User Personas: Understanding the people we design for
Identify and define real user profiles to design more aligned, empathetic, and strategic experiences on our logistics platform.
Summary version
We built our user personas based on in-depth research, moving away from designing for the "generic customer" and toward focusing on real users with clear stories and needs. Today, we prioritize, design, and test with a real focus on those we support.
* Some figures and data have been adapted for illustrative purposes to protect strategic and confidential information.
Understand to categorize
On a platform like Nowports, where multiple types of users interact daily to drive complex logistics operations, simply understanding the customer in a generic way isn't enough. We needed to clearly identify who they are, what they need, how they work, and what frustrates them. Thus, this collaborative project between the User Research, Product Design, Design Ops, and Product teams was born, with a clear objective: to define our User Personas .
Why was it necessary?
We had grown rapidly and added features, but we lacked a shared, actionable vision for our key users. This impacted not only how we designed, but also how we prioritized, how we wrote, how we implemented, and even how we measured success. Decisions were being made based on intuition, anecdotes, or loose data.
We wanted to change that. We wanted to work with focus, empathy, and real data.
The process: research, alignment and collective construction
The process was rigorous, collaborative, and multidisciplinary. We built on a solid foundation of research and defined a clear work plan structured into three main stages:
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Exploration and research : We conducted qualitative interviews with active users across different markets, profiles, and operating sizes. We analyzed platform usage patterns and actual shipping workflows.
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Analysis and synthesis : We created a matrix of actors where we defined the key moments of interaction with the platform, mapped internal and external roles, and defined needs, objectives, and points of friction.
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Validation and delivery : We conducted feedback and validation sessions with stakeholders from product, operations, CX, and sales to ensure the profiles were representative and applicable.
Each stage was accompanied by shared documentation and workshops that strengthened the collective understanding of users. In addition, we generated a set of common findings that cut across all the identified stakeholders, such as the importance of visibility, proactive communication, operational friction due to dependence on third parties, and coexistence with external tools (such as ERPs or CRMs).
The result: a set of live, actionable people
We identified three main user personas that represent critical roles in logistics operations and platform use. Each was built with empirical evidence and internally validated to ensure their representativeness. These are:
Jade
Represents the strategic and leadership profile, such as managers or business owners. It has a business perspective, rather than an operational one, and its focus is on overall efficiency, traceability, and total visibility of the operation.
Jade doesn't necessarily operate on the platform day-to-day, but she needs access to consolidated reports, key metrics, and critical updates in a short amount of time.
Jade values clarity, trust, and the ability to delegate. She looks for platforms that allow her to monitor without intervention, to maintain control without overload. Her frustration often stems from the lack of transparency, wasted time searching for information, or dependence on multiple channels.
Within the platform, you can access summary dashboards, account statements, operational metrics, and financial tools. You also have access to strategic services such as insurance and financing, which directly impact your decisions. Jade represents that profile who needs everything to work so nothing can stop them: she makes decisions, evaluates suppliers, and needs a comprehensive solution that matches her business vision.
Amber
Represents the user who manages day-to-day logistics operations. They typically work in roles such as operational executive or logistics analyst. Their day is marked by shipments, documents, schedules, and constant communication with various stakeholders.
Amber uses the platform intensively and needs a streamlined, clear, and frictionless experience. She requires quick access to documents, real-time updates, status visibility, and tools that allow her to resolve unforeseen issues autonomously.
Their main frustrations include excessive manual uploads, document errors, wait times, and the need to chase information through multiple channels. They seek to reduce friction, automate steps, and ensure everything is up to date.
Within the platform, Ámbar manages shipments, uploads documents, checks status, downloads receipts, and communicates with support or the internal team. Her ideal experience is one where every second counts, where information is in the right place, and where technology simplifies—not complicates—her work.
Ruby
She represents those who play a support or logistical coordination role, and who are often the ones who ensure that everything flows smoothly between internal and external stakeholders. Rubi interacts with multiple areas, manages the information flow, and helps unblock bottlenecks.
Although they aren't always the ones making key decisions, they are essential to ensuring those decisions are implemented. They are concerned about errors due to misunderstandings, unclear documentation, or lack of access to updated shipment statuses.
Within the platform, Rubí accesses operational details, consults documentation, validates status, requests support, and monitors key deliverables. She needs everything to be understandable and organized. Her experience improves dramatically when the system allows her to anticipate problems and collaborate efficiently.
Rubi needs to feel that technology is on her side: that it makes it easier for her to communicate, coordinate, and ensure that each party does their job in a timely manner.
Each one is documented in detail: needs, goals, frustrations, tools used, and key points in the journey where they are involved. Additionally, they are available in accessible and practical visual materials, designed for product, design, content, and strategy decisions. They feature the following attributes:
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Role and function within the logistics process
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Specific needs and professional objectives
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Frequent ailments in daily operations
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Tools they use (on and off the platform)
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Key interactions with the platform and other actors
Additionally, each person was given a unique identity—such as Jade, Amber, or Ruby—to facilitate adoption and cross-use across the organization. This strategy helped reinforce their memorability and further humanize the profiles during workshops and strategic decisions.
Personas are available in visual and extended versions, designed to be used throughout the entire product lifecycle: from discovery and feature definition to validation, testing, and internal storytelling. The presentation is visual and accessible, including summary versions for quick reference and detailed versions for deeper insights into usage based on the context of the project or decision.
A living and evolving framework
We know that experience isn't static. That's why Nowristics isn't a museum document, but rather a guide that we update collaboratively based on what we learn. We iterate on it, we use it, we question it. And that makes it truly useful.
At Nowports, we believe that design doesn't start in Figma, but in the conversation about the experience we want to build. Nowristics is our way of sustaining that conversation with clarity, purpose, and a shared vision.