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Total Quality Logistics (TQL)

After-Hours Carrier and Sales Communication

User problem
When the daytime sales floor went home, a dedicated after-hours team still needed to triage carrier messages and route important questions or updates to sales. Salespeople then relayed necessary changes to clients outside the application.
My responsibility
Senior Product Designer for legacy analysis, user interviews, messaging workflows, interaction states, and future-state documentation.
Main constraint
Preserve essential texting tasks within Kendo, the related dispatch applications, and the initial budget and scope.
Project status
Modernization design and component details produced; custom quick-message management remained a future-state proposal.
Outcome
Delivered the modernized workflow and detailed design references supporting round-the-clock logistics communication.
Role
Senior Product Designer · Contract
Timeframe
2025–2026
Total Quality Logistics (TQL) — After-Hours Carrier and Sales Communication

Research

Design the handoff across the end of a shift.

I researched the legacy application and interviewed the dedicated after-hours team about their workday, the messages they needed to identify, and what sales leadership needed to receive.

The application funneled important carrier messages and questions to sales. Salespeople handled any necessary client updates outside the application; the design supported that responsibility boundary.

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.

Design decisions

Keep the conversation beside the work.

I placed texting alongside dispatch details, with the relevant load next to the message composer. Agents can keep the operational context in view while handling the conversation.

Modernized dispatch workspace with After Hours Texting panel and load information beside the composer
Texting sits within the dispatch workspace. The design keeps load context, conversation history, and the next messaging action within the same working view.

Design decisions

Make message status explicit.

Sender identity, timestamps, and read/unread indicators make message state visible. Controls to mark a message as read or unread sit with the conversation they affect.

Read status and the mark-unread action beside the message. The crop retains sender identity and time for context.
Read status and the mark-unread action beside the message. The crop retains sender identity and time for context.Focused detail · Enlarge image opens the complete source board.

Design decisions

Keep common responses close to the composer.

Quick messages and “Populate last remark” remain accessible from the composer. The design keeps those existing actions near the message being written.

Quick-message selection beside the message composer. Custom message management is documented separately as a future proposal.
Quick-message selection beside the message composer. Custom message management is documented separately as a future proposal.Focused detail · Enlarge image opens the complete source board.

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
A future-state concept, separate from the initial modernization: managing custom quick messages, with a proposed limit of five. This is a design proposal, not a claim of released functionality.

Delivery

A defined design, ready for the next validation step.

The work produced the modernized workflow, detailed messaging states, and future-state wireframes. A next step would be to validate the proposed workflow with the team and decide which later improvements belong in scope.

Supporting evidence 11 original artifacts

Complete boards and additional screens behind the selected details above. Enlarge any artifact to inspect it at full size.

Messaging states and components

Explicit status labels show whether a message has been read, while the controls let users update that state from the conversation.
Explicit status labels show whether a message has been read, while the controls let users update that state from the conversation.

Messaging states and components

The quick-message menu puts existing response options beside the composer; customization is shown separately as a future-state proposal.
The quick-message menu puts existing response options beside the composer; customization is shown separately as a future-state proposal.

Messaging states and components

Component-level details define how sender identity, time, read status, and message content appear consistently across the conversation.
Component-level details define how sender identity, time, read status, and message content appear consistently across the conversation.

Legacy communication-tool landscape

The existing application landscape established the scope of the modernization and the related communication tools the design needed to account for.
The existing application landscape established the scope of the modernization and the related communication tools the design needed to account for.

Current-state dispatch and texting map

The current-state map connects entry points and messaging actions to proposed interface changes, keeping the redesign tied to the existing workflow.
The current-state map connects entry points and messaging actions to proposed interface changes, keeping the redesign tied to the existing workflow.

Modernized dispatch workspace

Texting sits within the dispatch workspace. The design keeps load context, conversation history, and the next messaging action within the same working view.
Texting sits within the dispatch workspace. The design keeps load context, conversation history, and the next messaging action within the same working view.

Read and unread controls

Explicit status labels show whether a message has been read, while the controls let users update that state from the conversation.
Explicit status labels show whether a message has been read, while the controls let users update that state from the conversation.

Quick-message selection

The quick-message menu puts existing response options beside the composer; customization is shown separately as a future-state proposal.
The quick-message menu puts existing response options beside the composer; customization is shown separately as a future-state proposal.

Messaging component definitions

Component-level details define how sender identity, time, read status, and message content appear consistently across the conversation.
Component-level details define how sender identity, time, read status, and message content appear consistently across the conversation.

Future custom-message wireframes

A future-state concept, separate from the initial modernization: managing custom quick messages, with a proposed limit of five. This is a design proposal, not a claim of released functionality.
A future-state concept, separate from the initial modernization: managing custom quick messages, with a proposed limit of five. This is a design proposal, not a claim of released functionality.

Desktop presentation

The redesigned workspace shown in a desktop mockup.
The redesigned workspace shown in a desktop mockup.