Background

An outside perspective often does wonders for creative projects. When Cathay Pacific’s in-house UI/UX team approached me I jumped at the chance to help solve their problem. To make their cargo shipment operations more efficient, their dashboard needed to be completely revamped and updated. 

Since the dashboard is used by the cargo shipment management department, I had a chat with their team. I interviewed the admins to discuss the pain points and what specific features would improve the design. Based on these interviews I came up with a solution.

Key Solutions

• Organised and simplified layout
• Information is easier to capture
• Interactive elements that made the operation smoother
• Incorporation of colour coding to help categorising the information

User-Centric Design Features

 Clear Visualization of Payload:

• The redesign has a clear visualisation of the aircraft's cargo hold layout (custom designed to match specific aircrafts), allowing admins to see exactly where each item is placed. This helps in efficient planning and management of space. 

Detailed Parcel Details:

• A section on the right side displays detailed parcel information, including the sender, destination, and loading options. This way all critical information is readily accessible, helping to avoid errors and misplacements.

Easy Payload Management

• There’s a detailed list of payload items, including identification codes on the left side. This helps admins quickly locate and manage different cargo types. Using the Drag-and-Drop feature helps assign the payload into cargo slots and stages of shipment.This is the feature the operation team liked most.

User-friendly Features

• Features like matrics, visualisations allow access to further data, without creating clutter. It contributes to overall efficiency. A list of buttons appear next to the cargo layout for easy navigation. Colour coding also helped make the design more efficient. After a feedback session, I added a detail where the admin can track the ongoing air delivery.

Feedback Exchange

The cargo management and design teams both loved the revamped design, agreeing it was a big improvement. However, one admin, John, suggested adding task management and note-sharing features to help the team collaborate better. There were some other ideas as well that required including more features while maintaining the simplified interface. 

I explained that adding these tools might clutter the interface. I also added that given the complexity of the operations it would be better to add them as a separate section later. 

This happens every now and then. Especially working with comparatively larger teams there’s always room for improvement. I try to always make necessary changes to satisfy their demands. But sometimes, like in this one, the design requires me to stop at some point.

Conclusion 

The UI/UX department was happy with the design. But they felt the design could be improved upon with their own team. I handed them my Figma source file. It has my design, which their team can easily edit. I hope that they can come up with what they are looking for and that my design helps them in that direction, maybe as a point of reference or inspiration.

I kept this design in my portfolio because I’m very proud of this design. I think this is an example of how design can simplify a lot of things. Also I really love the aeroplane layout. I keep designs like these in my portfolio to show how each design project is a chance of improvement and it gives a complete picture of my journey.

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