Happy Logistics

Strategic Gaps

The last mile was still a group chat

Happy Meal Prep gave kitchens one place to run menus and orders. Getting those orders to the door was another story. Kitchens sending hundreds of orders in tight weekly windows had two options: pay for couriers, or run their own drivers through spreadsheets and text messages.

Two people needed very different things. A dispatcher needed to see the whole operation at once. A driver needed to see the next stop, and not much else.

Design Logic

Ride along before drawing anything

I rode along with drivers before designing a single screen. Sun glare made soft, low-contrast screens hard to read, and arms full of bulk packages meant one free thumb at best. A service blueprint mapped every handoff between the kitchen, dispatch and the driver, so each screen knew where it sat in the chain.

Dispatch only sees what’s wrong

The command center works by exception. Deliveries running on time fade into the background, while late drivers and failed drops come forward. A dispatcher shouldn’t have to scan forty on-time rows to find the one that needs them.

The driver’s day is one list

The app opens on today’s tickets in route order, with an On-Duty switch at the top. A dotted line points to what’s up next, and every ticket carries its status, so a driver always knows where they are in the day. The map shows numbered stops and one button to jump back to the current delivery.

Proof of delivery closes the loop

At the door, Photo, Notes and Signature each turn solid green once they’re done, and Completed becomes the obvious next step. Failed is still there, just quiet. The delivery photo sends the customer a message and updates the kitchen dashboard, so nobody has to call to ask where an order is. Routing and smart batching were built side by side with engineering, so the plan on the dispatcher’s screen matches what happens on the road.

The Experience

Impact

Kitchens onboarded to Happy Logistics saw 30% lower delivery costs per mile and a 98% on-time delivery rate. Figures reported in the original case study.

I led product design across the platform, from the ride-alongs and service blueprint to the driver app and the dispatch command center.

Reflection

Most of the real work on this project happened off screen, in a delivery van and on a map of handoffs. The screens got simple because the research made it obvious what to leave out. Better tools behind the scenes end up showing at the customer’s door.