UI/UX Design
Overview
When I joined Winsupply in 2021, they were undergoing a massive technology modernization project. Winsupply is one of the nation’s largest wholesale distributors of residential and commercial construction materials.
One of the major projects I took on in my time with the company was a rewrite of their internal inventory management system, also known as Live Shop. Win had attempted to get a rewrite of the program off the ground several times over the last ten years, and I consider it one of my greatest recent accomplishments to have been able to get a design approved and moving forward. Below are the skills I applied to this project, along with a description of my process as I navigated through the waters of designing such a complex application.
UI/UX Design
Web Design
User Interview
Process
User Interview
From the get-go, I knew interviewing users and gathering requirements would be of the utmost importance. One of the main reasons previous rewrites had failed was that the designs didn’t take into account one of the main components that inventory managers wanted – Usage Statistics. I spent a lot of time interviewing users, sending surveys, and contacting inventory managers making sure I nailed down exactly what fields were required in this app and what was actually MVP for the project. I conducated an extensive white board session with key stake holders and was able to nail down a first draft.
UI/UX Design
Once this search architecture was ready to unveil, building the usage modal was the most important piece of this prototype. Users needed the ability to mark preferred locations near them, and the ability to see not only availability statistics, but whether or not an item was IOV, which means that the inventory item was stagnant and the Company they are buying from is eager to sell for a cheaper price. After nailing down the search prototype it was time for the real data monster - Adding the “shopped” items to company catalogs.
Finally, logic was added to ensure that when adding items to their catalog the user was able to add to all companies they manage. I added select boxes for any user who manages multiple catalogs to select what companies to add to.
Web Design
LiveShop for Winsupply was one of my first major UI projects. However, coming from a web design background, I was able to apply some key skills to ensure minimal revisions and a smooth process.
1: This project was going to be a desktop-only product, however, it needed to be usable on even older computers, as some distribution centers had old hardware. I ensured this by breaking the contents of these tables into specific categories, minimizing what is already an overwhelming amount of data on screen at a time.
2: Keeping all relevant data on screen at the top. Having a summary of the product you searched ensures minimal back-and-forth across pages or searches and allows you to "shop" the products you need.
3: Brand Identity is important across all mediums. Winsupply has a design system they implement and even for inventory applications that were originally running in a DOS style screen, the modernization project required consistency to work. I was able to work within Win's design system to make sure that this project was consistent with all of the other inventory management products the company uses.
Summary
This prototype was taken to Winsupply’s national training meetings and presented to local companies across the nation. It was approved with minimal revisions and development has started as of March 2022