Shylesh Monceey
Available — Dubai / Abu Dhabi senior design leadership roles
Case Study Logistics · Two-sided marketplace

BlackBuck — moving Indian trucking from physical ledgers to a marketplace that runs unassisted.

A mobile platform that connects consignors who need to ship goods with the fleet owners and brokers who move them. The work spans both sides of the marketplace, with the harder problem on the supply side: power users who barely use customer support, mostly do business offline, and need an app that mimics the marketplace they already know.

Role
Product designer — research, UX, UI
Surface
Android mobile, demand + supply apps
Users
Fleet owners · brokers · consignors
Scope
Two-sided marketplace, end-to-end
01

The Brief & Goal — move offline trucking online without making anyone feel the move.

The problem
and the goal

Indian trucking runs on physical ledgers, WhatsApp price-discovery and broker handshakes. Fleet owners check their phones 3–4 times a day for orders in the morning and handle everything after the bid offline. They rarely call partner support. They match prices in WhatsApp groups and accept a deal at broker price + 50.

The goal: a marketplace that works in that world — Hindi-first, milestoned one screen at a time, mimicking the offline patterns users already trust. So simple it is completely unassisted, accurate enough that the system stays ahead of the user.

Scope

Six pillars the product had to cover.

01

Offline to Online

  • Physical ledger to a digital sheet
  • Spend less time entering numbers
  • Order details accessible online & offline
  • App ledger maintains order status & inventory
  • Accommodates layered user roles
02

Personalization & Filter

  • Tools tuned for brokers
  • Recommendations while searching
  • Personalised wish-list
  • Notify when in stock
  • Showcase popular categories
03

Chat & Customer Support

  • Chat available 24/7
  • Major Indian languages supported
  • Wide range of payment methods
  • Search, filter, suggestions
04

Sale & Billing

  • Feedback & multi-scale reviews
  • Delivery rider rating
  • Product quality feedback
  • Customer support routing
05

Location

  • Loading & multi-unloading points
  • Address search or manual entry
  • Location-based order visibility
  • Real-time location-based price suggestion
  • Location-based offers & coupons
06

Language & Communication

  • Simple spoken & written language
  • Offline terminology used in-app
  • Tutorial-based explanations
  • Accessible chat & call
  • UI mimicking offline symbols
02

My Process — research, segments, personas, flow, system.

User segments
across both sides
of the marketplace.
Supply — Fleet & Brokers
01
Medium-size fleet

Power user. Knows his way around all BlackBuck apps and stays updated with schemes.

02
Large fleet owner

Asks his staff to use the app on his behalf.

03
Small fleet owner / Broker

20 trucks in the family, half on loan. Brother runs a parallel business.

04
Broker — No Fleet

2nd-generation in trucking. Lifestyle-focused, doesn't want to work the traditional way.

Demand — Consignors
01
Large-scale industry

Manages many warehouses. Owns trucks, but needs more capacity at production peaks.

02
Inventory manager

Ships finished goods to holding warehouses and across cities & states.

03
Warehouse manager

Mostly warehouse-to-warehouse moves within the same company. Finished or partial goods.

04
Small-scale industry

Manufactures parts. Ships finished goods to storage or assembling warehouses.

Personas

Two supply-side personas the app was built around.

Small fleet owner / Broker · Age 33
Hari Ram
Mainly mobile · Hindi-first

"Large-scale transporter, increase his fleet size."

Drive
  • Wants to make money the unorthodox way
  • Targets a profit of ₹2k–₹3k per day
  • Wants more time with family
  • Tries new tech to solve real issues
Goals & Needs
  • Maintain his day-to-day consignment list easily
  • A dependable platform to find shipping consignments regularly
  • Move his data offline to online for easy retrieval
  • Notifications every time a new consignment is up for bidding
  • Maintain a good rapport with his peers
Hesitations & Pain Points
  • Doesn't want to pay the platform
  • Thinks platform fees are too high
  • Looks for opportunities to place many bids
  • Doesn't want all his details on the platform
Large fleet owner · Age 46
Manas Mittal
Delegates to staff

"Business dominance, in logistics."

Drive
  • Wants a leisurely lifestyle
  • Less effort, more outcome
  • Travels often, wants ops set up in multiple locations
  • Uses tech to maintain his fleet efficiently
Goals & Needs
  • Effortlessly maintain his fleet
  • Track, pay bills and communicate in the same app
  • Mostly lets his fleet manager use the app for him
  • Wants discounts and preference because of fleet size
  • Looking to set up a monopoly in his location
Hesitations & Pain Points
  • Delegates because the app is time-consuming
  • Slow POD by courier delays his payment
  • Customer support never solves his queries
  • Wants a referral bonus for onboarding friends
Empathy

Empathy mapping — Hari Ram.

Hari Ram is a father of three who works as a logistics broker. He earns through commissions and uses the app every day for at least 4 to 5 hours.

