Order Tracking
How I unpacked a complex network of back-end infrastructure and translated it into something customers could understand.
Table of Contents
37% of all calls to our contact centre were related to order tracking.
The order tracking experience was limited to 5 simple statuses, providing a lack of clarity to customers.
The Problem
The Solution
After completing discovery, planning, research and user testing, I created a solution that includes learnings about various backend infrastructures, codes received from carriers, and what customers expect from shipping and handling when making online purchases. We increased customer-facing statuses from 5 to 10, which includes all steps possible along the way, the statuses associated with returns and email communications for each status update.
The launch of the project resulted in:
23% Reduction in call volume since launch (2024 March)
Design solution
Introduced a visual indicator to help with the progression of the order.
Included clear statuses that follow industry standards and added context when needed.
Reorganized the hierarchy of content to help with discoverability and manage reading patterns.
Designed for error scenarios such as delays, cancellations and fraud, as well as the introduction of returns tracking.
Content Hierarchy
High placement and visual emphasis so customers can easily see the status.
Visual Tracking
Introduced a visual UI associated with the status to provide clear steps and how close they are to getting their package.
Additional Context
Statuses are usually short and unclear; for instance, where a customer might want more detail, we included tooltips.
Multi Tracking
With the limitations of our backend, we had to provide a way for customers to track multiple shipments within their orders.
Email Enhancements
Created a visual hierarchy to help customers read the most important content first.
Introduced linking to allow continuation of the journey from email to website.
Collaborated on the subject line to ensure emails didn’t get seen as spam.
What Went Wrong?
Although the numbers tell a different story, the overall success of the feature launch was unsuccessful. After launch, the backend codes were not routed to our front-end endpoints, causing customer-facing statuses to be incorrect. Most of our customer tracking journeys were stuck at “Shipped”.
Alongside the problems above, the email enhancements and returns experience were deprioritized until Q2 2025, creating a large gap in the communication of order statuses.
The Process
Discovery
After the initial planning and strategy of the product roadmap, I was able to start uncovering how to create the solution. Discovery work consisted of competitive analysis, discovering internal processes, and user interviews to see how we could create best-in-class experiences.
Back-end Infrastructure
Located and identified all back-end infrastructure from when a customer clicks “Place Order” until they receive their product.
Identified their use and connectivity to the overall customer experience.
The transitional period of warehouse inventory management systems meant that some of the processes in warehouse picking management would be changing.
Staples has multiple warehouses with varying product assortments, which means that multi-item orders could get shipped out separately.
Journey Service Mapping
With the back-end services identified, I organized them based on the different customer journeys.
The service maps connect the back end to the front end and everything in between, helping us understand our system's shortcomings.
Discovery Interviews
Interviewed 5 users who have placed orders within the past week to understand how they go about their order-tracking journey.
Customers tend to track their order when it is of high value, urgent, for their business, delayed or from a place they do not normally buy from.
When tracking orders, customers track via all available forms, such as through email, the site directly or the shipping carrier sites.
Customers prefer emails over text messages, as lately, texts have become suspicious.
When communicating with customers, they prefer to be overcommunicated as they can choose what they want to read.
When things go wrong, they want to deal with the company they bought the item from, not the carrier, as well they would hope that there are contingency plans and good customer support in place.
Final Thoughts
This project was one of the most fun and fulfilling projects I have worked on. Being able to help define the roadmap as well as having great product partners made the process smooth. Although the design solution was a fairly simple lift in terms of decision-making, doing the backend discovery and the interviews helped me get a better understanding of what we could and couldn’t do and how we might be able to achieve things from a system perspective.