Holstor

Overview

Context & Business Problem

HTS Spares is a leading supplier of plant spares, tools, and consumables to the construction industry. Holstor represents a major redevelopment of their existing inventory system, integrated directly into the HTS Spares website. The system provides customers with a platform to manage their stock and gain insight into stock levels across warehouses.

The existing system lacked this integration and couldn't support the sophisticated, tiered management capabilities that diverse construction industry customers required.

My Role:

Lead design on a progressive web app that enables warehouse staff to efficiently manage stock withdrawals, returns, and requests while integrating with HTS's existing inventory system, providing customers and vendors with more efficient and transparent insight to inform supply decisions.

The Challenge

My Role & Approach

As lead designer on the PWA, I focused on creating a user experience that would work in real-world depot environments. This meant understanding the unique challenges warehouse staff face daily - from working in fast moving conditions, to needing quick access to information while managing physical inventory. I prioritised designing interfaces that were intuitive enough to require minimal training, yet robust enough to handle complex stock management tasks without error

Pillars of my approach:

Mapping user journeys and brainstorming features with wider project team to meet app user needs while ensuring accurate data reporting to the central inventory system.
Leading UX prototyping sessions and gathering early user feedback to validate design decisions, iterating rapidly based on warehouse staff input to ensure the interface met real operational needs.
Designing for the specific context of warehouse staff scanning and managing stock on-site, accounting for factors repel the need for quick, error-free interactions.
Ensuring the interface provided transparent insight into stock levels for those utilising stock, creating clear visibility across the supply chain to build trust and enable proactive inventory planning.
Collaborating on the information architecture working closely with developers to ensure design decisions aligned with technical constraints and business needs.

The Solution

Key Design Solutions

The design process centered on understanding the real-world challenges of warehouse operations and translating those insights into a practical solution. Through feedback and iterative testing, we delivered a solution that was grounded in the below:

Barcode scanning functionality that allows warehouse staff to quickly scan container labels and instantly load product details on their device, eliminating manual data entry
Stock movement interface enabling users to scan out, return, or request items with contextual fields for logging reasons and notes - providing supply managers with visibility into stock activity
Custom lists feature that lets users group and save frequently accessed items, making it quick to identify which stock they need visibility on for specific jobs
Activity feed displaying inbound orders and recent stock movements, helping users track what they've ordered and verify historical stock exchanges
Real-time stock level visualisation showing current quantities alongside minimum thresholds, clearly indicating when automatic replenishment will be triggered
Stock Adjustment Mode for authorised users to conduct routine stock checks and log discrepancies directly in the app, maintaining inventory accuracy

Results & Impact

What Does Holstor Achieve for HTS?

Holstor launched successfully in early 2025 and has fundamentally transformed how HTS customers manage their inventory. The system now serves multiple construction companies across the UK, processing thousands of stock movements weekly. Early adoption metrics show strong engagement, with warehouse staff regularly using the scanning and stock management features as part of their daily workflows.

Delivered a system that's significantly more autonomous and efficient than the previous solution⁠⁠
Became a core part of HTS's customer proposition, opening new growth opportunities⁠⁠
Significantly improved efficiency - sales professionals can now demonstrate functionality in the field, and management can easily run reports⁠⁠
Strengthened the HTS Spares brand identity with Holstor becoming a key brand expansion element⁠⁠
Provided modern tools for inventory control through the PWA and enhanced features⁠⁠

The result is Holstor® - a system that’s quicker, more user-friendly, and far more flexible than anything we’ve offered before. It’s no longer just a digital tool - it’s now acore part of our customer proposition. This project has opened up new opportunitiesfor growth and allowed us to position ourselves more confidently in the market."

Reflection

What I Learned From The Holstor Project

This project demonstrated how thoughtful UX design for specific operational contexts - in this case, busy warehouse environments - can transform a business tool into a competitive advantage. By prioritising early user feedback and designing for efficient patterns catered to user requirements, we created a solution that genuinely improved daily operations for HTS customers.