Control Tower
Company Overview
Axa Logistics provides logistics and supply chain solutions that help all participants in the ecosystem collaborate and meet customer service commitments, from the vast global motor carrier network, to Logistics Service Providers (LSPs), to ocean carriers, to BCOs and shippers.
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Problem Statement
Logistics managers need a Control Tower within the platform which displays relevant information, helps them manage exceptions and allow collaboration with different parties involved in their business to ensure smooth running of their operations.
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Currently in the dashboard, users cannot prioritize the information, take actions on them or collaborate within the platform.
What is a Supply Chain Control Tower?
A Control Tower is a central hub which provides extensive supply chain information and :
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provides enhanced end to end visibility for trade partners
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helps in exception management by tracking milestones, sending alerts and allow users to take action within the app
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allows collaboration and helps in short term and long term decision making aligned with strategic objectives
Project Goal and features
To build a Command Tower which helps customers run day to day operations smoothly by​:
Project Overview
What I Did
My Role
My Team
Design Process
1. Business Needs
Axa aims to provide customers with necessary tools to manage their logistical needs. With rapid changes in customers’ buying patterns combined with offerings like same day delivery and omni-channel retail etc. – the already complex supply chain is getting more complex. In this complex landscape, resolving an issue that has arose or mitigating one that will arise in future - becomes far more challenging.
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1. Customers need visibility of the issue at the right time before it snowballs into a disruption.
2. They need to have a smart channel to collaborate and resolve it.
3. They need prescriptive recommendations to resolve it in an optimal way.
4. Customers should be able to perform what-if analysis, simulate the options, see the cost impact and take an informed call on how to resolve the issue
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This is what Axa command tower intends to do to ensure customer needs are met.
2. Market Research
Competitor's Analysis of Command Towers
Feature Prioritization and Project Roadmap
Based on market research, we need to include the key features provided by the competition to satisfy customers and provide quality service
Existing Control Tower
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Static view of dashboard with default widgets based on persona
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Widgets cannot be added/deleted
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Widgets cannot be rearranged
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Action cannot be taken on any widget
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No messaging/collaboration feature
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No way to manage exceptions, add alerts, sort order
3. User Research
Personas
There are multiple personas for the targeted features
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1. Supplier (Customer Fulfillment Manager)
2. Manufacturer (Supply Assurance Manager, Sales Manager)
3. Logistics Service Provider: LSP (Transportation Coordinator)
4. Transportation Carrier/3rd Party Logistics(Transportation Associates)
5. Distribution Center (Warehouse Manager)
6. Retailer (Store Manager/Buyer/Merchandiser)
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For this release we will focus on the use cases for 3 key personas:
1. Supplier
2. Logistics Service Provider
3. Buyer/Planner
User Interviews
We interviewed 3 users from each persona category to understand their goals and any blockers they have in our current system
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The purpose of the interview was to find out:
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What are the main day to day operations that the users manage?
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What are the current pain points which are blocking them from reaching their goals effectively?
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What are the other tools they are using?
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Did they find Axa’s existing Visibility, Exception management and Collaboration functionality useful? What encouraged or discouraged them to use it?
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Did they wish to have an improved functionality in Axa’s product with respect to these areas?
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Below are the insights and common pain-points I learned about:
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Currently, users view a static default dashboard based on their persona. They want the ability change the widgets on the dashboard and set up alerts and notifications, which is currently missing in Axa's platform
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They want to be able to navigate to all the exceptions at one place and be able to take actions to resolve them
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They are facing problems in searching/finding relevant parties' contact details in order to ask questions or inform them about updates regarding any transaction
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They said that if there was a more actionable control tower with collaboration features, it would help them save time and be more efficient.
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Oliver, shipper
I want an easy way to communicate with all the parties involved in a shipment and access files and docs readily
Susan, buyer
I want to stay on top of my orders and make sure that I am aware of any exceptions ahead of time
Sherwin, LSP
I like the exceptions widget which Axa currently has, but it would be helpful if I could set up alerts and notifications.
Based on the above insights, the following brief personas were defined to represent goals and pain-points
Sydney the Supplier
A supplier supplies the raw material by manufacturing or sourcing the items based on the POs raised by the planner
Goals - To ensure PO's are fulfilled effectively
Pain Points - To be able to view all PO's with exceptions and collaborate with LSP's to ensure on-time fulfillment
Lynn the LSP
They are the transportation coordinators They take care of end to end transportation of the shipments from supplier to the buyer
Goals - To ensure shipments are transported from origin to destination in a timely manner
Pain Points - To be able to recover from delays/exceptions on shipments
- To inform supplier, buyers and Motor carriers about updates
They plan assortments, generate POs and sources items from different suppliers
Goals - To ensure items in a PO are received on time
Bailey the Buyer/Planner
Pain Points- To be able to be aware of delays in PO and make necessary decisions if required
User Flows
Based on the persona's goals and frustration points, we defined the user-flows which would help them achieve their goals.
