Changing the face of Forto

I work closely with cross-functional teams—including Research, UI Platform, Developers, and Customer-Facing Design team to define a clear strategy and process for the SHIP redesign project. One of the biggest challenges we encountered was maintaining momentum across teams while managing interdependencies that could cause delays. To address this, we introduced the "Hot Potato" process an approach designed to enable asynchronous collaboration, allowing teams to make progress independently without being blocked by others.

I collaborated closely with the Research team to gather feedback through a series of structured interviews conducted in February 2024. Alongside two dedicated researchers, I served as a primary interviewer. We engaged with participants from a range of departments—including Process Management, Account Implementation, Sales (Large Cap), Customer Care—as well as with real customers. These conversations provided valuable insights into user needs, pain points, and expectations, which directly informed the direction of our redesign efforts.

• Need for Improved Visibility and Transparency: Many users express a desire for better visibility into shipment status, PO information, and schedules. They want to be proactively informed of changes and deviations.
• Customization and Flexibility: Users have diverse needs based on their department, customer type, and experience level. The system should be flexible enough to cater to these differences.
• Data Accuracy and Reliability: Concerns are raised about inaccurate or unreliable data, especially regarding timestamps, schedules, and booking information.
• Integration and Efficiency: Users want the system to be integrated with other tools and processes, such as GSheets and reporting. They also want to minimize manual work and streamline workflows.

By analyzing current SHIP usage data in Heap, we were able to uncover key user behavior patterns and pain points. These insights played a crucial role in informing our design decisions, allowing us to prioritize improvements that directly address real user needs and enhance the overall experience in the redesigned platform.

Through collaborative discussions, affinity mapping, and prioritization exercises, we distilled common themes into five core principles Engagement, Clarity, Reduce Noise, Contextual Relevance, and Novelty. These principles now serve as a shared foundation to guide design decisions across the platform.

When I joined Forto, the design team was relying on an outdated design system based on Material Design, which had not kept pace with advancements in Figma—such as the introduction of variables and other modern features. The components were built in a way that often required designers to detach them in order to customize or use them effectively. This led to low adoption across teams, reduced consistency in the UI, and increased design debt over time.

The solution:

1. One-to-one mapping: Parity between design and development by achieving a one-to-one mapping of components between our Figma design library and the development library (Phoenix).
2. Brand consistency Improving the styling library to maintain brand consistency and strengthen visual identity.
3. Scalable design system Develop a scalable design system that effectively supports multiple brands, themes and devices with responsive capabilities.
4. Reusable components Develop reusable components to optimize efficiency and streamline design processes

To reduce dependencies and increase efficiency, we defined clear ownership of the UI component library using a semi-decentralized design system model. This semi-decentralized approach allows for flexibility and innovation across teams, while still maintaining coherence and control at the system level.

Every decision was data-driven. We collaborated with developers through daily build reviews to ensure functional, intuitive designs. Navigation and interactive elements were streamlined for clarity.

1. Shipments Layout

Card View: Elements in this view are presented linearly. Users can group, sort and filter the list. With this view users can access to more detailed information.

Table View: Shipments in a condensed view. Users can view more items, filter and also customize the columns. This view allows a higher entries display matching the user's viewing criteria.

2. Shipment Information Visibility information on shipment's status and journey was increased, by providing a cleaner version of the timeline. The Activity Feed integrated into main shipment list for easy access by customers thereby saving back and forth

3. Info Widgets Introducing easy access to specific set of shipments depending on the contextual visibility need of our customers.

Even though we were quite stoked about all the ideas, it was crucial that the users also felt the same. We partnered with the research team to initiate iterative testing, where each round involved gathering user feedback and using it to refine the design. This process was repeated continuously until the solution effectively addressed user needs.

• Product Design identifies use case in the design process that requires validation.
• Research Team tests the use case(s) and collects qualitative feedback from users.
• User feedback is evaluated and translated into insights.
• Product Design adjusts design according to user feedback

Main Key Findings:

• Customers are only interested in the ETA, ETD and the final delivery date.
• Customers are mainly interested in the delay if it affects the final delivery date.
• Shipments that are on track do not require any immediate attention.

Design System / Efficiency:

• Design System Coverage % increase in components used across products (already at +84%).
• Reusability & Adoption Rate Number of reusable components used vs. created (drives efficiency).
• Designer-to-Developer Handoff Time Average time saved due to 1:1 Figma ↔ Dev library mapping.

User Experience & Usability:

• Adoption Rate of New Features & Layouts % of users actively engaging with redesigned views (e.g. card vs. table view).
• User Satisfaction Score % increase in satisfaction post-redesign.
• Task Success Rate % of users able to complete key tasks (e.g. Activity Feed, Booking, Tracking) without help.
• Customer Support Tickets / Queries Number of help requests or complaints should drop post-redesign.