Flexport
Flexport’s mission is to unify disparate parties in the supply chain through a cutting-edge digital platform, where merchants can book shipments, receive estimates, check active orders, and more.
The Challenge.
To launch an app to streamline logistics and supply chain management for Shopify merchants.
Both Shopify and Flexport have a shared goal of making life easier for eCommerce merchants. By integrating these two technologies, store owners could take advantage of Flexport’s advanced logistics and supply chain management capabilities, all from within their Shopify account.
To make this a reality, Flexport needed to develop a Shopify app that merchants could install on their dashboard in just a few clicks.
The Team.
I was the UX and UI designer working with a team of front-end & back-end developers, a product owner and a project manager.
Discovery.
To fully understand the Flexport business, their customers, and their requirements, the project was kicked off by spending a week in the Flexport offices with representatives from every team, from ours, Flexport and Shopify.
A wide range of personnel had to be brought together for this project, including designers, engineers, QA analysts, and data scientists. I established a weekly call to ensure transparancy and efficiency throughout the project.
This time was invaluable in understanding the needs of Flexports customers and allowed me to creatte personas of their Shopify merchants, identifying their requirements which I could take into the next phase.
Design.
The Flexport team had created some initial wireframes, which I reviewed and modified to better meet the needs of their customers, whilst also adhering to best practices, and utilising the Shopify Polaris UI framework.
Each week I presented progress back to the Flexport team, and utilising a kanban board for transparancy, managed the design process from start to finish.
This culminated in handover of the high fidelity figma designs being handed over to our developer, who brought the app to life. I was on-hand throughout the development to ensure a smooth delivery.
Reflection.
This was a massive learning experience for me. It was the first time I was fully embedded into a client, acting as part of their team. the week we spent together was invaluable into making that work and led to a seamless project.
The Flexport Shopify app makes booking shipments from suppliers to fulfillment centers as easy as booking a flight, I’m really proud of the work I did to make that happen.