Supply chain management evolves as the eCommerce industry grows.
Consumers expect no additional charges for next-day or two-day delivery options. This means more technology integrations to help the eCommerce supply chain become a well-oiled and efficient system.
The success of the eCommerce supply chain relies on communication among its many moving parts. A global network like this requires the latest technology to ensure a smooth transition between acquiring materials, producing, storing, and distributing the final product to customers. Without insight into the progress at each stage, businesses can’t be proactive at fixing problems as they arise.
It is my story of designing CBX - a Supply Chain Management Platform that allows brands and retailers to interact transparently, ensuring that products and services are properly prepared.
At the crossroads of business goals and user needs, I stepped into a dual role as both a business analyst and UX designer. My focus was on bridging gaps—understanding complex requirements, synthesizing insights, and translating them into intuitive, user-friendly solutions. Collaboration was key. I worked closely with stakeholders, using their feedback to guide and refine designs to align with objectives.
Adopting a user-centered design approach, I iteratively crafted interfaces that balanced aesthetics with usability. Every step of the process—from concept to delivery—was driven by a commitment to both technical excellence and human-centric thinking.
While I take pride in what I’ve accomplished, I view every project as an opportunity to learn, improve, and deliver even greater value.
Designing for CBX wasn’t just about addressing supply chain complexity; it was about crafting an experience that felt effortless and intuitive, no matter how intricate the functionality beneath. To achieve this, I collaborated across teams, deeply analyzed workflows, and took a forward-thinking approach to simplify the complex into accessible, user-friendly interfaces.
The challenge lay in finding harmony—balancing utility with visual appeal. Through mobile-first designs, data visualizations, and cohesive branding, we created a solution that resonated with diverse users. It wasn’t just about meeting functional requirements; it was about delivering an experience that inspired confidence and delight. The result underscored a simple truth: the best designs make the complex feel natural and the functional feel beautiful.
Understanding users is the cornerstone of great design. To develop the Samantha persona, I started by interviewing our sales team to learn about current and potential customers. I asked about common challenges faced, priorities, and day-to-day workflows. This provided initial insights into pain points and needs.
The supply chain management workflow is listed below.
Next, I was privileged to get access to some of our existing users. Speaking directly to supply chain directors like Samantha was invaluable. I probed about their goals, frustrations and how they interact with various systems. Observing them use our product revealed usability issues.
These interviews helped me synthesize key jobs-to-be-done and walk in the shoes of our users. But to truly build empathy, I shadowed Samantha for a day. Seeing her juggling phone calls, checking multiple dashboards, and drilling into data cemented her reality. The insights from researching real users like Samantha led me to create this well-rounded, representative persona.
My goal was to humanize the audience through realistic details that ring true. Samantha's bio, company, challenges and needs reflect real stories. Whenever I make design choices, I refer back to this persona of a busy yet ambitious supply chain director seeking efficiency and insights. Samantha grounds me in user empathy, not just assumptions. She is the heartbeat guiding each design decision.
Take supplier portal module as example, I recognized from the Samantha persona that increased supply chain visibility was critical. Her need for partner coordination sparked the question:
"How might we organize supplier portal functionality to centralize interactions?"
I conducted a card sorting workshop focused specifically on this challenge, gathering cross-functional teams to cluster raw content based on usage logic from the supplier perspective. Groups created an Order Management cluster housing purchase orders, status and invoices to reflect full order lifecycle management. A Document cluster emerged spanning contracts, certificates and RFx tracking paperwork important for operations.
By directly mapping workshop activities to the user insights that inspired this idea, we maintained focus on building intuitive navigation grounded in real jobs-to-be-done. The card sorting cultivated shared understanding critical for my team to prioritize portal information architecture and content. Keeping the end user at the heart of collaborative workshops ensures the solutions shape experiences that delight.
Taking key workflows identified, I swiftly iterated on process flows and low-fidelity wireframes to model core experiences. User feedback was then incorporated into high-fidelity interactive prototypes that served as specifications for development. In tandem, I orchestrated user testing, extracting insights into refinements that sharpened utility and usability. The balancing act was unifying diverse workflows into tailored yet intuitive interfaces. By maintaining a feedback loop with users, we shaped a cohesive central hub catering to all suppliers with ease.Since launching, the portal has increased supplier collaboration by 20% and order efficiency by 15%. But most rewarding is hearing directly from suppliers about how our human-centered design approach transformed their experience.
Our product review revealed a design system and visual language that were disconnected from our brand identity. The functionality did not complement the brand's aesthetics and emotions we want to evoke. Within the product, we found issues like redundant features, excessive colors without purpose, clashing visual elements, and typography that felt random rather than intentional.
Most critically, this fragmentation created two core problems: First, the user journey felt choppy and inconsistent across touchpoints, failing to engage. Second, engineers lacked efficient, reusable standards, making innovation more resource-intensive.
The new minimalist design language aimed to:
Ultimately, this balanced approach empowers both groups. Designers retain autonomy with a pared down toolkit. Engineers actualize innovations efficiently without wrestling with rigid conventions. By keeping the system lean, both teams can focus more on bringing ideas to life.
Finding information becomes so much easier. The transparency and accessibility of that information is huge for us.
