My Role:
User Research, UX Design
Key Activities:
User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Journey Mapping
Logistics -
UX Research
Background
The client had come to us with a proposed problem - a lack of transparency and quality resources within the trucking industry. More specifically, Broker’s resources within the 3rd Party Logistics industry. Broker’s in this industry acted as an in between for companies finding space on trucks for shipping. In order to better solve their frustrations, we proposed an initial discovery phase where we could not only get a high level overview of the industry itself, but understand the users main frustrations in order to validate the client’s current assumptions within the industry.
Goals of Study
Identify user needs that have yet to be met
Expose and validate opportunities for competitive Differentiation
Gain a thorough understanding of exactly what Broker’s do and gain
an understanding of their involvement levels at different stages of the process
Questions Asked
Walk me through a typical work day as a Broker.
What does the process typically look like in order for you to book a load?
What does the process look like for choosing a carrier?
What resources are specifically helpful in order to find a carrier? Why?
Key Activities
Affinity Mapping
The first step of synthesizing our data from these User Interviews is taking an observation, quote or behavior and grouping them in order to first identify major themes & goals of our users before we start problem solving.
Themes Identified
Goals Identified
Broker
Selling a shipping load (as many as possible)
Establishing a relationship with a carrier
Efficiency
Avoiding issues with load/carrier
Carrier
Carriers have similar goals to Brokers - it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. They each want someone experienced and trustworthy.
Workflows & Inefficiencies
Competition
Building Carrier Relationships & Finding New Carriers
Validating Carriers
Resources
Carrier411 Pain Points
Load Issues
Journey Map
Design
Dashboard
Based off of our research, User’s needed a customized space for them to get ahead of their competition. They can personalize their workflow to their business needs.
Profile
We needed to give companies a space with accurate information, that also allowed them to customize their profile and essentially market themselves to potential employers.
Search Results
The current standard for the industry is a cognitive overload of information. We wanted to give users an insightful overview, they need to do things as quickly as possible so not wasting their time by having to click in to see necessary information.