LOGISTICS
Storytelling for a new parcel tracking experience
How customer insights guided business and design decisions
Visit Hermes parcel tracking
Overview
In March 2020, Covid-19 reached its peak in Germany. Like all parcel delivery services, Hermes recorded a sharp increase in shipments, accompanied by a steady decline in customer satisfaction.
The project aimed to fundamentally redesign and optimize parcel tracking with a user-centered approach. It also sought to determine whether integrating additional services could help mitigate technical limitations in predicting precise delivery times.
- Focusing on meeting customer expectations
- Improved integration of status messages
- Delivery forecasts presented more clearly
- Better differentiation from competitors
- High user volumes require robust systems
Outcome
The new tracking experience highlights the emotionally significant moment of a parcel’s arrival for many recipients. It tells a visual story of the journey—from handover, through multiple transport steps, to delivery.
- Early user surveys showed a clear rise in customer satisfaction with the new parcel-tracking experience.
- Prioritization of expected delivery time as the central piece of information.
- Integrate delivery options seamlessly to create a smoother, uninterrupted experience.
- Delivery forecasts are presented more clearly and understandably.
- Integrating previously overlooked status information improved delivery-time prediction accuracy for all customers.
- The tracking service with my redesign is 5 years after the relaunch still in use.
Challenge
The parcel tracking service sees high traffic with over 1 million visits per day. During the height of the Covid crisis paket delivery saw a steep increase in parcel delivery, but also an increase in customers dissatisfaction.
The redesign should increase the overall customer satisfaction and convince more customers to use one of four preferred delivery options, which reduces the time spend on a delivery considerably.
Role
UX Designer, UI Designer, UX Writer, setting user research goals in alignment with the product management
Tools
Sketch, Zeplin, Axure RP, Confluence & Jira
Team
UX Designer (me), Product Manager, Product Owner, Front-end and Back-end Developers
Approach
Competitive Research
I started out with competitive research and analysing the first user testing, which was conducted prior to my joining the team with an internally created prototyp. The insights from this analysis helped to quickly come up with a new approach.
Journey & Blue print
I created a user journey to foster stakeholder and team alignment, mapped insights from the first user testing and used newly discovered states from the developers state discovery and extended the journey into a delivery blueprint draft.
Mobile UI Design
Accurately predicting the arrival of a package is the Achilles’ heel of package tracking. My approach helped balance user needs with business restrictions and prediction shortcomings. I carefully composed all messaging around expectations management.
Prototyping
The prototypes were created by the user research agency Eparo in Hamburg. I defined the key research objectives, aligned them with Hermes stakeholders and the agency, and provided all mockup screens.
User research
Three rounds of user tests were conducted by Eparo. I observed two of them and defined the research goals. The second test validated my redesign assumptions, while the third highlighted the importance of integrating delivery options.
UI Design
I had to bend some rules to achieve a new customer experience. For example the font size of the mobile headline was largely increased to be more easily read by the customers. I also avoid the required header banner and choose a plain image.
From User Journey to Service Blueprint
Mapping the journey from purchase to final delivery clarified users’ information and support needs. Interview insights revealed key pain points and potential breakpoints, which informed the customer journey map and guided early prototype testing. This work led to the first wireframes of the new solution.
Transforming the journey into a draft service blueprint helped the team identify additional points of departure for deeper exploration and improvement of the parcel delivery process.
Validating product priorities through usability testing
Over three test rounds, we evaluated shipment tracking with 6-8 users together with Eparo, who managed recruiting and moderation. When I joined, the first wireframe test had already surfaced a wall of insights and clarified key product priorities.
For the next rounds, I defined clear goals, hypotheses, test scenarios, and screen variants to address key product questions, gather actionable user insights, and guide the next development decisions with greater confidence.
First round
Wireframe discovery
In the first round an internally made prototype showed many shortcomings. I based my new approach on the insights from this round and competitive research.
Second round
Validating the New Approach
The second test validated the new approach with very positive feedback. Personalization, clear messaging, and added visuals created a more engaging user experience.
Third round
Testing Deposits & Visuals
The third test focused on deposit options and visual preferences. Full integration cut bounce rates. Photos were favored, line illustrations less so, and isometric visuals rated lowest.
Mobile First Driven by User Behavior
A mobile-first approach was chosen based on usage and device data showing that parcel tracking is overwhelmingly accessed via smartphones. Together with the team, we decided to focus most efforts on mobile optimization to best match user behavior.
This ensured clearer prioritization, faster validation, and a stronger user experience. All user testing was therefore conducted with mobile prototypes, allowing realistic feedback and early detection of usability issues.
Wireframe flows
Working along the user journey
After the first user test analysis, I created wireframes for key journey states, focusing on structure and messaging to address interview-identified pain points.
Prototyping
Research goals in mind
Together with usability agency Eparo, we conducted 24 in-depth interviews with customers and prospects. For each test iteration, I prepared briefings with clear research hypotheses and questions.
Visual design
Illustration vs. photos
For the final user test, I explored visual preferences. User photos performed best, illustrations less so, and isometric visuals failed. I chose photos after aligning with the in-house designer to piggyback on an upcoming photo shoot.
Pragmatic Desktop Optimization
Desktop optimization had to be implemented quickly and efficiently due to time and budget constraints. From the start of the project, the team and stakeholders deliberately chose a mobile-first approach, which clearly limited the scope of desktop optimization.
Accordingly, I followed width constraints established in the legacy tracking experience and by competitors, using a two-column layout only for drop-off options.
