Case 07 · B2B SaaS · 2025
Optilo TMS
Carriers cross-referenced shipments by hand. I led the redesign, and the multi-identifier search we shipped cut context-switching 40% and took lookups from minutes to seconds.
- Role
- UX Lead at 4Vation for 3 months, sole UX designer embedded in two back-to-back product squads
- Team
- 1 UX Lead (me) · 1 Product Owner · 4–6 developers across two product squads
- less context-switching
- 40%
- to look up a shipment
- Minutes → seconds
- legacy products redesigned
- 2
01
An Excel sheet beside the TMS
At 4Vation I took on Optilo for Carriers and Track & Trace. The first could only search by one kind of identifier, so carriers and forwarders cross-referenced against Excel and email. I sat with six of them on real tasks and mapped the context switches, later than I should have.
Optilo for Carriers after the redesign.
02
Carriers caught our wording
Four carriers tested the mid-fi prototypes and backed one view for search, status and events. They also flagged labels that weren’t their words, early enough that the hi-fi uses theirs.
The hi-fi events tab, where a warning keeps its reason and extra info attached.
03
One search, several identifier types
In the job list, carriers pick the identifier type instead of being stuck with one, and update status in a panel under the row. The search we shipped removed manual cross-referencing, and context-switching dropped 40%. For me, the biggest win was losing the Excel sheet carriers kept beside the TMS.
04
Same search, outside the company
Track & Trace, the external tracking product, needed an internal login and had no mobile support. After talking to eight external users, we made it public and built it for a driver at a loading dock. It got the same multi-identifier search, and that’s what took lookups from minutes to seconds.
05
“Wait, they can’t see that”
A carrier shouldn’t see what the client pays, and a client shouldn’t see the carrier’s subcontractor details. I ran a workshop to map which role gets which field, but started it late and paid for it in rounds of “wait, they can’t see that” towards the end of each build.
The Track & Trace cargo tab: what’s in the shipment, and no prices.
Looking back
Next time I’d run the who-sees-what workshop early, with product, legal and a carrier representative in the room. Settling it once beats finding out build by build.