8 months
March - October 2021
Truck It In, a national trucking logistics start-up based in Pakistan, was seeking for their first inhouse designer to design their first minimum viable product. The objective was to design the MVP within a tight timeline and budget to test the viability of the concept. The core problem to be solved was to connect small to medium sized businesses with truck drivers more quickly.
Truck It In is a platform bridging the gap between companies and truck drivers
As the final deliverable, we shipped three products: a web-based shipment management dashboard for shippers, an Android app for truck drivers to apply for jobs and manage shipment delivery, and an internal tool that allowed control over all the apps and users.
A web-based shipment management dashboard that allows shippers to create and manage shipments and track delivery throughout the journey.
A job board Android app that posted the shipments created by the shippers directly to truck drivers allowing them to send bids for jobs, manage delivery process, and review their income.
Based on user and market research, we designed our app to be in the local language as most of the communication in the community was done in that language. This also meant that the design system followed Left-to-Right guidelines of displaying information.
To understand the business model, I conducted 7 stakeholder interviews including engineers, PM's, business managers, and founders. To identify key user needs and pain points, I conduced 2 subject matter expert and 4 user interviews. These allowed me to understand the complex ecosystem of trucking logistics.
To understand current behaviour and attitudes of truck drivers I employed user survey method to get data from a large number of sources. We were able to get 300+ responses base don which we were able to identify the following key insights:
To identify current market trends and opportunities, I studied seven (7) competitors and identified two main categories. Some products were too complicated to use due to outdated usability standards while some new products trying to be user-friendly ended up being too simple making users feel inadequate. Most of the products followed standardized processes led by large companies, like Oracle. However we identified key opportunity lies in making the product hyperlocal due to changes in markets and processes.
Competitive analysis 2x2 matrix identifying market gap
One of the key outcomes of the research phase was a service blueprint that was used to designed the MVP. The goal was to share the concept with business managers and product owners before the design phase. This was important to design collaboratively from the beginning involving perspectives of all key stakeholders.
Service blueprint depicting the users involved, what they need, how we're going to provide it, and the relevant teams required to achieve them.
During ideation, the goal was to identify concepts that matched user's mental model and prioritize features and functionality. Since we were developing in and agile environment, I decided to design in design sprint workshops. A diverse team consisting of business managers, product managers, and engineers was assembled. As a result, selected concepts aligned with both business and user requirements and allowed engineers to establish proper foundations.
The first stage of design sprint was to brainstorm ideas and concepts.Since the team was diverse, we were able to identify ideas from all perspectives of the business. After brainstorming, we clustered and categorized them based on features and functionalities. Key features and functionalities for the MVP were selected based on their impact on the users and engineering effort. I used Miro for whiteboarding.
Affinity mapping strategy: first brain storming as many ideas, then clustering them, then categorizing clusters to identify key concepts
After key concepts and ideas are identified, I sketched ideas using crazy 8 method to experiment information organisation and interactions. The sketches allowed the team to visualize the user experience and allowed engineers to identify what resources needed to execute within time.
First sketches of the shipment management portal dashboard
Once key sketches were selected, I designed wireframes on Figma to refine the sketches with the aim to focus on user interactions and information layout. Below I show two initial wireframes of a shipment management screen for the shipper portal and how shipments will be shown to truckers in the shipment job board app. These wireframes were then discussed with stakeholders and potential users to prioritize key improvements.
Wireframes of shipment management and trucking job board
After key concepts were identified, I tested prototypes with potential users and stakeholders. During this stage of design, the goal was to design and communicate the user experience and user-flows as elaborately as possible. As we were working in sprints, the outcome requirement was medium fidelity. I worked with UI Designer who managed the style guide and branding.
The goal of low fidelity prototyping was to start testing the concept with the truck drivers and shipment managers I was currently working with. Based on their feedback, iterations were made to develop the first production version.
Prototype of shipment management (version 1)
Based on the first prototypes, I was able to conduct 6 user tests that allowed me test the design decisions and the functionality of key features. The tests were semi-structured and moderated conducted remotely via Google Meet. Key insights were:
Based on the user tests, some key challenges solved were:
An important challenge to cross was the scalability of the proposed solution. For example, designing a shipment creation form needed to be easy to fill because there is a lot of information to be filled.
Paginated booking form requiring multiple pages to make a booking
First proposed solution was a paginated form to reduce user’s cognitive load and allow them to jump to different sections of the form if needed. However, user testing revealed that this form did not work well when multiple shipments needed to be made.
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Single page booking form that makes relevant information available once required information is entered
First proposed solution was a paginated form to reduce user’s cognitive load and allow them to jump to different sections of the form if needed. However, user testing revealed that this form did not work well when multiple shipments needed to be made.
The design proposal to track delivery shipment based on user needs was too complex to execute within our current resources. So after negotiating with users, engineers, and product managers, I recommended the MVP solution that solved 80% of the problem what could be executed within our resources and deadlines.
Redesign of shipment delivery status for shipping portal
Based on usability tests and user research of three months, the solution was able to garner high impact on the industry. The following are some key performance indicators that were impacted through the launch of the products.
Solving the problem of trucking logistics is a highly complex one with several users and processes in the ecosystem. The goal was to understand the complexities of the industry at a deeper level in order to design any solution for it. My systems thinking approach from previous career in financial analysis enabled me to understand the problem's business requirements. And through my knowledge of user-centered design approach I was able to understand that pain points of the users in the ecosystem and how to design iteratively to solve them.
As a designers at a start-up, on of the key challenges was the limited resources we had to work with. There was tight budgets and timelines which limited how user-centered design was to be executed. I used frameworks such as design sprints and Lean UX to provide the highest quality experiences possible within these constraints. As a result, I was able to lead the design of three product within 4 months.
While working collaboratively with diverse stakeholders, at times it was challenging to align business and user's goals. I learned not to prove that the design decisions are correct, but to communicate effectively and listen to feedback. While communicating ideas, I advocated for the user as my goals was to design the best possible user experiences. However, when there would be conflicts between team, I found it useful to bring them together to design and strategize collectively. This resulted in different teams to understand diverse perspectives and make collective decision.
