FR8STAR

Oversized/overweight freight matching platform with detailed cost estimator and in-platform bidding to save shippers and truckers money through the ability to contract directly without a traditional broker.

ROLE

Product Designer

TOOLS

Sketch, InVision, Zeplin

Finding Product-Market Fit

FR8Star hired me as their first designer with the objective of turning their proof of concept into a valuable platform. I worked to introduced UI cohesion with a lean team of front end engineers which meant minimizing custom components. I established customer feedback methodology and user journey analytics to gauge the effectiveness of new releases. And I helped the team ruthlessly prioritize for maximum market value.

Gained Critical Mass

A significant share of the 3,800 U.S. open deck carriers joined which allowed us to offer real value to shippers and grow our network organically.

beyond the stereotype

I established a UX research practice including a customer feedback methodology to get beyond the common wisdom about who truckers are and what motivates them.

I engaged our team to participate and socialized the insights at company meetings, project kickoffs, and design reviews. Through user signals we saved engineering time by building solutions with a high chance of success and were able to pivot quickly when an idea wasn’t working.

• Stakeholder interviews

• Domain expert interviews

• User interviews

• Competitive analysis

• Concept tests

• Usability tests

• Contextual inquiry

• Survey design

• Domain analysis

• Component libraries

• California Trucking Show

• World of Asphalt

• Mid America Trucking Show

• High performing teams

A Lean Solution

From optimizing registration to building management interfaces I defined requirements, explored and validated solutions, and designed for efficient implementation.

• Navigation

• Search and sort loads

• Map search

• Load detail cards

• Registration

• Shipper post load flow

• Carrier profile and settings

• Load management views

• Transaction detail views

• Price Lock transaction flow

• Carrier membership tiers

• Notifications

Highlight: Post Load Flow

In order to create a two-sided marketplace, shippers need to trust FR8Star to find them a quality carrier at a competitive rate. We aimed to deliver value to shippers up front with specialized freight estimates, but we also wanted them to post their load so our carriers could bid.

Before

Shippers were confused by the inputs and didn’t understand the four step process presented.

The map felt out of scale to its importance and the visual elements were out of place next to the product’s logo and colors.

v1: Focus on Posting

This redesign maintained the focus on posting a load. The estimate was just a step along the way.

With improved focus, progress, and error prevention, the rate of users who succeeded in seeing an estimate more than doubled.

We saw no significant improvement in the number or quality of posted loads.

v2: Estimate Forward

Research showed that most shippers wanted to check the estimate for multiple items before deciding whether to post a load.

In this design shippers could stay focused on the estimate flow until they wanted to move forward with a load post.

While the rate of loads posted decreased slightly, the proportion of loads with strong intent to book increased.

Attempts up 100%

Across iterations, the new designs did a better job of enticing people to start an estimate.

views up 120%

In addition to being friendlier, the redesigns helped users avoid errors and get their estimate on the first attempt at more than twice the rate.

Higher engagement

The estimate-forward design led to increased engagement with carrier bids, a key driver of closing loads.

Learnings

Systems Thinking

It’s important to have a solid understanding of the technical and business systems supporting the product and the context of the people who use it.