PCMag.com
Feature Page/Slideshow Redesign
Design Direction • User Research • Competitive Analysis • Product Design
Overview
TradeLens, a global logistics platform by IBM and Maersk, needed a way to alert users to critical shipment events in real time. Previously, the system relied on static data views that forced users to check multiple dashboards to identify disruptions or delays.
The goal was to design a notification and alert framework that proactively surfaced risks, exceptions, and time-sensitive updates to help users act faster and improve operational efficiency.
Challenge
The platform served a wide range of users- carriers, freight forwarders, and shippers, each with distinct needs. TradeLens had to support configurable alerts without overwhelming users with noise.
The challenge was to create a scalable, role-aware notification system that could handle multiple event types and priorities while remaining simple to configure and interpret. It needed to serve both technical users monitoring global freight and business users focused on performance metrics.
My Role
As Design Lead, I partnered with product, engineering, and business teams to define the end-to-end experience and establish a framework for proactive insights.
We began by mapping all existing event types and identifying which required immediate attention versus informational updates. This allowed us to classify notifications into three primary types:
- Internal Alerts – used by TradeLens teams for data validation and anomaly detection.
- Proactive Notifications – triggered by real-world events such as customs release or inspection.
- Exception Alerts – rule-based triggers that flagged potential delays or risks.
I worked with data engineers to translate technical event data into understandable, user-facing terms, while our design team focused on creating clear hierarchies for urgency and context. The interaction design allowed users to filter, group, and prioritize alerts according to their role.
We validated the design through prototype testing with large enterprise clients, refining thresholds, tone, and notification delivery methods to ensure relevance and reduce fatigue.
Included tasks- UX: User Testing, User Interviews, Feature Analysis, Prototypes/wires. UI: Mid Fidelity Mocks, High Fidelity Mocks, Asset Library Creation, QA
Outcome
The redesigned Alerts and Notifications system gave users complete visibility into their shipment health and reduced time-to-response across key clients. Internal users gained access to diagnostic tools for data quality monitoring, while external users benefited from real-time, contextual insights.
The system also became a foundation for predictive features within TradeLens, enabling automated risk detection and proactive recommendations for future releases.
Impact
• Created the first scalable alert framework within the TradeLens ecosystem
• Improved operational response time across enterprise clients
• Reduced notification fatigue through relevance and role-based filtering
• Established a consistent notification pattern for future TradeLens products
First Mocks
After aligning with stakeholders, we developed a modular template offering both ‘slide’ and ‘list’ views- with list view as the default to enhance readability and engagement. The new design system unified typography, commerce elements, and navigation, providing a consistent visual language across PCMag. Certain advanced features, such as sticky navigation, were planned for later iterations to prioritize performance in the MVP.
