Maritime Visibility Platform
Allows the port community to track the containerized cargo in real-time
Executive Summary
I designed first of its kind, a single‑window visibility platform that transformed how US ports and supply chain stakeholders track containerized cargo and manage exceptions. By eliminating the manual, time‑consuming process of searching individual terminal websites, the portal streamlined workflows, reduced congestion, and improved planning efficiency for drayage companies, railroads, and BCOs. Its intuitive design and trusted data stewardship drove broad adoption across the maritime community, directly enabling the business to secure a multi‑year, multi‑million‑dollar deal with ports in the US and Europe. The platform now stands as a scalable foundation for global maritime supply chain visibility, setting a new standard for transparency and operational agility.
About
The platform helps the Drayage Community, Beneficial Cargo Owners/3PLs and Rail Roads to track their containers in and out of the marine terminals. They would ideally like to see all the container events happening inside a terminal for their respective containers. But, terminals are like a black hole of information in the container supply chain. Everything goes in and nothing escapes out. This is due to their vested interests and competitive nature. Here are the core capabilities of a maritime visibility platform:-
Multimodal tracking | Predictive ETAs | Exception management | Data integration | Collaboration​​​​​​​
A major US port sought to design a digital common-user portal (a community system) to improve transparency, trust, and agility across the ecosystem.
Goal
Design a scalable visibility portal that unify the fragmented maritime supply chain data into a reliable, timely, and accessible single‑window system, while translating complex stakeholder workflows into intuitive, human‑centric experiences.

Target User groups/Maritime Community Stakeholders: Identified key target user groups for research based on the API usage data that was already in place.
Discover
As UX lead, I conducted contextual research with drayage CSRs, dispatchers, equipment managers, freight forwarders, and rail terminal managers to uncover workflow pain points.

Left Image – Experience Mapping with Railroad Planners & Yard Masters  

Mapping workflows and operational challenges to uncover pain points, tasks, and decision-making processes in rail operations. This exercise highlights the complexity of their roles and informs opportunities for system improvement.


Top Right Image – Ideation with End Users  

Collaborative brainstorming session to integrate user perspectives into solution design. By capturing how end users approach their tasks, we ensure that proposed concepts align with their mental models and practical needs.


Bottom Right Image – Field Interview with Trucking Customer Service Rep  

Observing and interviewing frontline staff in their operational environment to empathize with daily challenges. This contextual inquiry reveals workarounds, stress points, and opportunities to streamline customer interactions.

Define
I synthesized these insights into personas and journey maps, then defined design principles around reliability, accessibility, timeliness, and human‑centricity.

Left Image – Experience Map

Visual representation of the user journey, capturing tasks, actions, and pain points across operational workflows. These maps highlight key problem areas and provide a structured foundation for identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and user satisfaction.


Right Image – Personas 

Synthesized user archetypes that embody the needs and behaviors of critical roles:

Customer Service Representative (Top) – Faces constant pressure to manage customer queries and schedule appointments while juggling multiple terminal websites to track container status. The fragmented tools and information sources make it difficult to stay focused, forcing them to balance responsiveness with operational constraints and frequent interruptions.

Equipment Manager (Bottom) – Relies heavily on manual processes, entering data into the TMS and coordinating via email with trucking companies and shipping lines. Their role involves scheduling empty returns and street turns, often navigating logistical challenges and resource allocation with limited automation, which increases workload and risk of errors.

Research Insights: Port and logistics operations are hampered by poor equipment visibility, inconsistent data, and limited technology infrastructure, leading to inefficiencies and reliance on legacy tools
Stakeholder Alignment: Working with cross‑functional teams, I translated complex operational needs into clear product requirements.

Top Left Image – Stakeholder Ideation Workshop

Collaborative session designed to democratize idea generation for the visibility platform. By engaging diverse stakeholders, we surfaced a wide range of perspectives and ensured that the concept reflected both operational realities and strategic priorities.


Bottom Left Images – Capability Prioritization

Evaluated potential features against impact and feasibility to identify the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This structured prioritization exercise balanced user needs with technical constraints, guiding a focused and achievable launch strategy.


Right Image – Strategic Roadmap Discussion  

Facilitated alignment across engineering, product management, architecture, and commercial teams to define the long-term vision for the visibility platform. This session ensured cross-functional buy-in and clarified milestones for phased delivery.

Design
Design Challenge: To design an intuitive platform targeting customer service, equipment manager & dispatcher persona at a trucking company and addresses their pain points i.e.,streamlines communication, and makes container status and terminal conditions easy to monitor.

Left Image – Information Architecture (Example)

Here is an example of the set of information architecture created to organize the connect, define the workflows and ensure consistent navigation on the the application.


Right Images – Low Fidelity Wireframes 

A series of iterations of the low fidelity designs were made to test the user desirability and workflows with the end users. Engaging users in the design process from the beginning brought a sense of ownership in them. Hence, helped us with adoption of these products and reduces a lot of time and money that goes into white gloving and training new users.

Top Images: Final Designs

Prototypes were further tested with the end users on usability scale like time to task, subjective satisfactions & error rate.

Validate
Iterative testing ensured the solution balanced operational precision with usability and built trust across stakeholders.
An Example of the user test findings and design updates.
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