B2B Supply Chain Management Platform
PantosNow 2.0 —UX/UI Redesign Project
Redesigning for Behavioral Change— Moving Small and Mid-Sized Shippers from Agent to Digital Booking
My Role
Product Designer
Team
2 Project Managers
3 Product Designers
8 Engineers
Platform
Desktop
Mobile Web
Duration
01/2023 - 01/2024
PROJECT OVERVIEW
PantosNow was a company-wide digital transformation initiative for LX Pantos, introducing the company's first customer-facing order management system to transition core services from manual processes to a fully digital experience.
Phase 1 tested market viability with the agile adoption of a European SaaS product.
Phase 2 focused on an in-house redesign to meet user and business needs.
PROLOGUE
What is PantosNow?
PantosNow is a digital freight forwarding platform for B2B shippers to quote, book, and manage international shipment online.
Freight forwarding business traditionally relies heavily on human interaction, primarily through calls and emails. Quotes are handled by account managers and bookings operated by agents.
To drive digital transformation, PantosNow 1.0 launched in 2022 using a European SaaS solution.
But, phase one’s SaaS approach failed to meet local needs of the Korean market, leading to a shift toward a localized, scalable in-house redesign.
In this phase, I led the redesign of the sign-up and booking modules, as well as the homepage. This case study will focus specifically on the booking redesign.
CHALLENGE
PantosNow 1.0 did not work,
for both users and employees.
User Drop-Off After First Trial
Retention data showed that only 24% of users completed the entire journey—from quote to booking. The rest reverted to the traditional agent booking method.
Internal Resistance to Digital Booking
Admins saw the platform as an added workload rather than an improvement. With bookings coming through multiple channels (including email), they now had to monitor both the platform and traditional methods, leading to inefficiencies.
DESIGN QUESTION
-> HMW design an online booking platform that inherits the benefits of the traditional methods while offering greater convenience for both customers and admins?
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
What are we trying to achieve?
Business Goal
Objective
Transition small and mid-sized clients (SMEs) from manual operation to an online platform to improve profitability.
To free up account managers to focus on high-value clients and new sales opportunities.
Drive lead generation and increase new customer contracts through online platform.
To overcome limitations of account manager-driven sales, which averaged only 12 new accounts per year.
USER RESEARCH
Why are users reverting to calls and emails after their first trial?
I collaborated with researchers to conduct in-depth user interviews and shadowing to identify friction points of PantosNow 1.0.
The design workshop we held after user interviews to define problems
PROBLEMS
Inefficient Workflow Increased User Effort
PantosNow 1.0 forced all users, regardless of their needs, to follow the same rigid workflow, requiring even returning customers to go through unnecessary steps. Additionally, the process demanded excessive manual input, making it more tedious than traditional email-based booking.
Anxiety & Cognitive Load Led User to Call Back
Booking online without agent assistance made users anxious about errors. After booking, the lack of human interaction and minimal notifications increased their anxiety about the shipment, prompting calls for reassurance.
Lack of Reliability in Shipping Schedules
The platform displayed available shipping schedules that were not guaranteed, as shipping companies ultimately decided whether to accept the shipment. This lack of transparency undermined trust in the platform’s reliability.
CONCLUSION
PantosNow 1.0 failed to align with users' semantic goals for completing their booking and shipping journey, leading back to reliance on agent support.
DESIGN STRATEGY
To Drive Behavioral Change:
Strengthen Trust,
Streamline the Process
Following user research, our design team was tasked not just with redesigning the interface per se, but with creating a solution that could reshape user behavior.
The redesign goal was to build a digital booking experience as trustworthy as the agent-based process, but with greater efficiency, enabling a smooth transition for existing customers and fostering new booking habits.
High-level design concept strategy that I crafted for PantosNow 2.0
DESIGN SOLUTION
Addressing Inefficient Workflow
Problem
Rigid Flow Ignored Diverse User Cases
All users had to follow a linear quote-to-book workflow, even returning and contract-rate users who do not need a new quote.
Solution #1
Restructuring IA and User Flow
-> What I Did:
My key effort in restructuring the IA was to separate the quote and booking menus, and introducing flexible, multi-path user flows to accommodate diverse user needs and real-world booking scenarios.
-> Why This Matters?
Returning users who make repeated orders or contract-rate customers, who often do not follow the linear quote-to-book process, can now skip quoting steps and make bookings directly.
Solution #2
A Booking Shortcut for Existing Customers
-> What I Did:
I designed an onboarding flow to help existing users transition effortlessly to the platform.
-> How It Works:
Upon account creation, the system identifies existing customers via their business registration number. If matched, users are prompted at their first login to sync previous booking data, which is stored as reusable booking templates.
