Terminal 49

Tracking an $800b industry

Terminal 49 is a logistics and tracking startup who focuses on solving the last mile in container shipping; an 800 billion dollar industry.

Last Mile refers to the the stage in a shipping containers life-cycle where it needs delivered from the import terminal to its final destination via over-the-road trucking.

The problem – no way for users to easily track orders and containers

Terminal 49 is functioning in a mixed state of piecemailing their own interface together while also reacting manually to emails and notifications related to the entire container life-cycle; creating an overwhelming amount of information to sift through and track for themselves, and their users.

Shipping is an old industry and much of its processes crudely took shape in the 60’s and haven’t changed much since.

Workers in this industry, as we’re told, don’t rely on technology much beyond their phones, if that, so we were faced with creating a tracking system that would be friendly for less tech-savvy users.

Terminal 49 had established a number of personas, so the project began by getting acquainted with them, wrapping our heads around the container shipping industry and all it’s unique processes, terminology, and phrasings.

Ramping up with Research

Shipping is an old industry and much of its processes crudely took shape in the 60’s and haven’t changed much since.

Workers in this industry, as we’re told, don’t rely on technology much beyond their phones, if that, so we were faced with creating a tracking system that would be friendly for less tech-savvy users.

Terminal 49 had established a number of personas, so the project began by getting acquainted with them, wrapping our heads around the container shipping industry and all it’s unique processes, terminology, and phrasings.

Information Architecture & Wireframes

In spite of the industry’s history, not much exists to competitively reference and research, so, when it came to what would inform our initial IA and wireframe suggestions, we took what we learned from the client and dove in.

My roles
  • Mentor junior designers
  • User testing and synthesis
  • Explore IA and wireframe of dashboard shell
  • Icon design
  • Establish a grid system for team design consistency

User Testing

Our client served as our testers; not desirable, but better than nothing.

Since Terminal 49 is a new concept in the Last Mile shipping industry, our client wasn’t yet comfortable testing anyone outside of the company.

Testing taught us:

  • Our iconography usage needed to be reigned in
  • Some users experienced dyslexia if certain information bits were too close together
  • Users value filtering orders by segments of an order/containers journey