Trase2025

Boosting user engagement by 30% on Trase

Brought in after Trase’s major site revamp to elevate the visual design, streamline the UX and introduce new workflows that improved the team’s process.

Three redesigned Trase screens side by side on a dark teal background, the supply chain flow view, the map of Brazil and the analysis side panel
Role
Lead Product Designer
Core team
Product manager, software engineer
Extended team
Global researchers, data scientists

Overview

Making supply chain data easier to explore and act on

Trase is an open-access platform that brings transparency to the supply chains of key globally traded agricultural commodities. By connecting data sources in new ways, it links commodity buyers to the regions where products are grown, and to the sustainability risks and opportunities in those regions.

I joined as lead product designer after the site’s major revamp, to elevate the visual design, streamline the experience and introduce new workflows that improved the way the team worked. I partnered with the product manager and a software engineer day to day, and with Trase’s global researchers and data scientists across the wider organisation.

The impact

Over the year, active users more than doubled and the average engagement time per user grew by 30%, to almost six minutes.

Research

A continuous research programme, not a one-off study

After a thorough audit, I set up a research programme that kept insights coming in all year.

  1. Analytics and heatmaps

    I set up Hotjar recordings and dashboards, reviewed Google Analytics every month and shared the findings with the wider team.

  2. User testing

    I ran regular remote testing sessions with people who use Trase data in their work.

  3. Workshops

    I facilitated in-person workshops in Stockholm and remote FigJam sessions to uncover pain points and prioritise features.
Pages of the audit report, covering visual design, users, the sitemap, responsive design and key features
The audit report, page by page.
The summary of findings from the audit, grouped into information architecture, content, visual design, responsive design and accessibility, each point tagged by priority
The summary of findings, grouped by theme and priority.
Workshop photos: sticky notes on a table, a wall of notes and the team around an empathy map
Workshops with the team in Stockholm.
A remote FigJam workshop board with sticky notes clustered around the main pain points
Remote FigJam sessions with the wider team.

Data

Explore the data: making results clear and usable

People struggled to understand and engage with the results of “Explore the data”. Key results were crowded, hard to find and had no guidance around them, so users got confused and missed insights.

The old Explore the data result for Paraguay: a long page of charts and tables
Before: the old Explore the data result for Paraguay.

In the redesigned experience, users land directly on the flow map, so experienced users get to the insight straight away. Contextual tooltips appear at the right moments and guide everyone else through the tool with clarity and confidence.

The new flow view for the Brazil beef dataset, with trade flows from municipalities to exporters and a contextual tooltip
After: the flow map, with contextual tooltips.

Map

A faster way to filter and compare regions

Filtering the map was clunky and took too many steps. I introduced preset filters, a persistent side navigation and a simpler toolbar, so users can explore and compare regions in two clicks.

The map before the redesign, with country and indicator filters in a dark side panel over a map of Brazil
The map before the redesign.
The new map of Brazil, with filter suggestions and indicators in the left panel and a colour legend
The new map: filters and indicators side by side.

Result

More people, staying longer, going deeper

Over the year, traffic went up, and so did the depth and quality of engagement and user satisfaction.

  • Active users up 145.6%

    Now around 11K, with roughly 2.5 times as many returning users as the previous period: people find real value in the platform.

  • New users up 154.6%

    More than twice as many first-time visitors are discovering Trase, which is driving the growth in active users.

  • Engagement time up 30%

    The average engaged time per active user is now 5 min 53 s, showing that people are going deeper into the data.