OpenBoxes: Logistics Management UX Design

Redesign of OpenBoxes

OpenBoxes is an open-source Logistics Management Information System designed for government and non-profit health systems in the developing world. OpenBoxes is mostly dedicated to supply chain professionals working in resource-scarce settings where existing infrastructure for electronic inventory management is limited.

Functionality includes inventory tracking, lot and expiry tracking, stock movement and shipment tracking, purchasing orders, stock requisitions, fulfillment, and built-in and customizable reports.

Services

UX/UI Design

Product Redesign

Quality Assurance

Product Development

Industry

Supply Chain Management

Goals of the project

We’re actively engaged in developing and maintaining the platform. User experience improvements have been a top priority on the OpenBoxes list for a long time. At the beginning of 2022, we’ve involved a UX/UI Designer in the project to achieve the following goals:

Make the platform more intuitive and user-friendly.
Improve user workflows and help them perform their job more efficiently and quickly.
Create a consistent and modern user interface.

Project scope

OpenBoxes Redesign is an ongoing project and a long-term collaboration on redesigning the whole logistics management system. The scope includes:

UX Methodologies.
UI Design, including:
– A new visual identity – color palette, style, components;
– Mockups and prototypes that are validated during the interviews with users;
– Design system.
Implementation Plan.

UX/UI Process

A collaborative effort involving the Product Owner, Quality Assurance Specialist, Developers, and our engaged Partner was undertaken in the project development. We opted for the Agile Development methodology to enhance flexibility and adaptability. While integrating UX/UI into the Agile Development process demanded prior preparation, it proved highly advantageous for the overall project.

Given the intricacies and extensive features of OpenBoxes, meticulous attention was necessary. We organized a well-defined structure, planning, and workflow to optimize team efficiency, and improve the logistics management app.

Challenges

From the initial phase of the redesign process, several crucial considerations emerged for the OpenBoxes platform:

Diverse Tech Proficiency: Our user base exhibits varying levels of tech proficiency.
Work Versatility: The platform needs to enhance the workflows of individuals across diverse job roles, departments, and cater to the specific challenges of different companies, warehouses, industries, and cultural contexts.
Unstable Internet Connectivity: A significant portion of our users encounters challenges with an unreliable Internet connection at their workplaces.
Limited Screen Resolution: Although the platform is primarily designed for desktop use, a majority of users operate on screens with resolutions lower than 1366px. Many existing features were not user-friendly on the smaller screens.

Testing

The sessions were designed to allow us define problems and work on them during the next iterations.
The main goal was to meet users from different departments and roles in the company, with various levels of tech-savviness and job positions, to find common ground for all the users and increase user-friendliness and work efficiency.

Analytics Tools

As we progressed, we kept a close eye on how users were navigating the platform, using tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar. These tools gave us really helpful insights into how users were engaging and the time they spent on specific tasks. This knowledge helped us figure out which parts of the platform deserved our immediate attention for improvements.

Styleguide

We started by preparing various design styles that could fit the client’s identity. The main values included in the design focused on reliability, transparency, modernity, and stability. Based on the client’s choice of presented mockups, we started building a new design system.

Redesign

The initial designs were focused on a new layout structure, the main list pages, location chooser, and restructuring the main navigation, including actions prioritization and easy accessibility. Since the menu is a focal point of every operation, we reorganized it and improved its clarity. We also put a lot of emphasis on the intuitiveness of location modal, making it cleaner and less generic, to increase its usefulness. Additionally, we improved the layouts of list pages and implemented new filtering options.