High-fidelity wireframes that I designed for the existing users' onboarding experience
DESIGN SOLUTION
Addressing User Anxiety & Cognitive Load
Problem
Booking online without agent assistance made users anxious about making errors.
Solution #1
New Page Layout to Reduce Interaction Cost
A major redesign change was implementing a split-screen layout to minimize back-and-forth navigation and improve information hierarchy.
-> Why This Matters?
Most interactions involved toggling between search results or lists and their detailed views, requiring excessive back-and-forth clicks.
The new layout allows users to click a booking on the left list to view its details on the right, enabling seamless navigation and faster task completion.
Solution #2
Streamlined Booking Form to Reduce Cognitive Load
-> What I Did:
I redesigned the booking page to minimize cognitive load by:
Reducing input fields from 37 to 12 essential ones, with optional fields and clear instructions: "You can complete this later."
Adding a progress indicator to improve clarity.
Incorporating inline validation for real-time feedback.
Enabling form autofill with the 'retrieve previous booking' feature.
Providing a summary view on the right side to minimize scrolling.
-> Why This Matters?
The previous design overwhelmed users by requiring all booking details upfront, unlike agent-led processes that gather information incrementally. The streamlined form replicates the flexibility of agent-led bookings while empowering users to complete bookings independently.
Before (1.0)
After (2.0)
Problem
After booking, the lack of human interaction and minimal tracking milestones increased user anxiety about the shipment, prompting calls for reassurance.
Solution #3
Enhanced Shipment Tracking and 1:1 Support
-> What I Did:
I redesigned the My Booking page to integrate the PantosView shipment visibility system, providing detailed tracking information. Also introduced a 1:1 agent chat feature for real-time assistance.
-> Why It Matters:
The previous system offered only simplified status milestones (e.g., Booked, Confirmed, On Board). The new design allows users to track shipments in detail, edit bookings, and access direct support—all in one place—reducing anxiety and improving control.
Before (1.0)
After (2.0)
Problem
Another problem due to lack of human interaction was that users unfamiliar with freight forwarding processes often felt uncertain about what to do next after booking, leading to anxiety and frequent calls for guidance.
Solution #4
User Assistance Features for
Proactive Post-Booking Guidance
-> What I Did:
I revamped the notification system and added a dashboard feature for task management.
Enhanced Notification Center:
I expanded push notifications from 4 basic email milestones to 18 status alerts, offering step-by-step updates from onboarding to shipment delivery.To-do List:
I designed an automated checklist feature with actionable guidance for time-sensitive post-booking tasks.
-> Why This Matters?
Freight forwarding involves multiple time-sensitive actions, such as submitting documents and preparing cargo on time. These features proactively guide users, especially first-time shippers, ensuring they stay informed and on track throughout the process.
Before (1.0)
After (2.0)
DESIGN IMPACT
In usability testing,
average booking completion time reduced from 4:28 to 58 Seconds
Our design team conducted usability tests with six participants—three new users and three existing customers—to assess if both groups could navigate the new menu structure and successfully complete a booking.
The results were notable: with the redesigned prototype, booking efficiency improved significantly, reducing the average booking time from 4 minutes and 28 seconds to just 58 seconds. Existing customers, in particular, expressed high satisfaction with the new system.
FINAL DESIGN
Business Impact
Disclaimer: The product launched in January 8th, 2024, and I left the company in August 2024, so the impact described here reflects only the first 8 months.
Transitioning Existing Customers Online
Target
Transition 8K customers (50% of SMEs) in 2024
Achieved
Achieved 64% of the annual target in 8 months (Transitioned 5.1K)
Impact
This shift significantly freed up account managers to focus on high-value clients and new business opportunities, validating our strategy to standardize and automate quoting and booking processes.
New Customer Acquisition
Target
Acquire 400 new business accounts through PantosNow
Achieved
Achieved 66% of the annual target in 8 months (Gained 264 new accounts)
An average new accounts made by the sales manager is 12 per year
Impact
This demonstrates strong progress in customer acquisition and lead generation through digitized sales efforts, achieving over 20x the previous annual average of 12 accounts per account manager.
Admin Operational Productivity
Before
66 mins per order
After
54 mins per order
Impact
Admin's processing time for each order reduced by 12 minutes, demonstrating a marked improvement in operational efficiency. This productivity gain fostered internal buy-in, reducing resistance to the digital transition.
User Booking Completion Time
Before
4 mins 28 seconds to complete a booking (normal case)
After
2:47 on average (normal case), and 58 seconds for repeat orders
Impact
Usability enhancements led to faster booking times, building trust and loyalty with existing users while improving the platform's appeal to new customers. This efficiency boost is instrumental in driving repeat business and market competitiveness.
