DAT One
Client: DAT Freight & Analytics
Company: Supply
Role: Creative Director
DAT has been at the cutting edge of the spot-market freight industry for 30+ years. But recently, the competitive landscape has evolved, and companies are entering what has historically been a slow-to-change market with new tech offerings and approaches.
As a Creative Director at Supply, I partnered with DAT to evaluate and redesign its product offerings and web presence to maintain its position in the market. Through multiple engagements over three years, Supply helped bring the DAT One platform to life, providing customers with a wide-ranging toolkit of offerings that support Freight Carriers, Brokers, and Shippers.
Break down unnecessary product silos.
In July 2019, When Supply first engaged with DAT, their product offerings were siloed according to customer segments. DAT had a hunch that if they could find a way to break down these siloes and connect each offering under the umbrella of a single, unified platform strategy, they could streamline discovery, increase automation, and improve the user experience for all their customers.
Working across company verticals, Supply partnered with the Marketing and Product teams to design and launch a new unified mobile/web app strategy and marketing website aptly named DAT One.
Create a consistent and predictable user experience.
DATs collection of apps in the marketplace was starting to look tattered and worn out. With four apps across two operating systems, their UX design system was becoming challenging to use, the user experience was inconsistent, and keeping each app up to date was negatively impacting DAT’s ability to roll out new features.
Working hand-in-hand with DAT’s product team, Supply created a new design system and information architecture that combined DAT’s load board, load posting, load tracking, and the ability to locate amenities into a single app experience. The design system created by Supply has provided DAT with a robust collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that they continue to leverage as they roll out additional features.
Increase conversion through better design.
While working on DAT’s new mobile app, they approached Supply and asked us to help them fix their marketing website. They had noticed that potential customers looking to sign up for products and services were consistently dropping out of the purchase funnel. They needed a quick fix that wouldn’t impede other high-priority initiatives. An initial experience audit provided by Supply exposed several disjointed and outdated pages on their website, along with inconsistent language and UX issues on their feature comparison page and in the sign-up flow. Following Supply’s recommendations, DAT changed its website and saw an immediate increase in customer acquisition and product sales.
Building on the success of this initial engagement, DAT’s marketing team asked Supply to design and develop an updated marketing website based on new brand guidelines they had recently created. The updates made by Supply resulted in an easier-to-manage web experience with streamlined navigation, a robust set of web templates that the DAT marketing team can quickly deploy, and a customer experience authentic to the brand.
Operate as an extension of the client team.
Great work requires trust and partnership. Operating as a unified team, our designers, developers, project managers, and researchers have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the DAT product team, marketing team, and their vendors to execute everything from concept visioning to customer research to motion design and product implementation. We continue to collaborate with DAT as a valued partner.
