Design Rationale

How We Started

Warehouse workers were struggling with the handheld scanner screens they use daily, leading to many complaints. The team requested design improvements to make the system easier to use and reduce slowdowns. Having a frictionless experience with the screens during their daily workflow are essential for tasks such as receiving deliveries, inbounding, moving, and storing stock in warehouses. That’s why the Fulfillment domain initially requested a "UI/UX facelift" to address these bottlenecks. 

The tool was almost a decade old and originally engineered rather than designed by a solution partner. It was still being maintained by the same third-party solution partner but unfortunately, their processes were far from agile, and long turnaround times for issue resolution. 

My role as a solo designer assigned to the project was to first understand the problem from the user’s perspective and also check if the business was onto solving the right problem. What opportunities and risks this domain was having had to be investigated further.

Research Findings

The findings revealed that "low-hanging fruit" fixes would be insufficient to address the broader, systemic challenges that users are facing. Yes, there were significant UI inconsistencies, but these were accompanied by usability issues and technical bugs—all obscured by the tool's disorganized state.

Talks with the third-party solution partner revealed that fixing all these issues would take over a year and cost six figures. Given that budget, it was worth investigating whether a new product made more sense than a superficial UI/UX facelift. Before making a decision, I proposed a strategic overhaul to eliminate bottlenecks, improve efficiency, and streamline warehouse operations.

My research highlighted the need to revisit the overall strategy and scope to ensure a sustainable, impactful, and cost-effective future. The real challenge was uncovering the root causes of user dissatisfaction and securing buy-in for a new product, despite the known bottlenecks of the existing system. The results of my initial research successfully convinced stakeholders that further user-focused research was essential—not only to drive meaningful improvements but also to surface the right data that would capture stakeholder attention in the post-COVID economy.

Second Round of Research

Within the scope of my strategic design approach, I planned and conducted another set of research initiatives on the shop floor. This time the reserach was end-user focus. Me and my stakeholders picked the warehouse in Nuneaton, UK as the pilot market who were willing to partner with me in this phase. By gathering feedback from users at various levels (operators, warehouse managers, shift managers) I identified and mapped pain points on the user journey and analyzed their possible root causes within the daily workflow. This investigation placed particular emphasis on the availability and lack of data caused by the current tool and its impact on how the stock is handled in our warehouses. 

The key findings were;

• Lack of a single source of truth

• Lack of automisation & digitalisation

• Information is not easily accessible

• Unnecessary manual/physical effort

• Late discovery of issues

• Inconsiderate processes 

Design Proposal

Create a New Product or Enhance an Existing One for Growth?
In product development each option has its pros and cons, and a balanced approach is often ideal. However, in this case, the existing tool was causing significant bottlenecks, making it clear that improvement alone wouldn't be enough.

These insights informed the design ideation phase and helped me define clear, actionable goals. It became evident that I could pitch a goal-oriented solution focused on achieving defined outcomes—both solving user problems and delivering tangible business value.

I set the following goals to guide the solutions:

• Transitioning from a task-oriented flow to a goal-oriented flow

• Designing a seamless user experience that accounts for the physical environmental conditions

• Ensuring the collection of actionable data at the right time to establish a single source of truth

Additionally, I outlined the following strategic objectives to align my product pitch with the broader technical vision:

• Migrating agreed-upon functionality from a monolithic architecture to an Agile framework, enabling continuous integration and delivery to adapt to evolving needs (burada hani buldugun bi teknik terim vardi)

• Leveraging business intelligence tools and predefined KPIs to drive data-informed decision-making

• Adapting to new age automotised warehouse operation that’s currently in testing

Ideation

To demonstrate the vision in a concrete way, I selected the inbounding module as a focal point for ideation.

Why Inbounding?

Inbounding is a critical touchpoint in warehouse operations. It is where goods are identified, received, and verified, ensuring stock is accounted for and available when needed. If any step in this process is delayed or inaccurate, it creates a ripple effect, disrupting stock management and even impacting the production of meal boxes. Addressing inefficiencies at this stage could unlock system-wide improvements across fulfillment operations.

Applying Service & UX Design Methodologies

With a human-centered approach, I facilitated a structured co-creation process with stakeholders to ensure that both user needs and business goals were aligned. This included:

• Service Blueprinting: Mapping out the inbounding journey to visualize the frontstage (user interactions) and backstage (system processes, dependencies, and constraints).

• Journey Mapping: Identifying pain points, inefficiencies, and opportunities in how workers interact with the RF scanner during inbounding tasks.

• Design Thinking: Quickly iterating on possible solutions with stakeholders through wireframing and low-fidelity prototyping, ensuring we addressed both usability issues and operational constraints.

• Lean UX Approach: Testing early concepts with warehouse workers to refine and validate the design before investing in full-scale development.

  
  

From Concept to Prototype

With early feedback in hand, I transitioned the wireframes into a low-fidelity prototype, focusing on:

• Reducing unnecessary manual steps to improve speed and accuracy.

• Prioritizing essential data visibility to minimize decision fatigue.

• Designing for environmental constraints such as warehouse lighting, gloves, and scanner responsiveness.

These ideation efforts not only strengthened the case for a new product but also provided a clear, research-backed vision for what an optimized inbounding experience should look like.