Ghatline
A dispatch console for vans across Pune that sees a breakdown first, finds the van that can take its drops, and moves them in one click.
A studio concept: a fictional product we designed and built to show how we work. Not a client project.
Fifty vans, one evening shift, and a ghat road that does not forgive.
Ghatline is a delivery company we invented, running vans out of a Chakan distribution centre, a Wakad hub and a Hadapsar cross-dock. Shift B runs from two to ten. Ritika Shinde leads dispatch, and most of her evening is watching for the one van that is about to break a promise.
At 17:41 it happens: MH12 RT 4471 stops at Chandani Chowk with an overheating engine and three drops still on board, the first window closing at 18:30. The usual fix is a phone, a spreadsheet and a guess. Ghatline flags it, ranks the vans that could help, and puts one decision in front of her.
We designed the brand and the console, drew the map of Pune and the Chakan belt by hand as vectors, and built it as a working prototype. The company, the vans, the drivers and the customers are fictional.
- 01
Show the whole shift on one screen: vans, drops, windows, depots.
- 02
Surface a problem the moment it happens, with the drops it puts at risk.
- 03
Do the ranking, and explain the pick in a sentence.
- 04
Make the fix one click, and tell the driver and the customers.
The breakdown at Chandani Chowk, rebuilt.
The prototype's own map of Pune, drawn by hand, with the 17:41 exception played out. The three drops on 4471 go red, Ghatline checks eleven vans and suggests one near Baner. Accept it and watch the route, the ETAs and the queue change.
MH12 RT 4471 stopped at Chandani Chowk
- Santosh has the new route on the driver app
- 3 customers sent revised ETAs by SMS
- Recovery mechanic sent to 4471, ETA 22 min
Dispatch queue
128 drops in play · showing the next 9Every number on this console is fictional. The map is the prototype's own: no tiles and no map provider, just Pune's rivers, highways and neighbourhoods drawn as vectors from approximate coordinates.
The problem, on the map
The van turns coral where it stopped. Its three drops are numbered in the order they were due, and the route to them goes red.
One suggestion, with its reasons
Distance, load, the hit to each ETA and the windows kept. Then a sentence that says why this van, so the lead can trust it or pick another.
Everyone told, in one click
The new driver gets the route, the customers get new ETAs by SMS, and a mechanic is sent to the stopped van. The log keeps who did what, and when.
Built for the person who has to decide in a minute.
A dispatch lead looks at this screen for eight hours. Most of that time nothing is wrong, so the console stays quiet and dark, and colour is saved for the moments that need a decision.
Graphite, with amber for motion.
Vans and routes are sodium amber, like the street lights they drive under. Everything else sits back in graphite.
Red means a promise is about to break.
Coral is used only for an exception and the drops it puts at risk. When it appears, there is a reason to look.
Green means it is handled.
The proposed route is a mint dash, and a fixed drop stays mint in the queue, so the screen shows what was done as well as what is wrong.
Graphite, sodium amber, and a font that narrows.
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