Optimizing North America’s largest freight marketplace
Overview
DAT Freight & Analytics is North America’s leading provider of freight matching and analytics solutions, helping brokers, carriers, and shippers move freight efficiently and profitably. DAT's products facilitate thousands of daily transactions — matching the right load to the right truck at the right price — providing market trends and data insights. The platform is made up of a suite of web-based SaaS applications, and native mobile apps.
As design lead for interface and visual design across all applications, my work included establishing of design standards and the creation of a component library, to create system-wide UX consistency across all products — collaborating closely with product owners, engineers, and other stakeholders to ensure alignment across individual product tracks.
Dark mode was intentionally designed into the new apps, directly addressing a frequent user request and improving usability in truck cabs by minimizing bright screen glare during day and night driving.
Paving the way: Designing DAT’s first native mobile apps for truckers
I led interface, visual, and interaction design for DAT’s first-ever native mobile apps, geared toward the independent owner-operator trucker customer base. Working closely with product owners, project managers, and development teams, I established and documented new mobile interface patterns and guidelines — ensuring brand consistency between Android and iOS while respecting native platform conventions.
DAT Trucker: Finding amenities on the road
Challenge
Independent truck drivers needed a reliable way to locate essential services such as truck stops, travel plazas, diesel prices, hotels, rest areas, and scales while on the road. Existing tools were fragmented and lacked clear, accessible mapping.
Solution
Designed DAT Trucker to allow drivers to search for nearby amenities or plan routes ahead, with a clean, native interface tailored for quick interactions on mobile devices.
Impact
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Helped truckers find critical services efficiently, reducing travel stress
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Improved usability for on-the-go interactions
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Delivered a cohesive experience across Android and iOS
Nearby and along-route search results designed for quick scanning — dark mode–optimized to reduce bright screen glare, even during night driving — helping drivers find essential amenities fast without breaking their route plan.
DAT Load Board: Finding freight quickly
Challenge
Truckers lacked a reliable and efficient way to search, research, and book freight while on the road — existing tools were cumbersome and difficult to use (at best) on mobile devices.
Solution
Designed a new version of DAT Load Board that helps users find freight faster and easier, an advanced load board app for owner-operators, carriers, and dispatchers, the mobile app lets truckers search through more than 450,000 truckloads posted everyday on the DAT network. Drivers can research loads and rates, post their availability, and contact freight brokers to book the loads they want — all from the road.
Impact
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Enabled drivers to find and book loads efficiently from anywhere
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Increased engagement and app usage among owner-operators and carriers
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Provided a unified, responsive interface for Android and iOS
Streamlined, dark mode-optimized workflow for searching and booking loads from the road — reducing taps, minimizing bright screen glare in truck cabs, and cutting booking time by half compared to the previous process.
Driving consistency: Unifying DAT’s SaaS applications
I was design lead for interface and visual design across DAT’s web applications, collaborating with other designers and working closely with senior management, product owners, project managers, and developers on individual product tracks. I owned the development of design standards and a code-based component library, creating consistency across all products and simplifying ongoing development.
DAT RateView: Real-time freight rate insights
Challenge
Freight brokers needed up-to-date rate information to make competitive bids and identify profit opportunities, but existing tools were becoming outdated and lacked timely data and intuitive interfaces.
Solution
Designed a dashboard featuring dynamic data visualizations of current market rates, historical trends, and regional pricing comparisons. Provides freight brokers with the industry's most timely rate information, tools, and trends. Users can see current market rates, and research what rates are likely to be in the longer term by analyzing historical patterns and seasonal trends. They can compare pricing to prevailing rates in different geographic areas and for different truck types. The tool allows users to generate reports, that help them to validate and ensure their bids are competitive — to find profit opportunities faster and easier.
Impact
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Enabled brokers to validate and adjust bids with confidence
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Improved efficiency in accessing and analyzing rate data through clear visualizations
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Delivered an efficient, user-friendly interface that was consistent across the platform
Side-by-side market comparison feature, designed to make high-volume data readable and actionable in seconds.
DAT Power: Dynamic load board management
Challenge
DAT's load board tools were already widely used by the industry, specifically freight brokers. They required a platform to monitor multiple load searches, filter results, and manage loads efficiently, but the existing tools were becoming outdated, fragmented, and not aligned with evolving expectations of modern tools.
Solution
Modernized the industry’s largest live load board. It provides freight brokers with real-time, live search results. Users can monitor multiple searches, filter results, and research rates, all on one screen. Users can post and manage multiple loads at the same time. The tool provides them with accurate market rates for the areas and truck types they are searching — with snapshot data from RateView fed directly into search and post details. A group feature provides tools for teams to collaborate and work together to move high-priority freight.
Impact
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Streamlined load management and search workflows with consistent design and intuitive data displays
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Enhanced team collaboration and decision-making
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Integrated new features like integrating real-time market rates directly into posting and search interfaces
Redesigned search interface with simplified filtering and prioritized load details — reducing cognitive load for busy, multi-tasking freight professionals.
