Inch - mobile workforce management solution

Market research

• 2 areas were researched: industry-specific mobile workforce management solutions and industry-agnostic task management solutions for the desk workers. First area was analyzed in order to understand the offers and close competitors, the second area was analyzed in order to aim for the level of experience desk solutions offer.
• Following issues were analyzed and compared: value proposition, target audience, pricing, use cases, main features and user reviews.

Research summary

Manager's problems:

• Constant switches and time-off requests
• Payroll and invoicing is time consuming and error prompt
• Lack of the employees' accountability
• Communication is spread across channels
• Difficult to optimize the route

Employees life is not any easier. While the employee turnover in deskless professions is high, the job satisfaction tends to be low.

Design

• At the beginning of the project I conducted a design workshop with the team in order to identify the product vision.
• Low and high fidelity information architecture was developed based on the product specification

• After the project evaluation, some details were cut in order to get the MVP faster
• Low and high fidelity prototypes were iteratively developed and tested
• I developed a design system from the begging. It saved a lot of time in the long term because it was faster to reiterate with reusable elements in hands.
• User flows were prepared for multi-conditional interaction. Linear flows were covered with the interactive prototypes
• Handoff specification were delivered to the developers with a comprehensive explanation of the behavior

Customer feedback and usability testing

2 types of usability testing were conducted: unmoderated remote testing using usertesting.com and moderate in person testing. Moderated testing helped us to understand the user's mental model that facilitated fundamental change in the product. While unmoderated remote testing was a fast and easy way to spot smaller usability issues.

For example, moderated usability testing helped us shift the priorities in MVP. Our assumption was that users would primarily use maps to plan the schedule logistically. It turned out that knowing what qualified employee is available is much more important and timeline view suits better.

Following is the example how one screen in the app has changed after 3d iteration.

Solution

Tasks are the main feature of Inch. Employees receive their working tasks in different locations. They can check the details and discuss the task in the comments. After the task is done they should either mark it as completed or clock out. In the second case, Inch can verify if the clock out is done in the appropriate location. As a requirement of work completion managers can ask for photos.

Maps support route optimization use case. It can help to save resources and keep employees more satisfied with the tasks near their living area.

Timeline provides a visual representation of the worker's schedule.

If time clock is activated, assignees can clock in and out of task making the completion time accountable. It is also possible to switch on geolocation requirements to ensure the time clock is done on the site and avoid time theft. On task completion, employees can attach photos and notes to the task for the quality control or issue report. If time clock deactivated the reports are done through the task completion functionality.

Messages support internal communication so companies can avoid other non-related communication channels that provoke distraction, such as private messengers or social media groups.

Time clock is needed for the employee payroll, client invoicing, and performance analysis. It shows the time, spent on each task and the wage that is to be paid to the employees for each task. Grouping support various use cases: grouping by employee allows to create and print payroll, grouping by location helps to prepare invoices, grouping by date support the analysis process. The system highlights the difference between the scheduled and actual time to help to identify critical issues and control overtime as this is where the businesses lose money.