Understanding the Operational Landscape - Before exploring solutions, I partnered closely with the product owner (founder) to understand how NEMT providers managed scheduling, dispatch, routing, billing, and driver operations. My objective wasn't simply to design an interface—it was to identify the operational bottlenecks that had the greatest impact on efficiency and service delivery. Working with the founder, I conducted discovery interviews with operations managers, dispatchers, and drivers, complemented by competitive analysis of existing NEMT software like RouteGenie and Hi Bambi, identifying key worklows to understand how trips were coordinated from booking through completion, and also identifying key user painpoints, challenges and opportunities for improvement. Key Insights: - Manual scheduling and dispatch created significant delays, particularly during peak operating hours. - Providers relied on fragmented systems for fleet management, billing, communication, and compliance, resulting in duplicated work and limited operational visibility. - Dispatchers needed faster access to critical information, while drivers required simple, mobile-first workflows that minimized distractions on the road. - Given the varying levels of technical proficiency among users, simplicity and ease of use were essential for product adoption. These insights became the foundation for every product and design decision that followed. Defining the MVP - I worked closely with the founder and engineering team to define the product roadmap - translating our research findings into a focused MVP that addressed the highest-value operational challenges while remaining achievable within our delivery timeline. We prioritized features that would have the greatest day-to-day impact on transportation providers, including: - Intelligent scheduling and dispatch - Real-time fleet tracking - Driver mobile workflows - Automated billing and invoicing More advanced functionality was intentionally deferred to future releases, allowing us to validate the core workflows with users before expanding the platform. Design Exploration & Validation - The first major challenge was creating a comprehensive, unified platform that could support the day-to-day operations of multiple user types—Administrators, Fleet Managers, and Dispatchers—while also providing a robust mobile experience for Drivers and trip management. Defining User Workflows - Building on the MVP definitions and product roadmap established earlier, I focused on mapping the key workflows and user journeys for each user type and identifying the features they would need across the core MVP. The web-based portal was prioritized during the initial design and development sprints, with the Driver mobile app designed and developed in subsequent MVP sprints. Within the web portal, Administrators required broad access and control across the prioritized modules, while specialized roles such as Dispatchers and Fleet Managers needed focused access to the workflows relevant to their responsibilities—primarily Dispatch & Scheduling, Fleet Management, and Shift Management. Exploring the Information Architecture - Using insights from workflow mapping, user research, and competitor analysis, I explored different approaches to the platform's information architecture and overall layout. A key design goal was to avoid unnecessary visual complexity—an area where I found many competing products fell short—while ensuring that critical information and actions remained visible, accessible, and easy to navigate. I created low-fidelity flows in Figma for the core MVP modules: - User Management - Trip Management - Dispatch & Scheduling - Billing & Invoicing - Fleet Management These early flows helped establish the structure and navigation of each module while allowing us to identify potential usability issues before investing in detailed visual design. Validating Early Concepts - I facilitated review sessions and usability tests to validate the low-fidelity layouts and workflows with the founder, product team and key stakeholders, including NEMTIFY administrators, dispatchers, fleet managers, and other staff who would use the platform. These sessions helped validate whether the proposed designs adequately captured their operational workflows while surfacing areas of friction, complexity, and missing requirements early in the process. I iterated on the flows based on this feedback before progressing to high-fidelity design. Prototyping & Iteration - Once the core workflows were validated, I developed high-fidelity interactive prototypes in Figma that simulated key operational experiences across the platform. These included: - Trip scheduling and management - Dispatch management - Fleet monitoring - Billing and invoicing - Driver and trip management I created interactive prototypes separately for each MVP module, capturing the relevant workflows and interactions for each user type. These prototypes were then re-validated with users and stakeholders before implementation. Building for Design-to-Development - To support consistency across the product, I created a unified style guide and Figma design library, including reusable components and design variables. The variables were also translated into a JSON file to support easier implementation and handoff to engineering. Throughout development, I used Figma Dev Mode to collaborate closely with engineers, clarify design intent, and support accurate design-to-development implementation across multiple iterations. This iterative approach allowed the team to align on product direction early, validate workflows before development, and reduce unnecessary rework during implementation. Iterating with Users - Throughout the project, usability testing remained an integral part of the design process. I conducted multiple rounds of testing with dispatchers, drivers, and operational stakeholders to evaluate usability, validate assumptions, and uncover opportunities for refinement. Each iteration informed improvements to navigation, information hierarchy, workflow efficiency, and interaction patterns, ensuring the final experience balanced operational complexity with ease of use while meeting both user needs and business objectives. Design Impact - The design decisions were focused on making a complex operational platform feel clear, predictable, and easy to use across different user roles. Key UX improvements included: 1. Clarity of Information — Established clear visual hierarchy, grouping, and content structure to help users quickly understand and act on critical operational information. 2. Ease of Navigation — Created intuitive navigation structures and predictable interaction patterns, making it easier for users to move between modules and complete frequent tasks. 3. Progressive Disclosure — Reduced cognitive load by presenting essential information and actions first, while revealing secondary details and advanced options only when needed. 4. Smart Form Validation — Implemented contextual validation and clear error states within forms, helping users identify and correct issues immediately rather than discovering errors after submission. 5. Immediate Feedback & Micro-interactions — Used purposeful feedback states, loading indicators, confirmations, and subtle micro-interactions to make interactive elements feel responsive and keep users informed throughout their workflows.