Hear
  • Heard about BlackBuck from peers in the market
  • His local influencer spoke well of BlackBuck
  • Heard about promotional activities and joining bonuses
See
  • A billboard ad beside the street
  • Ad material next to his broker's lane
  • Sees peers using the app
  • Regular promotional activities
Think
  • A steady income from BlackBuck
  • Doubts his decision to go online from the traditional offline marketplace
Say & Do
  • Talks shop with the broker lane every morning
  • Checks orders 3–4 times a day on his phone
  • Quotes broker price + 50 to accept a deal
Field notes

Rules to follow — what the research kept saying.

Time spent online
Everyday, 3–4 times — especially in the morning to check orders.
Time spent offline
Everything after bidding is handled offline.
Partner support
Never called. Handled by the local team or the Bangalore relationship manager.
Check My Bill / Make My Bill
Barely used. Only young brokers and tech-savvy fleet owners touch it.
Chat vs phone
Phone for urgency. WhatsApp for info and images. In-device chat is rarely used.
Proof of delivery
Users unsatisfied — especially anyone generating 50+ PODs a month.
Market rate vs BlackBuck rate
Prices are matched in WhatsApp groups; deal accepted at broker price + 50.
Devices & apps
Mostly Android, ₹10k–₹15k phones (Vivo, Samsung). WhatsApp, Facebook, Paytm, net-banking.
Principles

Six design goals that drove every screen.

01
Simple

So simple that it is completely unassisted.

02
Milestoned

One screen at a time, for brokers and drivers.

03
Accurate

The system should be one step ahead of the user, every time.

04
Mimicking marketplace

For better adoption, follow what users are already used to offline.

05
Regional

Hindi-first interface, with other regional languages supported.

06
Personalised

Orders stacked by what each user is interested in.

Flow

Two happy paths — one for each side of the marketplace.

Supply · Fleet owner happy flow
Home screen → Phone number → OTP confirmation → Create account → Order listing → Order details → Select serviceable location → Accept price / order → Send trucks → Truck at loading → Truck in transit → Truck at unloading → Send proof of delivery → Truck receipt generated → Accept more orders
Demand · Consignor user flow
Home screen → Phone number → OTP confirmation → Create account → Create an order → List consignment details → List order value → Select travel route → Send loading address → Waiting for a bid → Received bids → Accept bid → Track consignment → Unload consignment → Handover proof of delivery → Make payment
System

A UI kit built on the offline language drivers already speak.

Typography
Aa ZzLato — Bold
Aa ZzLato — Italic
Aa ZzLato — Regular
Aa ZzLato — Light
Aa ZzRoboto — Bold
Aa ZzRoboto — Italic
Aa ZzRoboto — Regular
Aa ZzRoboto — Thin
Colors
Demand · Primary
Neutral · Full Black
Supply · Payment Blue
Go Green
Supporting
Grey
Error Red
Stand-by Orange
Cream Gray
Iconography — truck types
Container
Half body
Full body
High cube
Trailer
Tanker
Dumper
Flat body

Road signs — weight limits, "come back later", "back not permitted" — were reused on screens at moments that needed them, so drivers were reading the same visual language they see on the highway.

03

The Outcome — a mobile marketplace that drivers can run themselves.

BlackBuck home screen with referral card and an active order showing 14 fleet owners interested.
01 · HomeLive orders with how many fleet owners are showing interest, plus a referral nudge.
My Requests — in-progress and completed orders with route, weight and load info.
02 · My ordersIn-progress and completed orders stacked into one ledger view.
Create Order form with loading point, unloading point, material, truck type, rate, payment type.
03 · Create orderOne field at a time — milestoned exactly like the offline form a clerk would fill.
Loading time picker with morning, afternoon and evening time-slot pills.
04 · Loading timeTwo-hour windows the driver actually thinks in — not a clock spinner.
Load booking screen — 27 of 100 tons booked with payment instructions.
05 · Booking loadTonnage entry with the payment rules visible while the driver decides.
Confirm price dialog — freight rate, tonnage booked, total payable with commission note.
06 · Confirm priceOne last clear summary before the user commits — no surprise fees.
Map view with a sheet showing trucks available to Muzaffarnagar and a total freight calculation.
07 · Pick trucksPick truck counts from a sheet that lives on top of the map of waiting trucks.
Confirmation screen — Thank you Vimal, 3 trucks are on the way with verified driver details.
08 · Trucks dispatchedVerified drivers, phone numbers, licence and ETA — everything to trust the trip.
Location · Real-time supply

"9 trucks are waiting in Bangalore."

The map view is the moment the offline marketplace becomes legible on a phone. A consignor sees, in their own neighbourhood, how much supply is parked right now — the same information a broker would otherwise get by walking down the lane. Tap a cluster, pick the truck types and quantity, and book.

Full-screen map view with red truck pins clustered around Bangalore, showing 9 trucks waiting nearby.
Closing
Two apps, one marketplace. Built so the user never feels they crossed from a register book into an interface — the offline language, the offline pacing, the offline trust signals, all preserved on glass.
Want to talk shop?

Let's build the next one together.

shylesh@npl.live