HIGHWAY

1.1 Clutter in Sub-data points

All indicators are displayed in three colors - red, green and amber. But at a glance, it feels overwhelming and hard to figure out what each color means. It's also unclear if every indicator is equally important.

Each category has a main indicator with several sub-data points under it. However, not all sub-data points affect the color of the main indicator—only certain driving indicators do. The problem is that brokers don’t know which sub-data points actually impact the main indicator’s color.

Now the question arises - How might we help users prioritize and interpret colored indicators more effectively when there are many displayed at once?

To fix this, we decided to prioritize the driving indicators. We added a contact card where level 1 of the dropdown shows the driving indicators and level 2 of the dropdown includes all the indicators.

1.2 Long List of Contacts

There are too many users displayed in the contact list, which makes it overwhelming to process. This creates cognitive overload for brokers, making it difficult and time-consuming to find the right contact quickly. The contact section lacks basic tools like sorting and filtering, making it hard for brokers to navigate through the list efficiently. There’s no local navigation, so users have to rely solely on endless scrolling. On top of that, there’s no search option within a carrier profile, forcing brokers to use a workaround like CMD+F to manually find an email or phone number on the page. This adds unnecessary frustration and slows down their workflow.

To solve this, we added filter tabs so brokers can easily sort and find specific contacts.

We also introduced a search box and pagination, allowing brokers to quickly locate the right contact when they’re reached out about a job, without having to scroll through the entire list.

1.3 Long List of Contacts

Brokers often have to manually copy vehicle identifiers and paste them into external sites as part of their vetting process. These identifiers are crucial for additional vetting, as brokers use them on other websites to gather more information. This manual process is time-consuming and inefficient, creating unnecessary steps for the brokers.The vehicle identifiers are not organized or clearly labeled, making it difficult for brokers to understand what each number represents. There's no context or explanation of these numbers, which adds to the confusion.

To solve this, we made a clear distinction between carrier and vehicle IDs, so brokers can easily tell them apart. We also prioritized the IDs based on their usage, highlighting the most important ones first. To make the process quicker, we added a copy feature, allowing brokers to easily copy IDs with a single click instead of doing it manually.

2.1 Missing Verification Indicator

There’s no clear sign in the banner to show if a contact is verified or not. This lack of a verification indicator makes it harder for brokers to quickly identify trusted contacts, leading to confusion and delays.

To address this, we added fraud indicators to the header, allowing users to quickly verify the authenticity of a contact. This helps brokers identify potential risks at a glance, making the process faster and more reliable.

2.2 Overlapping Contacts

End users often get confused because the same contact appears twice in the directory - once under "Users" and again under "Contacts." This duplication makes it unclear why the same information is repeated and adds unnecessary complexity to the directory.

One of the key indicators for a contact is its source, but currently, users have to open each contact's details to determine if it's reliable. This extra step makes it difficult for brokers to quickly assess the trustworthiness of contacts.

To address this issue, we added an "Uploaded by" tag under each contact, showing the source directly alongside key data points. When clicked, this tag takes the user straight to that contact's detailed card, making it easier to verify reliability without extra steps.

3.1 Color and Terminology Mismatch

We also identified some issues in the directory which leads to the differences between system model and mental model. As we saw, there are a lot of data points in the directory and each data point has their own indicators associated with them and these can become a lot for the brokers when they are trying to make their decision quick.

One of the problems we found from our interviews and platform audits was there was a mismatch in the terms and the indicators they use currently. Green is used for both yes and no depending on the data point and same for red when typically users associate green with yes and red for no. Although the logic made sense but our job was to make it easier and ease their cognitive load.

To address this issue, we came with context relevant terminologies instead of yes and no. For instance, we opted for terms like "valid/invalid" for syntax and "likely/unlikely" for bounce likely, replacing the previously used terms that might have been less intuitive.

3.2 Main Indicator and Sub-data Point Mismatch

The next issue was that there was mismatch between main indicator and sub-data points.

We can see there is an umbrella category shown as phone and email. On left, 2 of the indicators are marked as orange and the umbrella term that is phone number is green. Again on the right, it has 2 orange indicators and the main one is red. This is because there are different driving data points for each category and seeing this just add to confusion with no context to what drives these.

In the platform, there is a solution for this and that is help articles. These help articles show what data points drives the overall category. But again, it is time consuming, especially when brokers have to take decision on the go.

To solve these, we firstly decided to change the look of the indicator associated with that umbrella category and secondly we highlighted the driving indicators on top so brokers have a context to what is driving the main category to reduce the confusion about these data points.

After implementing these changes, the directory now offers a more intuitive and efficient experience for brokers. The streamlined design and enhanced features enable users to quickly access and manage contact information, improving overall workflow and productivity.