Spark by FedEx is an e-commerce logistics platform for small-medium-businesses (SMB) which helps merchants manage order fulfillment, returns, and analytics.
I joined this project as lead designer for returns capabilities, charged with establishing the look-and-feel of the UI and interactions, creating prototypes for client demo, and facilitating engineering handoff. I worked closely with a product manager and team of engineers on this work.
Role
UX design
Visual design
Interaction design
Tools
Figma
Untitled UI
ProtoPie
Timeline
May 2023 - now
Status
In beta
The Challenge
Many merchants are embedded with tools like Shopify or Narvar to fulfill and manage orders. But they are also craving a more unified platform that can bundle in their returns and give insights into their customers’ behavior, so they can take action on problems before they come up.
01
Onboarding
wizards, tutorials, and tooltips
02
Integration
use the language merchants use, group closely related features in the nav
03
Data management
clear table design, filters, search, favoriting, role-based permissions
04
Data insights
interactive dashboards, suggested actions, critical alerts, ability to escalate
Merchant Journey
Merchants have two main tasks when it comes to returns: creating & updating return policies and manage inbound shipments & analytics. Because they use multiple integrated tools to do these tasks, info can get lost in translation between them.
Tables are always an interaction design challenge, especially when it comes to showing a lot of info in a clean way.
I wanted info to be “gracefully” hidden but always available.
In a platform very focused on task completion, I had a fun opportunity to create a celebratory moment in this menu between the last task and the empty state.
A little confetti makes the work day go faster!
I have this thing about celebrating early wins—keep it quick because the real work is about to start. All of the above looks pretty cool and thanks to the engineering team it functions well in our test environment. But the true test will be whether users find it useful and usable.
The next step for returns capabilities in the Spark by FedEx portal is learning from observation how our customers use the platform and its features. I’m excited for to continue to refine this experience!