Decreased ops managers’ decision time by 45%
Operations intelligence for logistics teams
An end-to-end design of a multi-modal logistics dashboard giving operations teams real-time visibility and AI-powered insights.
Logistic
Web App
Role
Senior Product Designer
Timeline
16 Weeks
team
2 Designers, 2 PMs, 1 Data Scientist, 5 Engineers
platform
Web App
Logistics teams are not short on data. They are short on clarity.
Multi-modal logistics is one of the most operationally complex environments in business. At any given moment, a logistics team is tracking shipments across land, sea, and air simultaneously. Managing SLA commitments with dozens of carriers. Responding to exceptions in real time. Making decisions that directly affect revenue, customer satisfaction, and operational cost.
But most teams are doing all of this with tools that were never designed for it. Spreadsheets that are always one version behind. Disconnected dashboards that only make sense to data analysts. Reports that arrive after the decision already needed to be made. And no single place where everyone, from the C-suite to the coordinator on the ground, can see the same picture.
The result is not just inefficiency. It is a culture of reactive decision-making. Teams spend more time finding information than acting on it. Exceptions are caught late. SLA breaches happen before anyone notices. And leadership is making strategic calls based on data that is already hours old.
Dispatch was built to fix that. Not by adding more data, but by making the right data visible to the right person at the right time.
Operations teams average 4 tools just to see one complete shipment.
Most exceptions are caught after the SLA breach, not before.
Dashboards show numbers. Rarely what to do next.
What Dispatch changed
Before diving into the process, here is what the platform achieved and what it looks like.
45% REDUCTION
in average decision-making time for operations managers
60% Faster
exception detection through AI-powered anomaly alerts
3.2x Improvement
in cross-team data visibility across all user levels
Dispatch became the single source of truth for a multi-modal logistics operation. From C-level overview to coordinator-level task management, every user level got exactly the visibility they needed, nothing more, nothing less.
Understanding how operations teams actually work
Before designing anything, I needed to understand the real environment these tools would live in. Not how people said they worked. How they actually worked.
Contextual Inquiry
We spent time embedded with operations teams, observing how they moved through their day. Not interviews in a conference room. Actually sitting next to coordinators as they tracked shipments, watching operations managers juggle multiple screens, and seeing where the real friction lived. What I found was that most pain points were invisible in interviews but obvious in observation.
Coordinators switched between 4 tools within a single hour. Every switch was a context loss.
Exception handling depended entirely on individual experience, not the system.
Most decisions happened in chat and email, not in the tools themselves.
Stakeholder Interviews
C-level:
"I need to know if we are on track for the month. I do not need to see individual shipments."
Operations Manager:
"By the time I get the report, the problem has already happened. I need to know before it happens."
Logistics Coordinator:
"Just tell me what I need to do right now. I do not have time to read a dashboard."
Across all three levels, one theme emerged consistently: everyone was working harder than they needed to because the tools were not working for them. The C-level was flying blind on strategy. The operations manager was always one step behind the problem. The coordinator was drowning in noise trying to find signal. Three different roles, three different needs, but the same root cause: a system that generated data without ever translating it into clarity. That was the design brief for Dispatch.
Workflow Analysis
I mapped the existing end-to-end workflow for a typical day in the operations center. From shipment creation to final delivery confirmation across all three modes. What emerged was a picture of a process held together by manual checks, individual knowledge, and hope. There was no systemic visibility. Everything relied on someone knowing to look at the right place at the right time.
Exception handling, the most critical part of any logistics operation, was entirely reactive. There was no system that flagged a problem before it became a breach. Teams found out about SLA risks from angry customer calls, not from their own tools.
Who we designed for
Dispatch serves three distinct user levels. Each with different responsibilities, different workflows, and different definitions of what useful looks like.
User Journey Map & JTBD
Scenario: Sarah starts her Monday morning shift and within the first 30 minutes detects a shipment delay in Zone 3 that is at risk of breaching the client SLA by end of day.
Pain & Gain Map
Affinity Map
After synthesizing findings from contextual inquiry, stakeholder interviews, and workflow analysis, 5 core themes emerged:
Problem Statement
Logistics operations teams at every level need a single, real-time source of truth that gives them the right visibility for their role because the tools they use today were built for data analysts, not operators, leaving everyone reactive instead of proactive.
How Might We
HMW give each user level exactly the visibility they need without overwhelming them with irrelevant data?
HMW surface exceptions before they become SLA breaches, not after?
HMW make a complex multi-modal operation feel manageable to a non-technical user?
HMW reduce the number of tools an operations team needs to do their job?
HMW make AI insights feel trustworthy and actionable, not just decorative?
From problems to possibilities
With a clear problem definition, I started exploring solutions through user flows, information architecture, and early wireframes.
Information Architecture
Before designing a single screen, I mapped the full structure of Dispatch. Nine modules, each with a clear scope, no overlap, no orphaned features. The goal was to make sure every user level could find what they needed without thinking about where it lived.
User Flows
I mapped 3 critical flows that represent the core value of Dispatch:
Exception Detection & Resolution
The most time-critical flow in any logistics operation. From AI anomaly alert to coordinated team response before SLA breach.
Shipment Tracking & Status Update
The most frequent daily action for coordinators. From opening a shipment detail to updating status and logging an exception in real time.
Executive Morning Briefing
The flow that serves the strategic user. From opening Dispatch to pulling a ready-to-present operational summary without touching a single spreadsheet.