Total Quality Logistics (TQL)

Modernizing After-Hours Texting, Without Losing the Operational Context

I redesigned TQL’s After Hours Texting workflow using Kendo components, connecting an existing communication tool to the broader dispatch experience. The work balanced immediate modernization needs with research-backed opportunities for a later phase.

PROJECT NOTES

At a glance

Role: Senior Product Designer · Contract
Timeframe: 2025–2026
Disciplines: Enterprise Product Design · Workflow Design · Interaction Design · Design Systems

The challenge

The challenge was to modernize an existing after-hours texting tool within a busy dispatch environment. The design needed to preserve essential messaging tasks while fitting Kendo components, related applications, and the project’s budget and scope.

My role

My contribution

Reviewed existing use cases, functionality, and related communication tools.
Designed the modernized texting workflow within the enterprise component system.
Defined conversation states, read/unread controls, and quick-message interactions.
Documented future-state wireframes for work beyond the initial scope.

THE STARTING POINT

Understand the workflow before replacing the interface.

After Hours Texting sat within a larger set of carrier-communication tools. I reviewed existing use cases, functionality, and related applications to understand what the team needed to carry forward into the modernized experience.

That review established the constraints behind the design: the application had to fit the Kendo component system and work alongside the tools already supporting dispatch.

Legacy dispatch, carrier texting, after-hours protocol, and message-center interfaces

WORKFLOW RESEARCH

Trace the task across the existing screens.

I mapped how users reached texting from dispatch, selected a recipient, and brought the latest remark into a message. Comparing those steps with the legacy components gave me a concrete basis for the redesign.

Current-state workflow mapping from dispatch to recipient selection and populating the last remark

PRODUCT DECISIONS

Keep the conversation beside the work.

The modernized layout places texting alongside dispatch details, with load information next to the message composer. This keeps the conversation and its operational context visible together.

I made message state explicit through sender names, timestamps, read/unread indicators, and controls to mark a message as read or unread. Quick messages and “Populate last remark” remain accessible from the composer.

Modernized dispatch workspace with After Hours Texting panel and load information beside the composer

View as

After Hours Texting conversation with sender names, timestamps, and read/unread controls

Quick-message menu opened above the message composer

Component specifications for sender details, timestamps, read status, and conversation bubbles

Swipe or use the arrows to explore each screen. Use Enlarge image when a design needs a closer look.

SCOPE & TRADE-OFFS

Separate the modernization from the next opportunity.

Budget and scope set the boundary for the initial modernization. I captured additional opportunities in future-state wireframes so they could be considered without expanding the immediate project.

One proposal explored allowing users to manage up to five custom quick messages. I documented that direction for future designers to pick up alongside the existing research, preserving the reasoning as work moved between teams.

Future-state wireframe for adding and managing up to five custom quick messages

DESIGN IN CONTEXT

Desktop presentation of the redesigned After Hours Texting workspace

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

A defined design, with a path forward.

The work produced a modernized texting workflow, detailed messaging states, and future-state wireframes. Together, they connected the immediate interface work to the broader communication experience.

A logical next step is to validate the proposed workflow with the team and assess which future-state improvements belong in a subsequent phase.