A New Future of Global Shipping.

Honeywell and a leading chip manufacturer had a serious concern: they regularly shipped high-value and fragile freight but had no real way to know if it was damaged or stolen until it reached its destination.

They decided it was time to find a solution. So, they joined forces with their freight logistics providers to create a hardware and software platform that would enable real-time monitoring of any freight, anywhere in the world.

Particle Design was brought on board to help build a design that would work well for logistics providers and their customers and that it could be incorporated into existing workflows without completely disrupting them.

Our role

  • UX Ressearch
  • UX Strategy
  • Roles and Task Flows
  • Field Trial Support
  • Industrial Design
  • Ideation Workshop
  • Participatory Design

Designing a user first strategy for real world impact.

Particle launched the project with ideation workshops that included key stakeholders from Honeywell and logistics companies.

By facilitating user interviews and a series of carefully crafted design-thinking exercises, Particle helped cross-functional teams prototype solutions to address the needs of real users across the logistics supply chain. Teams designed early prototypes using everything from cardboard to legos, which laid the groundwork for the hardware and software requirements that Honeywell needed to kick off the product design. In focusing on the powerful insight of real user experiences, Particle went on to develop a real-world shipping solution that bridged refined IoT with real-time tracking.

Inspiring the foundation of Honeywell’s award winning platform.

Particle carried the key learnings from the ideations and user research forward to design a contextually aware prototype for the Honeywell team. The output was a sophisticated shipping solution that used Intel® sensor technology to provide real-time feedback on a package while in transit. Throughout the design and development process, we navigated across companies and teams to ensure the UX thread remained intact to satisfy both business and user needs.

As a result of Particle’s research and designs, Honeywell developed an award-winning platform that gives companies unparalleled insight into the health of their products throughout the shipping journey, allowing them to make real-time decisions that can minimize freight loss or spoilage, maximize asset utilization, and optimize end-to-end supply chain operations. By combining sensor technology with refined IoT, our shipping solution provided immediate and essential information to key stakeholders and partners.

We see visibility tracking solutions such as this as an important component to our semiconductor logistics efforts and is something we believe will bring tangible value across other sectors within DHL as well.

Connor Charles
VP of Technology Sector Americas, DHL

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