We turned a 12-step
process into four screens.
A global freight company's operations team was spending 3 to 4 hours every day on a dashboard that had never been designed. It had grown. Features were bolted on. Nobody planned it. We were brought in to replace it completely.
Their operations team had six browser tabs open at all times just to track one shipment. Nobody designed it that way. It just grew.
Shipment tracking required navigating between four separate modules.
Morning reports were compiled manually from three data sources.
No real-time visibility created reactive client communication.
New operators needed three to four weeks to reach full productivity.
What we found in user interviews
We spent week one watching the operations team work. We did not ask them what was wrong. We counted clicks. We timed tasks. We noted every moment they opened a new tab or picked up the phone because the system could not tell them what they needed to know. By the end of the week we had documented 23 distinct friction points.
The insight that changed the scope
The real problem was not the interface. It was data fragmentation. Shipment information lived in three disconnected systems. Any interface built on top of that would be fragmented too. Fixing the UX required fixing the data layer first. We told the client in week two. They agreed and extended the scope.
What we decided not to redesign
The existing system had some things that worked. The cargo classification taxonomy. The client notification templates. The weekly SLA summary structure. We kept all three and built the new system around them. Founders who have used a platform for years have institutional knowledge embedded in it. Throwing everything away is never the right answer.
The biggest decision of the project happened in week one, before we opened Figma.
Seven screens. One operations system.
Operations overview
LiveAll active shipments, real-time status, one screen.
SH-481 · SHA → LAX
On timeComplete lifecycle in a single view. No tab switching.
Route options
AI rankedAI-suggested route alternatives ranked by cost and time.
Exception queue · 12
HighFlagged delays with one-click resolution actions.
Weekly client report
AutoAutomated report generation. Zero manual compilation.
Carrier bids · SH-512
4 bidsAll carriers compared in a single bidding interface.
Welcome, Mara
Day 1New operators productive within their first shift.
The average number of modules an operator needs to open for any single task dropped from 4.2 to 1. Every critical action is now within two clicks of the main dashboard.
The client did not ask for AI.
We proposed it anyway.
In week three we identified three workflows consuming more manual time than anything else: morning report compilation, route exception flagging, and SLA risk prediction. We scoped a two-week proof of concept and presented it as an optional addition. The client was skeptical. After two weeks they asked us to build all three into the main product.
Morning Report Agent
Runs at 6am daily. Pulls data from all connected sources. Compiles the standard operations briefing.
Delivers it to the right people via Slack. Zero coordinator time required.
Exception Intelligence
Monitors all active shipments continuously. When a delivery is tracking toward a missed SLA, the system surfaces it early.
Three suggested resolution options ranked by cost and time impact.
Natural Language Search
Operators search using plain language. The system understands intent rather than matching keywords.
"Show me all shipments for Acme Corp that were late last month" returns the right results.
“I was not sure we should change the whole interface. We had 40 people trained on the old system. Two weeks after launch the team was faster than they had ever been and nobody was asking to go back.”
The client saw working screens at the end of every week. Nothing was a surprise at launch.
React / Next.js
Frontend and SSR
Node.js
Backend API and business logic
PostgreSQL
Multi-tenant relational schema
Supabase
Realtime updates and hosting
Claude API
Natural language search and exceptions
n8n
Workflow automation and agent pipelines
Figma
Design system and prototype
After Effects
Onboarding animations and transitions
Ready to build something like this?
Book a free 15-minute call. We will look at what you are building and tell you honestly what it takes and whether we are the right fit.