Pocket Shifts: Employee Portal

A staff timesheet and scheduling app for the University of Hawaii at Manoa bookstore student employees.

Mockup screens of Pocket Shifts mobile app.

Overview

As a former employee at the University of Hawaii Manoa Bookstore, I experienced firsthand the frustration of managing my work schedule and submitting timesheets across multiple disconnected applications we had to use at the time. The process was disorganized and often led to late or incorrect timesheet submissions, which not only looked bad on us employees, but was also really frustrating for our managers.

Seeing an opportunity for improvement, I took on the challenge to design a more seamless solution. I conducted interviews with employees and managers to uncover common pain points, then designed and tested a streamlined scheduling system based on their feedback. The final concept received highly positive feedback, with users expressing that it could significantly improve workflow efficiency and reduce errors.

Role

UX Researcher, UX Designer

Duration

UX Researcher, UX Designer

Problem

UH Manoa Bookstore employees use several different applications to manage their timesheets, availability, and work schedule. The process is unorganized, inefficient, and confusing for their workers.

As a result, employee timesheets are often turned in late or incorrectly. This leads to budgeting issues and a lot of time wasted on fixing discrepancies.

Solution

One, centralized place for employees to clock in and out, view their work schedule, submit their timesheets, and communicate their availability, so that they are always organized, informed, and on time.

Research

I conducted interviews and passed out surveys to the UH Manoa Bookstore supervisors and staff to understand their motivations, needs, and pain points when it comes to managing their timesheets, work shifts, and availability.

Their Current Process

Employees use three different apps to view their work schedule, clock in and out, and submit timesheets. In order to submit timesheets, employees must manually copy and paste the hours recorded on App 2 to their timesheets on App 3. They also have to make sure that their hours on App 2 match what they were scheduled to work for on App 1. Any corrections to clock in/out times or timesheets is communicated via email.

App 1 is used to view work schedule. App 2 is used to clock in and out. App 3 is used to submit timesheets. Email is used to communicate to supervisor.

Pain Points

01.

Using multiple different apps to manage timesheets and availability is time-consuming and more likely to cause errors.

02.

It’s easy to forget to clock in or clock out for work shifts and to submit timesheets at the end of each pay period.

03.

Supervisors often receive incorrect timesheets, which are tedious to fix and can result in budgeting issues for the company.

04.

It is difficult for employees to drop and trade shifts because they don’t know their coworkers’ availability.

Survey Results

46% of employees forget to clock in or clock out for their work shift at least once a week

84% of employees find that using multiple apps for work is inconvenient 

100% of supervisors have to re-open at least one timesheet due to errors every time period

Ideation

After I got a good idea of what my target audience was looking for, I started brainstorming the overall structure of the app and what features to include.

User Flow

The main tasks are to clock in/out, manage work shifts, submit timesheets, edit availability, and send messages.

User flow diagram for Pocket Shifts app.

Paper Wireframes

Paper wireframe sketches of Home, Schedule, Timesheets, Availability, OOO, and Messages screens.

Low-Fidelity Prototype

Figma link: Pocket Shifts Low-Fidelity Prototype

Low-fidelity prototype flows of Home, Schedule, Timesheets, Availability, and Messages functionalities.

Usability Study

I met with 6 participants over video call to test my low-fidelity prototype and find areas of improvement.

Findings & Iterations

Before usability study. Users felt that the “Late” list was negative and relied too much on shame. Users thought the “On Time Streak” would motivate them to be more on time. After usability study. The “Late” board was removed, but the “On Time Streak” board stayed to motivate workers to clock in on time in a positive way.Before usability study. Users weren’t sure when to click on “OOO” vs. “Add Unavailability.” Users did not know how to edit availability. Users weren’t sure when to click on “Schedule” vs. “Availability.” After usability study. Labels for tabs were changed to “Weekly Availability” and “Time Off” to provide clarity. An Edit button was added. “Schedule” was changed to “Work Shifts.”Before usability study. Users liked the option to correct their hours. Users weren’t sure if clicking this button would submit their timesheet or only submit their revision. After usability study. The “SUBMIT FOR APPROVAL” button was changed to “Save” so that users understand the timesheet has not been submitted yet. A success message was added to further clarify that changes are only being saved and not submitted.Before usability study. Users were concerned they were picking up shifts and possibly going overtime without permission. After usability study. A warning modal was added so that users are aware if they are going overtime. A message to supervisor screen was added so that users can be assured there is clear communication and nothing is being done without permission.

Final Design

High-Fidelity Prototype

Click through the prototype or see link here: Pocket Shifts High-Fidelity Prototype

Example tasks
  • Clock in to your work shift and then clock out
  • Fix your timesheet error and then submit to supervisor
  • Drop or swap your November 24 work shift
  • Pick up an open shift
  • Change work availability to be free all day on Wednesdays
  • Request time off for December 26-30
  • View messages

Key Features

These are all the features that directly address the four main pain points from my user research.

Mobile mockup of Timesheets screen.Mobile mockup of Drop Shift request screen.
One App for Everything
  • Clock in/out, view work schedule, submit timesheets, adjust availability, message supervisors and coworkers, and more
  • Timesheets are automatically filled out based on when you clocked in and out – no more copying and pasting between different apps!
  • No need for emailing – send requests to supervisor whenever requesting a change to your work schedule or availability
Mobile mockup of lock screen with two Pocket Shift notifications.Mobile mockup of Home screen.
Never forget to clock in/out or submit timesheets
  • Push notifications to remind you to clock in/out and to submit timesheets
  • Timer countdown to tell you exactly when to clock in/out
  • On Time Streak to motivate employees to clock in on time
  • QR code to clock in/out: the physical motion of scanning when entering and exiting the workplace will help employees build a muscle memory habit, so they don’t have to try to remember each time
Mobile mockup of Timesheet Error modal screen.Mobile mockup of Edit Timesheets screen.
Catch timesheet errors before you submit them
  • Automatically detects discrepancies between your logged hours and scheduled hours as soon as you clock out of your shift
  • Prevents you from submitting timesheets with errors to your supervisor
  • Allows employee to correct logged hours on their own (the revision is recorded for the supervisor to review once timesheet is submitted)
Mobile mockup of Swap Shift screen.Mobile mockup of Messages screen.
Easily swap shifts with coworkers
  • View all your coworkers’ work shifts and filter by department or person
  • Find all potential swaps based on your and your coworkers’ availability
  • Send swap shift requests to multiple coworkers

Reflection

After three months of research, user interviews, brainstorming, and design iterations, I arrived at a final product that successfully met my original project goal. The final product received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants.

Feedback

What I Learned

The biggest challenge while designing the app was having to consider both the employee's and the supervisor's perspectives to make sure both their needs were being met. While the employees are ultimately the end users of the app, the supervisor's needs and opinions are equally as valuable because they are the ones managing the employees. When I got conflicting feedback from the employees and supervisors, I learned to come up with more ideas or present a compromise that could solve the issue on both sides.

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