Our engineering post covered the database fix — the N+1 query, the eager-loading, the materialized calculations, the prefetch. That post was about what happened under the hood.
This post is about what changed on the dispatcher’s screen.
Before
The month view loaded in 13 seconds. During those 13 seconds, the dispatcher stared at a loading spinner, then a partially rendered calendar, then a fully rendered calendar with color-coding that meant six different things and nobody could remember which was which.
The dispatcher’s daily workflow looked like:
- Open the calendar. Wait 13 seconds.
- Scroll to the day they need. Click a job. Wait for the detail panel.
- Drag a job to reschedule it. Wait for the update. Open a new tab to send the customer a text about the new time.
- Switch to the crew view. Check who’s available. Switch back to the calendar. Forget which day they were on.
- Repeat steps 1–4 sixty times a day.
That’s not dispatching. That’s navigating software.
What Dispatchers Said When We Shadowed Them
Most of the complaints weren’t about speed. They were about information density and visibility. Dispatchers wanted to see:
- Today’s jobs at a glance — not just appointments, but crew assignments, truck assignments, and job status
- Crew availability — who’s on long-distance, who’s off, who’s back tomorrow
- What the colors mean — the old board used 6 colors for 6 different statuses and nobody could remember which was which
- Customer context — without switching tabs or opening a separate detail panel
Speed was a problem, but it wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the board didn’t give dispatchers enough information in a single view to make decisions quickly.
Five UX Changes We Shipped
1. Density Toggle
Dispatchers are power users. They want more information per square inch, not less. The new density toggle lets them switch between:
- Compact view — more jobs visible, smaller cards, essential info only
- Standard view — balanced, default for most users
- Expanded view — full job detail cards with customer info, notes, and crew assignment inline
The toggle persists per user. No more “I can see 15 jobs but I need to see 40” or “I can see 40 jobs but I can’t read any of them.”
2. Job-Card Hover Preview
Hover over any job card in the calendar and a preview panel appears: customer name, move date, origin, destination, crew, truck, job status, and the last note on the file. No clicking, no tab-switching, no waiting for a detail panel to load.
The preview loads in under 200ms because it’s pre-fetched — the same prefetch optimization that makes month navigation feel instant also powers the hover preview.
3. Crew-Availability Strip Across the Top
A horizontal strip across the top of the calendar shows every crew’s status for the selected day: available, on a job, on a long-distance trip, off. No switching to a separate crew view. No remembering which crew is where.
The strip updates in real time. When a dispatcher drags a job onto a crew, the strip updates instantly. No 13-second reload.
4. Filter by Zone, Truck, or Crew Lead
The old board had a single filter: “my jobs” or “all jobs.” The new board lets dispatchers filter by:
- Zone — show only jobs in a specific service area
- Truck — show only jobs assigned to a specific truck
- Crew lead — show only jobs assigned to a specific foreman
Filters can be combined. A dispatcher at a multi-location operation can filter to “Zone: North + Crew Lead: Miguel” to see exactly Miguel’s North-zone jobs for the day.
5. Drag-and-Drop Reschedule with Auto-Text-Customer
The old workflow: drag the job to a new date → open the customer record → compose a text → send. Three separate actions, three separate screens, three chances to forget step 3.
The new workflow: drag the job to a new date. A modal appears: “Reschedule from Thursday to Friday. Send text to customer?” Yes. Done.
The auto-text includes the new date, the new time window, and a link to confirm. The customer gets a text in under 30 seconds. The dispatcher doesn’t have to remember to send it.
What Stayed the Same
The whiteboard mental model. Dispatchers think in terms of “drag this here, move that there.” The new board preserves that interaction model. What changed is everything around it: the speed, the information density, the customer communication, the crew visibility.
The dispatcher’s muscle memory still works. The board just responds faster and shows more.
The Real ROI
A dispatcher who saves 12 seconds per click × 60 clicks per day × 5 dispatchers across a network = 60 minutes per day recovered across the operation.
That’s not theoretical. That’s 12 seconds per click (the difference between the old 13-second load and the new sub-second load) multiplied by the number of times a dispatcher clicks the calendar in a day. In a multi-location network, that’s real hours per day that the dispatcher spends on actual dispatching instead of waiting for the screen.
The dispatch board is the most-used screen in MoveRight. Making it fast isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between a system that supports the work and a system that slows it down.
Existing user? Try the new density toggle in your dispatch settings.
References:
- Supermove dispatch board — https://www.supermove.com/office-app
- SmartMoving dispatch — https://www.smartmoving.com/
- Salesforce field service work order management — https://www.salesforce.com/products/field-service/resources/organize-your-work-order-management/