planet express
Increasing transparency in shipment tracking and boosting user satisfaction by 19%
A tracking tool for a next-next-next-gen delivery service.
Year
2025
Duration
2 Weeks
Role
Sole UX/UI Designer
Background
"Your shipping label has been created."
This common update is meant to reassure customers, but it can have the opposite effect. Tracking tools often rely on vague or repetitive updates that leave users guessing about the actual status of their packages.

For this project, I set out to design a more insightful tracking tool.

Oh, and to keep things interesting, I designed it for Planet Express—the notoriously unreliable delivery service from Futurama, where "on-time delivery" is more of a suggestion.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we make tracking updates more meaningful to users?
RESEARCH
Users turn to tracking when problems arise, but that’s when it tends to fall short.
Users have grown accustomed to fast, reliable shipping services that provide accurate delivery estimates. This eliminates their need to use tracking tools most of the time. Users are most curious about tracking details when they've realized a delivery they were expecting hasn't yet arrived.

Unfortunately, when something unexpected happens, tracking tools rarely provide meaningful insights into the issue or its cause.
“I rarely check tracking unless my package is late or urgently needed.”
USER interview participant
User Interview Participant
RESEARCH ACTIVITiES & OUTPUTS
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
User Interviews
AFFINITY MAP
To get a sense of how various companies handle tracking, I conducted a competitive analysis of USPS, FedEx, Amazon and Uber Eats.
‍
As part of this process, I reviewed dozens of user reviews on Google Play, uncovering the following insights:
  • No tracking tool is 100% reliable. Users appreciate the ability to track their shipments and deliveries but many have a story to tell about faulty tracking.
  • Users value novel solutions. Many now rely on conveniences they hadn’t originally sought out, like GPS driver tracking on UberEats or digital mail previews from USPS.
To gain deeper insights into user experiences with shipment and delivery tracking, I conducted five remote user interviews via Zoom.

The interview script included questions such as:
  • How often do you check the tracking status of a package?
  • What information do you find most useful when tracking a package?
  • Can you recall a time when something went wrong with a delivery?
  • Have you ever made a shipment you felt involved a certain amount of risk? If so, what was the risk and how did it influence expectations of the delivery?
An affinity map helped me visualize the commonalities of participant responses, revealing the following:
  • Users value tracking tools but acknowledge that there is room for improvement.
  • Users are more likely to rely on tracking for important packages or if their estimated delivery date has passed.
  • The two most important pieces of information to users are the estimated delivery date and the location of their package.
  • Users are frustrated by updates with information that has no meaning to them.
  • Users want as much information about their deliveries as possible—but only if it’s accurate and relevant.
PLANNING
We want to provide updates that give users clear context on their package status at the right moments.
The key takeaway from user research is that users feel most frustrated when they are left in the dark about their package status. They understand delays happen; often times, they just want to know what's happening and why.

With this insight in mind, the main goal of the Planet Express tracking tool will be to provide users with additional context about their deliveries.
“A delivery service has never proactively told me that my package was lost.”
USER interview participant
“I often have to hunt for information when something goes wrong.”
User Interview Participant
Planning ACTIVITiES & OUTPUTS
FEATURE ROADMAP
USER FLOWS
To define and prioritize the core functionalities of the tracking tool, along with other essential site pages, I created a feature roadmap. The following features were identified as the most essential.
  • Real-time tracking
  • Map integration
  • Shipping calculator
Using the feature roadmap, I developed a user flow to visually map how users will navigate the Planet Express website.
Wireframes & mockups
To set expectations, every step of the intended delivery path is mapped out—past, present, and future.
Users appreciate the ability to track their packages on a map, but it can create confusion when a package’s route appears to take it farther from its destination.

To prevent confusion, the Planet Express tracking tool displays the entire delivery route from start to finish, including key stops along the way.
Each step includes an estimated duration to provide additional insight into the estimated delivery date.
Common tracking tools notify users when their package has been scanned at a new location, such as a sorting facility. However, this information provides little insight into the actual progress of the shipment. What happens now that it's in the facility? And how long will it be there?

To make these types of updates more useful, Planet Express tracking provides an estimated duration based on prior data for each leg of the journey.
Tooltips explain unusually long estimates to further enhance transparency.
Sometimes packages stay in a single location for an extended period. When a user notices a package status hasn't changed for a while, they may begin to worry something has gone wrong.

To ease anxieties, the Planet Express tracking tool offers explanations about prolonged stopovers.
DESIGN ACTIVITiES & OUTPUTS
Mockups
WIREFRAMES
TESTING & ITERATION
"The tracking on this page is far superior to the tracking that I’m used to."
I conducted an unmoderated usability test via Lyssna where participants were tasked with tracking a package on the Planet Express website.

All participants completed this task successfully and had only positive things to say about their experience on site.
    “The estimated duration could be really helpful, I've never seen that before.”
    USABILITY TEST participant
    USABILITY TEST participant
    Results
    Users rated the helpfulness of this tracking tool 19% higher than familiar trackers.
    The ease of navigating this tool received an average user score of 10 out of 10.
    Final Thoughts
    At the end of the day, improving shipment tracking for Planet Express had nothing to do with logistics—it was about reducing uncertainty for users. This project was an important reminder that when people feel informed and in control, their overall experience improves.
    Reducing
     ---------
    Complexity for Travel Planners with Waypoints
    view next case study