Delivery Details Sheet

Mobile & Service Experience

Overview: From day one, my mornings started with a cup of tea, reading the previous day’s app feedback from delivery drivers. Although no driver said it outright, I noticed a pattern of complaints that our app wasn’t letting drivers see important delivery information until they arrived at the delivery destination.

Uncovered Problem: Drivers lacked comprehensive information about the upcoming delivery before, during and after navigating (driving) to the destination address.

Process Summary: Curiosity and passion set me off on a self-driven design exercise, where I conceptualized, evaluated (interviews, prototypes, in-vehicle testing), designed (UX, Visual, Motion), pitched, gained leadership + roadmap alignment to ship an international interface tool that worked effectively for all modes of Amazon delivery (in-car, restaurant, in-store, Locker, etc.), giving drivers access all desired delivery information, at any point in time.

Business Impact: 10% reduction in driver support calls about missing information worldwide.

Driver Quote: “This was my biggest issue with the app. Thank you.”

Design Snapshot:

Grouped Deliveries

Mobile & Service Design

Overview: In Amazon’s logistics world, “grouped deliveries” represent multiple delivery destinations that are within walking distance from one another (e.g. units within apartments or gated communities). In these instances, delivery drivers often park at one location, then walk throughout a single or multi-building complex to deliver to each individual unit (or the building’s mailroom.

Problem: Drivers were unable to complete grouped deliveries (for unknown reasons) so often that it this was costing Amazon a projected $15 million per year due to resulting support calls and logistical costs of re-attempting incomplete grouped deliveries. To date, this is the most complex problem I’ve tackled in my career.

Process Summary: I set out to solve this massive problem in 3 weeks by riding along with drivers to observe them making deliveries, making my own deliveries, building and walking through journey maps with senior leadership to point out critical mismatches between what drivers needed in the real-world vs. what we were showing in the digital experience, sketching, prototyping and running interactive usability studies using the Business Origami methodology (image above), delivering a solution that drivers loved.

Business Impact: 56% reduction in incomplete deliveries, and 20% reduction in delivery completion time.

Driver Quote: “Y’all made it Barney style. Can’t screw it up now.”

Design Snapshot:

Delivery Design System

Mobile Experience

Overview: One of my final contributions to the Flex app was the creation and delivery of our first interface design system.

Problem: After a fast launch and the rapid accumulation of new features, the app lacked a design language built for split attention and active use on-the-go, as well as a single source of truth for its interface components resulting in incredibly inconsistent interface implementations across our iOS and Android experiences.

Process Summary: I spent my time on this project alongside a Visual Designer, each of us working to improve the consistency, accessibility, and usability of Flex’s design language. Together, we audited the entire Flex app, identified 57 different colors, 33 text styles, inconsistent spacing (no grid system), duplicative components, and platform-specific disparities, then defined a type ramp, grid system and component structure, ensured the experience was AA contrast compliant, pitched the new component system, organized universal design system file (Sketch app), and worked along side an engineering team dedicated to the implementation of the new design system into the Android and iOS codebases alike.

Business Impact: Built the first iteration of a source of truth for all of Flex’s interface components so that the design team and engineering partners could create consistent and efficient design solutions for upcoming features.

Amazon Leadership Quote: “This is a huge win for our organization, and even bigger win for drivers.”

Design Snapshot:

Navigation Design Patent

Lead Inventor

Overview: During my three years working on Flex, I spent a lot of time reading about how people way-find on-foot and in the car.

Problem: I realized that when driving in a vehicle, and using a turn-by-turn navigation app, it is incredibly difficult to interpret how far upcoming turns are after being announced by the navigation system. For example, “Turn left in 1000 feet” means many things to many different people, at many different speeds, in many different geographical situations; human perception of distance is almost always off, and speed + traffic make this harder.

Patent Summary: I created a novel design solution to visually indicate distance to an upcoming turn within the turn by turn navigation bar by using a subtle, yet glanceable progress indicator; you can find the patent specifications here.

Business Impact: This design patent is held by Amazon today.

Design Snapshot:

Photo On Delivery

Mobile & Service Experience

Overview: Amazon end-customers began to complain that they had issues finding packages that were delivered by Flex drivers, after which, end-customers would call Amazon Support ($28 cost to Amazon per call), or request a refund (much larger cost).

Problem: I was tasked with adding a step into the delivery workflow prompting drivers to take a picture after placing their packages at the delivery destination. Photos taken by drivers would be sent to end-customers via Amazon’s delivery receipt email, making it easier for customers to triage package delivery issues themselves. The most significant motivating factor for Flex driver performance is delivery speed, so it was critical that the new photo capture experience kept the delivery workflow as efficient as possible, but also ensured that the capture image would be clear and helpful for end-customers.

Process Summary: I approached this problem with a scrappy mentality, sketching the workflow quickly and running a usability study within Amazon buildings, asking employees at different front desks to deliver fake packages to different doors, then take a photo with my prototype: an iPhone, its native Camera app, and a scotch tape reticle taped onto the screen, all to better-understand how much visual affordance and guidance drivers needed when taking photos of delivered packages to ensure that would be useful for end customers. I ran the study fast, iterated on the visual affordances, and delivered a solution that launched in North America first, and worldwide soon after.

Business Impact: Reduced supports calls by 9% worldwide. Reduced concessions in the US by 2%. Realized no increase in average delivery time.

Design Snapshot: