Case Study · Mobile · 0 → 1 · Japan

Designing a driver app for scan, memorize, act.

A 0→1 last-mile delivery app for Espoirer's Japanese couriers — built for drivers who don't read the screen, they glance at it.

iOS & Android · launched 92% → 97% delivery success 2× order volume
Today · 12 stops8 left
12
Tanaka-san
渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-1 · 302
3 pkg
13
Sato Office
渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-1 · 405
1 pkg
14
Yamamoto-san
渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-3 · 101
2 pkg
15
Mori Café
渋谷区 桜丘 4-3-7
5 pkg

Scope of work

Product
0→1 driver-facing delivery app iOS & Android
Role
Design Lead in team Lead
Methods
Contextual Inquiry · Task Analysis · Card Sorting · Cognitive Walkthrough · MVP Planning Mixed
Focus
Package list & map views for high-volume delivery Core flow
Outcome
92% → 97% delivery success · 2× order volume Shipped

Key insight · 8 contextual interviews

Drivers don't read the app — they scan, memorize, and act.

Field observation · ride-along with 8 Japanese couriers

Competitive analysis — scanning, query, and account flows across Track-POD, Ninow, and Amazon Flex
Artifact · Competitive scanTrack-POD, Ninow, and Amazon Flex, broken down by scanning, query, and account flows — error-prevention on failed scans and package-level clarity emerged as the gaps worth designing for.

The redesign

From a paper-equivalent screen to a scannable hierarchy.

Before

The original list — paper translated to phone

Deliveries (47)
12 · 渋谷区桜丘4-2-1-302 · TANAKA · 3pcs · pending · scan to confirm
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2934
13 · 渋谷区桜丘4-2-1-405 · SATO · 1pcs · pending · scan to confirm
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2935
14 · 渋谷区桜丘4-2-3-101 · YAMAMOTO · 2pcs · pending · scan
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2936
15 · 渋谷区桜丘4-3-7 · MORI CAFE · 5pcs · pending · scan
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2937
16 · 渋谷区桜丘4-3-9-203 · ITO · 1pcs · pending · scan
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2938
17 · 渋谷区桜丘4-4-2 · NAKAMURA · 4pcs · pending · scan
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2939
18 · 渋谷区桜丘4-5-1-708 · WATANABE · 2pcs · pending · scan
2024-01-15 09:34 · 003-2849-2940
A
No visual hierarchyOrder number, recipient, and address all weighted the same — drivers can't scan in <1 second.
B
Wasted densityTimestamps and phone numbers compete for attention but are never used at the door.
C
Status as sentence"Pending · scan to confirm" is text — not a state. Hard to read while moving.
After

Scannable cards built around the driver's eye-path

Today · 12 stops8 left
12
Tanaka-san
渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-1 · 302
3 pkg
13
Sato Office
渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-1 · 405
1 pkg
14
Yamamoto-san
渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-3 · 101
2 pkg
15
Mori Café
渋谷区 桜丘 4-3-7
5 pkg
A
Order number anchors the scanBig black tile, top-left of every card. Drivers map order numbers to physical sequence in seconds.
B
Recipient + address onlyEverything else is one tap away. Cards carry only what's needed at the door.
C
Package count as a chipColor + count, not text. Glanceable while walking.

Information architecture

The nested complexity behind each delivery.

A single order isn't an order — it's a chain. Different recipients within the same room, different rooms within the same building, different buildings within the same area, all needing to resolve to one card the driver can act on.

01Area
渋谷区 桜丘
02Building
4-2-1 4-2-3 4-3-7 4-4-2 4-5-1
03Room
101 203 302 405 708
04Recipient
Tanaka-san Sato Office Yamamoto-san Mori Café
05Package
PKG-001 PKG-002 PKG-003 PKG-004 PKG-005 + 18 more

Highlighted nodes show one driver's actual delivery to Yamamoto-san at building 4-2-3, room 203 — two of the five packages routed to the same physical address.

In production

Screens drivers actually use, every shift.

Espoirer · task list, map view, and Japanese localization in production
Task list · map view · Japanese localization
Espoirer · map view with stops clustered by building
Map view · stops clustered by building
Espoirer · complete end-to-end user flow map, 102 steps across scanning, routing, delivery, and exception handling
Artifact · Flow mapThe complete end-to-end flow — 102 steps across scanning, route planning, delivery, and exception handling. Every screen above resolves to a node on this map.

Localization

Built around how Japanese addresses actually work.

Japan's addresses go area → block → building → room — the opposite hierarchy from Western "house number, street". Forcing Western patterns onto a Japanese delivery list breaks every driver's mental model.

Address rendering, typography balancing kanji + Latin glyphs, and a card system that treats the building as the primary anchor — not the street.

Western pattern

123 Main Street, Apt 4B
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Japanese pattern · used by Espoirer

渋谷区 桜丘 4-2-3 · 203
Shibuya-ku · Sakuragaoka · Block 4-2-3 · Room 203

Design system

One kit, built for kanji and Latin side by side.

Espoirer style guidelines — Noto Sans JP typography, color tokens, icons, buttons, and components
Artifact · Style guidelinesNoto Sans JP typography tuned for mixed kanji-Latin addresses, status colors mapped to delivery states, and the component set every screen was assembled from.

Results

Measurable impact on daily operations and growth.

+5%

Delivery success
92% → 97%

2×+

Order volume
more than doubled

0→1

Shipped from scratch
on iOS & Android

Takeaways

B2B logic is a different shape of complexity.

The hard part of a driver tool isn't any single screen — it's keeping data and process correct end-to-end, across features owned by different teams. Every intersection point is a place the product can silently break.

Example — when a driver batch-scans packages ahead of arrival, location accuracy drops and the system flags an error. Should the system decide, or should the driver get the authority to override? Decisions like this live in no wireframe — and they shaped more of the product than the screens did.

Designing a 0→1 product means designing the seams — the handoffs between your surface and everyone else's. That's where trust is kept or lost.

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