense. Getting validation on my thought proccess on challenging subjects before jumping straight into Figma ensured I made the most of my time.

Creative approach

When I came on board, the company already had a brand and color scheme established. That being said, I took on the responsibility of maintaining our design system and the proper application of UI elements. I did this through experimentation in the form of different dashboard mockups.

People first, tech second

I’ll Go Get It received article recognition in the Detroit Free Press (~230K readers per day) about how it all began. The article reflected our values on how technology should come second to the people using it and just "work".

Reflection

I learned a lot on this project- while it never made it past the MVP stage, it gave me a chance to exercise my leadership skills to the max and mentor other teammates. I learned that when dealing with real world scenarios, there are tons of edge cases that must be accounted for.

If I were to build this again, I would try not to spread my team so thin and make sure that the fundamentals of the application were solid before creating new features. Other than that, I learned a lot about how logistical data flows through a system and I think that's where I gained the most value!