Shipment Tracking
Context and Challenge
The Target:
A shipment tracking platform for CN Railway used by logistics coordinators, operations managers, and internal support agents to monitor freight across North America and Mexico.
Why It Mattered:
Low adoption meant CN couldn't demonstrate operational efficiency to customers. Longer wait times, fragmented data, and friction in contract negotiations. Visibility and traceability were essential not just for tracking, but for reducing spoilage, dwell time, and risk.
My Role:
UX/UI Lead. I owned the UI/UX strategy for the product, guided two offshore designers, facilitated alignment across product, dev, and business teams, and maintained the design system. I acted as the connective tissue between strategy and execution.
Lens 1: Behavioural Data (Google Analytics)
I took the raw analytics data: click rates on features, device resolution breakdowns, bounce rates and interpreted them through usability and behavioural science principles.
Key Insight
Bounce rates told me users were spending seconds in the tool before leaving. But I had to be careful about what that meant. Was it that the feature wasn't visible? Was it in the wrong location? Did it lack a label or contrast? I systematically considered each possible explanation using heuristic evaluation principles before forming assumptions.
Findings
Feature discoverability was poor — users couldn't find critical capabilities like Shipment Details and Map View. 40% of users were on smaller screens where the fixed-resolution interface broke — cropped layouts, overlapping elements, constrained navigation.
Validation
I couldn't run external user tests (business was apprehensive about using real customers for this type of validation), so I presented my analysis through workshops and presentations to business, product, and dev teams to gather alignment and sign-off.
Lens 2: User Feedback
What the team heard from users:
Users struggled to find or trust critical telemetry data container temperature at loading, live shipment monitoring, and historical temperature records. Information was often hidden or unavailable, forcing teams to rely on manual checks or scattered tools.
Operational Impact
Higher spoilage rates, energy costs, scheduling delays, and time lost compiling reports for audits.
What they need:
Centralized, easy-to-access telemetry view. Clear alerts and trends instead of raw data points. Simple data export for analysis and reporting.
My Role
I help synthesizing these needs alongside product and business teams, translating them into design patterns and prototypes. I helped making the business and product strategy visible to the whole team through artifacts, presentations, and design documentation.
Lens 3: Internal Audit
Impact on Operations
The reporting workflow relied on three overlapping objects (01) saved searches, tiles, and reports where saved searches effectively served as reports, and tiles were merely their graphical representations.
What They Need
While customers wanted to see more (02) and (03) data at once, the presentation lacked a clear navigational structure, making it hard to explore and navigate intuitively.
Design Opportunity
Redefine the reporting experience to turn complexity into clarity. By streamlining workflows, standardizing navigation, and presenting data through purposeful structure, the system can empower users to find meaning faster building trust, reducing cognitive load, and strengthening overall operational efficiency.
Increasing Discoverability
Turning Complex Data into Clear Structure
By simply improving how the product was exposed, through clearer hierarchy, strategic placement of entry points, and subtle cues to highlight new features; we achieved a 20% increase in adoption. This showed how small, deliberate changes in structure and visibility can have a major impact on engagement, it makes users curious, confident, and more likely to explore.
URL System
Shareable Links
Enhances user experience by ensuring every piece of content has a clear, unique address. It prevents duplication, improves visibility, and makes sharing effortless.
Proof of Concept
The Concept:
We merged three overlapping objects (saved searches, tiles, reports) into a single module the tracking tile that was dynamic, shareable, and could live outside the app as a bridge between platforms.
How I Arrived Here:
Through design critiques, competitive analysis, benchmarking, and proof-of-concept prototypes that you brought to workshops to expose your thinking and gather team alignment.
Saved Searches, Tracking Tiles and Reports Were Merged as “Saved Queries”
The reporting workflow relied on three overlapping objects saved searches, tiles, and reports—where saved searches effectively served as reports, and tiles were merely their graphical representations we combine them all in one single module, where were used as the trigger to run, share, save, overwrite, modify, etc... In addition to that, all the panels turned into collapsable areas that were taking place in different ways taking the right real state, giving priority to the main information and keeping secondary items in reduced areas.
Data Tailored to Its Usage
Turning Complex Data into Clear Structure
While users wanted access to more data at once, the previous presentation lacked a clear navigational structure, which made it difficult to explore information intuitively. To address this, we reorganized the shipment details into four main sections instead of six, removing duplicate data and grouping related information logically. Each section was renamed using industry-specific shipment terminology, helping users instantly recognize familiar concepts and move through the interface more naturally. This improved both readability and discoverability, allowing users to find what they needed faster without feeling overwhelmed. We also prioritized one-word labels that could be easily translated to french.
Re-Build With Responsive Layouts
Customizable Layouts
Different user workflows needed different emphasis: reporting results, auditing shipment details, or monitoring via map view or table view. Introduced customizable layouts rather than one fixed view. Customization adds complexity to build and maintain. We scoped it to layout selection not full widget customization to stay within our constraints.
Temperature Monitoring Section
Rather than burying temperature data in shipment details, you gave it a dedicated section with a customizable date-range selector. This directly addressed the user feedback about hidden telemetry data. By managing temperature-monitored shipments in a dedicated section, we provided users with a clearer overview to quickly identify anomalies and investigate issues in detail when needed. The temperature view included a customizable date-range selector, enabling users to analyze data with the desired precision and uncover trends or inconsistencies over time.
Results - Quantitative:
20% increase in adoption through improved discoverability achieved by restructuring hierarchy, placing entry points strategically, and adding cues for new features.
Sustained growth in new users alongside steady reduction in bounce rate over four weeks post-launch.
Results - Qualitative:
A specialist said...
“App is good for right in the moment traces. Data and features in new tools is what I need. Like the details, map on occasion. CN is moving in the right direction with these new tools!”
An industry insider described it this way…
“We like the new look of the app. It seems to be faster and the details are in better shape. Satisfied with all the data elements currently being displayed on the app details.”
A professional from the lumber industry
“Now I can find my cars and Identify which need my attention, I also can save the as a report and share it with anyone in my team, this really equals and surpass previous tools I’ve tried”
Collaboration Model:
With Offshore Designers
Guided two designers through adoption of the design library and design system. Reviewed work, provided direction, collaborated on feature presentations and stakeholder sign-offs.
With Product And Business
Regular catch-ups to align on shifting intentions. Translated business strategy into design artifacts (prototypes, presentations, design documentation) to make strategy visible to the whole team.
With Developers
Followed implementation closely, assisted QA in validating fidelity against specifications and agreed flows including edge cases and error states.
Design System
Help to maintain the main library by documenting components, providing feedback, validating polish, and evolving the protocol for new components. Fed a unique patterns library for the Track pod and ensured consistency with the Order pod.
Backlog Ownership
I managed my own design initiatives through enablers connected to epics and features, keeping the team aware of UX direction and progress. Additionally I fed the backlog with enhancements and raised bugs when necessary.
Content Design
I also owned the bilingual UX copy deck English and French. Railway has very specific terminology, so every label, message, and instruction had to work on three levels: technically accurate for industry standards, easy to understand for someone who'd never shipped by rail, and legible across screen sizes and contexts.
