HotSchedules
Overview
HotSchedules is an employee scheduling tool for managing & communicating within the hospitality workforce, as well as forecasting sales and generating reports. There are around 5 million users as of 2023.
However, the mobile app lacks vital elements such as a visual calendar feature. This, along with the dated UI and unresponsive customer support, creates frustration for users, negatively impacting the overall user experience.
Understanding the problem
I conducted research interviews with the primary users (restaurant workers) to uncover any pain points that they were experiencing with the current app.
My research encompassed:
Understanding user goals + needs
Uncovering pain points with the existing user journey
Defining overall success metrics
Gathering insights
After compiling the recordings from the 8 user interviews, I was able to synthesize the pain points identified by grouping them under common themes and patterns.
I found the following key issues:
72% of users felt that the process of viewing their upcoming schedule was arduous due to poor navigation
54% were frustrated that the notification bell icon was misleading and could not locate urgent messages from managers/staff due to misused UI
42% of users found that it was easy to miss scheduled shifts due to a lack of visual hierarchy
Wireframing solutions
Based on the above problems identified, I wanted to address these pain points by coming up with potential solutions:
Reducing the number of steps to minimize the time spent viewing upcoming schedule by implementing a calendar feature
Establishing clearer visual hierarchy by grouping more intuitively
Use standard styling and UI patterns/icons to decrease confusion from misused UI
Validating the designs
I conducted usability testing sessions with 8 primary users to validate whether the new designs would solve their problems by giving them a small set of tasks, including viewing future schedules and picking up/releasing shifts.
During the session, I observed how they interacted with the prototype and navigated their calendar as well as had them rank their experiences on a scale between 1-5. The usability session revealed that it was less arduous to view their future shifts by utilizing the calendar to group information more effectively. It was also easier for the user to release scheduled shifts as well as pick up new ones.
Results & takeaways
Since redesigning the HotSchedules user interface, I have gathered significant evidence that could help decrease the number of complaints amongst primary users. Additionally, I have received positive feedback from users about the simplified view of their homepage, saving them a large proportion of their time spent scrolling.
Some key takeaways from this project are:
Create a strategic plan before launching. This helps reign in out-of-scope app problems that could potentially derail the project and help save time.
User testing doesn't end after development. Design is a many iterations of improving the experience for the user. Keep finding more ways to gather user feedback.