As we can see, the goals and frustrations points for the Supplier and the Buyer for our scenario is quite similar. Their main goal is to ensure the PO is getting fulfilled on time. Therefore they would have the same user-flow and experience to perform their tasks
Visibility
Exceptions Resolution
Collaboration
4. Brainstorming, Wireframes and Iterations
Sketches
I sketched out various options for each of the features and brainstormed with the management. This helped in clear communication ofmy ideas to the team and ensure all features and functionalities were dealt with
Feature 1
Visibility - Add/Rearrange/Delete Widgets & Manage Views
The idea of improving visibility is to help users manage what they like to see on the dashboard by adding, deleting and moving widgets.
For the next release we will let users create their own widget, edit visualizations and add filters to a widget.
Low Fidelity Wire-frames - Iteration 1
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What I learned:
The feedback I got from user for these wire-frames were:
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1. The Add widget feature was hidden inside configure-> Manage Dashboard->Add Widget
2. The set default for views are also buried inside the Add Widgets pop-up
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What I did with it:
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Therefore for the next version I separated the views function from the configure function .
I also made thumbnail versions of the Widgets on the pop-up. This helps user to view more widgets on the screen at a time.
The Save As option is embedded on the popup for Add Widgets
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Medium Fidelity Wireflow - Iteration 2
Feature 2
Exceptions Management and Resolution
What are exceptions?
Exceptions are any events that occur which disrupt the normal flow of the supply chain process.
Currently Axa Global has a widget on the dashboard that shows a list of exceptions. Users have to coordinate with the parties outside of the platform to work a way through the exceptions
So, the idea now is to help users see all the exceptions in one place and collaborate here. LSP's can modify the shipment legs within the system.
Low Fidelity Wire-frames - Iteration 1
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What I learned:
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The feedback I got from users for these wire-frames were:
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1. Two tabs for PO and Shipments details duplicated the information displayed. Users need to quickly see what is relevant only to them
2. They liked the pane and window view, they said that it helped them go through the exception list quickly
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What I did with it:
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Hence, for the next round, I decided to have separate view for the LSP and the Buyer/Shipper persona
I added the designs for collaborating from the exceptions screen.
Medium Fidelity Wireflow - Iteration 2
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Feature 3
Collaboration - Contextual chat windows
Low Fidelity Wireframes - Iteration 1
What I learned
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1. Based on the interviews and usability tests, the users need a quick and hassle free way to get a message across. We needed an efficient way to create a contextual chat without having the user enter all the details first. User needs a quicker way to start a chat.
2. Users were confused with having 2 different navigation to get to the collaboration channel list. ( top navigation bar item for minimized list and left navigation item for full screen view )
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What I did with it:
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1. Hence, for the next round, I designed the initial create chat window to have context and exception heading prefilled and with suggested parties auto-selected, to help users start a chat with one-click
2. I decided to try out 2 different variations of maximizing view from List view to Full Screen view as shown below:
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Mid Fidelity Wireflow - Iteration 2
1. Initiate Chat
I decided to test 2 versions of the interaction to observe which one felt more intuitive to the user. I did a usability test with 2 different sets of users to compare perform
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Usability test tasks:
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How would you access a chat list window to access all previous and ongoing chats?
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Can you show me how you would navigate to all your messages on a maximized view?
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Go back to the previous screen you were working on.
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Option A - Chat List Window drop down from top navigation bar
1 . Click on the message icon on the top navigation bar to access the Chat list window
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2. Click on the expand icon on the list window to expand to full screen view
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3. Click on exit full-screen to go back to previous screen
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Results :
All the users were able to complete the task.
However 2/3 users mentioned that if they wanted to directly go to the full-screen view, they had to open the list view first and then click on expand
Option B - Sticky Chat List window at the bottom left of the screen
1 . Click on the Sticky chat list bar on the bottom of the screen to view chat list
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2. A full screen view of the collaboration center and messages can be accessed by clicking on the message icon on the top navigation bar
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Results :
The users were able to comprehend and navigate through this easily.
3/3 users said that it felt intuitive once they saw the message icon on the top navigation bar.
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Based on the test results, I decided to use this version for the final designs
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5. High Fidelity Mockups
The next step was to implement all the feedback from users, product analysts and manager into my designs to create the final mockups for handover to Dev. Here are some of the main screens for each feature
Visibility - Add/Rearrange/Delete Widgets & Manage Views
Exceptions Management and Collaboration
Here are some of the screens for a closer view
LSP view of Exceptions Resolution
Dark theme dashboard view with a chat window and chat list view open
Dashboard with edit layout to move and delete widgets
Pop-up showing list of widgets to add/remove from the dashboard
Conclusion & Validation
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We incorporated the feedback received from the sample list of users since it is difficult to obtain a large number of users from different customer organizations . The Axa solution is a very customized application tailor-made for our users. This process is going to be an iterative process and we will repeat the design and user research process in case any new customers needs vary largely from what we provide currently. We are reaching out for feedback and have received positive comments.
Based on user interviews. the user's informed us that with the introduction of the in-app chat and exceptions resolution they are saving 30-40% of time which they would have spend if they had to go outside the system, make calls and send emails/messages.
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Next Steps
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For testing out current designs
1. We will keep track of analytics to check if any feature is under performing and reiterate those.
2. Interview current users and perform contextual inquiries to view points to improve upon.
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For the next product cycle, we are going to implement:
1. Customizable and resizable widgets with "Create your own" option. The widgets will also include filters and sort options
2. Alternate route recommendation feature for exceptions for buyer and shippers
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