RESEARCH METHOD 1

USER INTERVIEW

At first, I thought the target users are solely small business store managers. As I progress with my research, I realized that the scope of the problem heavily involved the employees, since it is an ongoing two-way communication activity between the management and employees. Thus, I had to collect data from both parties.

RESEARCH METHOD 2

CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY

Luckily, the four manager interviews I conducted all occurred during business hours at their workplace. I observed the environment and staff behaviors to paint my perception of the user's situation. Investigating how the management operates validates previous data collected.

WHAT IS THE DATA SAYING?

The biggest pain point for small business managers in scheduling is being understaffed due to the erratic nature of part-time jobs. The cause of inconsistencies and disparity in scheduling is mainly caused by employees since each individual have different needs in scheduling. Budgetary constraints are the second main concern for small business managers. Managers obviously have to comply with budgets to keep the business afloat and profiting. This can cause to cut down some shifts on some days or make sure they do not pay overtime. Managers keep track of the budget almost as much as making sure the shift is not understaffed.

PIVOT

With these in mind, How might we coordinate constant schedule changes for operation managers and their employee?

hypothesis

RESEARCH METHOD 3

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

FEATURE INVENTORY

Each competitor has a level of complexity. When I Work and Ximble both have a user-friendly interface that could accommodate a number of users that are not too computer savvy. However, They lack the information I need to see about the schedule. It would require me an extra step or click to show the information I want to see on the Calendar. While Deputy has too much information showing. I find this more helpful than bothersome. The Dashboard section can be a really good tool, especially for the important and sudden announcement. The app can be used as a scheduling tool and also as an announcement board instead of group messaging or a bulletin board in the break room. Also, all of them has the Time Sheet tool. Ximble and When I Work works like a timer where the employees can log in instead of using a time card, while Deputy is meant to be like a spreadsheet rather than a time card.

XIMBLE SCREENSHOTS

WHEN I WORK SCREENSHOTS

DEPUTY SCREENSHOTS

DEFINE

defining METHOD 1

CARD SORTING

The 3 users have different ideas about classifying the cards, and more different than I expected. It was hard to guess a pattern on how they want to navigate through the App since the three of them have different ideas on where to go first. However, I managed to pinpoint what the most important to the least important features to them.

As I observe them looking at the post-its, seeming all of them were drawn to the “Scheduler” card. That was the first card they picked and built all the other cards around it. As you would notice, the Scheduler card was all positioned in the center top, alongside messaging and other features.

Another trend I observed is how they all correlated the “Employee Profile” and “Availability” together. Needless to say, these two features go hand in hand when doing the scheduling.

I noticed how important to the users getting the scheduling down and having access to employees information in the most convenient way. Communicating with employees seems to be an important feature, although there was no clear pattern on how they want to communicate with the employees.

defining METHOD 2

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT: MoSCoW METHOD

defining METHOD 3

STORYBOARDING

defining METHOD 4

USER FLOW & INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

WIREFRAMES AND USABILITY TESTING

FIRST AND SECOND ITERATIONS

DAILY SCHEDULER V1

MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

On my first attempt on digital wireframes, I used OmniGraffle as a tool.

Expectedly, I have trouble with proportions, visual hierarchy and presenting my idea. The prototype didn't convey what I envision it to be, this is due to my lack of familiarity with the tool and knowledge in visual design.

One visual cue I tried to implement was the red rings surrounding the profile picture. These rings represent the employee's availability throughout the day. The red markings represent each shift within the day, while the gray circles represent off days.

IN-CLASS SESSION

USABILITY TESTING SESSION 1

My level of confidence in my first digital prototypes was not very high. To avoid wasting time, I tested the first three prototypes to two of my classmates to see if the visual cues of the prototypes relate to the user.

​To none of my surprise, the test participant did not understand what was going on with the red marked rings or what they should be clicking first. The visuals made the shift confusing to read, let alone, the actual schedule. In Nielsen’s Heuristics, my wireframes failed to Match between system and the real world. Thus, I decided to shift my approach toward visual cues.

DAILY SCHEDULER V2

MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

The solution I came up with is to present the date on the top half of the screen and employees on the bottom half and present the data in the scheduler vertically.

This solution worked well with the daily schedule but got more difficult with the weekly schedule, and especially with the monthly schedule.

Due to limited horizontal space in the weekly and monthly scheduler, I was reduced to only keeping the profile picture of the employees.

USABILITY TESTING SESSION 2

For prototyping, I used Invision. Since it is my first time to try this tool, the only interaction I was able to create throughout the entire wireframes are hotspots. After three tests, I soon found out that using only this interaction vastly limits my wireframe flows, rendering it to being almost useless.​

All participants were over the age of 50 and are not computer literate, but religiously uses social media apps. All participants have worked or is currently working in the food service business. Each of them were given a task scenario to complete as I observed in background jotting notes.

CREATING SCHEDULE

TASK 1

The task was to create a daily schedule for Sunday, April 6, 2017.

The first and second pages have straightforward buttons of which trigger to click. The participant didn't have any problem clicking the daily button.

The scheduling page, however, is where the participant got lost. He proceeds to scroll down the page since the list of employees suggest that there is more to see scrolling down. Due to my lack of knowledge of Invision, the screen was not scrollable. Hence, he was stuck on the scheduler screen and didn't know what to click after.

Supposedly, he is to pick a date on the upper half of the screen, then the select available employee from the bottom half. Since the prototypes didn't have a fully functional screen along with the unclear visual hierarchy, the user ended up asking which action button he should click.

POSTING ON DASHBOARD

TASK 2

The task was to post an announcement on the dashboard. These wireframes have the same issues as the previous task. Although the participant was able to post an announcement, he paused for a couple of seconds to click on the trigger button. This is again due to the unclear visual hierarchy.

REQUEST TIME OFFS

TASK 3

The task was to approve a request from an employee. The problem with these wireframes is that it has no continuity. The participant approved the request and went to the schedule page, but was unfamiliar with the schedule. The participant clicked on the employee's profile picture to check the availability but didn't understand which dates are unavailable.

TEST FINDINGS AND WHAT’S NEXT

All three participants ended up asking me for direction on which button to click next. All of them scrolled down the page, but since I did not implement scrolling interaction, the prototypes were not scrollable. This left the users more confused since they couldn't browse through the employee's list. Only Task 2 was completed, the other participants did not finished Task 1 and 3.

Going to my next prototypes, I'll construct full completed screens with vertical scrollable interactions to clearly convey the information and interaction on the prototypes. Organizing and presenting employee information should be changed especially with the Weekly and Monthly Scheduler since the users didn't know how to interact or what they were looking at.​

ITERATIONS