After the merger of Fourth and HotSchedules in 2020 the company arrived at the need to address the limited and incredibly disparate experiences for users of the mobile app across the entire portfolio.
The Ask
The executive leadership team had reached a point in the overall business strategy where they needed design to drive conversations about the future of the mobile app. I was asked to articulate a long term vision for the entire mobile application as a critical touchpoint for the unification of the entire portfolio and product suite.
While I would eventually hone in on a specific mobile functionality, I started with an exploration and overview of what it's like today.
Research & Discovery
I started by synthesizing our Analytics data. It was pretty much what I would have expected in terms of User engagement. Users were primarily engaged with the limited "out of the box" functionality of the app:
- My Schedule
- Shift Details
- Messaging
But when I looked at the data through a different lens and considered the Average engagement time it provided an entirely different perspective and that led to some important insights.
When viewed through this lens the primary touch points are:
- The Roster
- Task Lists
- Logbook
Insights
We currently have a "bundled" app. This means that there is a single application and the features and functionality are driven by user and client permissions.
#1: The feature set and functionality of our mobile application is wildly different for our users in the service and hospitality industry; the Hourly Employee and the Manager.
#2: It's important to look at the functionality of the application and what we want it to actually be in terms of Entities and Features.
Entities - Collections of information a user interacts with for different purposes:
- The Roster
- The Logbook
- Analytics
Features - Features are designed for the user. What is the user able to do with the application?
- Send or Receive messages
- Complete Task Lists
- Make or Approve Requests
#3: The complexity of the platform, connected apps, integrations, and jobs to be done requires some very high level goals for how we approach the goals for the mobile app as a touch point for the user.
How do we get there?
I generated a detailed user flow that mapped out a "day in the life" of a Manager and identified opportunities where practically every job to be done could be accomplished using the mobile application.
In reality, the life of a restaurant manager is "mobile" by nature and tasks and communication must be done "on the fly" the majority of the time.
I walked the Director of UX Design through this and together we identified key touchpoints, screens, and interactions that I could wireframe to help visualize how we might re-imagine and improve our mobile app.
Wireframing
It was time to design some assets that would support these explorations and help articulate the direction visually.
These would be used in a presentation to internal stakeholders. This was a group of key decision makers including the CTO and lead architects.
The Goals:
- Align the stakeholders along a shared vision for the mobile app strategy.
- Drive the conversation and provide architects with a starting point for research.
- Get buy-in. Literally, this conversation would determine the budget and commitment to the development of the application.
Dashboards, Messaging, and the Feed
The user flow exercise revealed that every touchpoint can be imagined through interactions with the right information when you need it and the tools to make informed decisions and take action.
I focused on key aspects of what this experience might look like.
I explored ways that Dashboards, Messaging, and dynamic Groups could all be a seamless experience through a personal Feed.
While this concept leans on how we understand many social media applications, I imagined how it might be applied in a way that places more emphasis on Enterprise level communication and collaboration than social posts.
It would need to be:
- Dynamic
- Focused
- Seamless
- Intelligent
Direct messaging is of course a basic feature, but we considered ways that organizations could use intelligent and dynamic "Channels" in ways that allowed them to focus on the situational jobs to be done and seamlessly access connected apps.
Existing integrations with your POS opens up so many opportunities. For instance:
- Your "Front of House" or "Server" channel would know who was scheduled and on the clock so when a manager needed to communicate that the daily special was sold out they could quickly communicate that to the right people.
- The company's regional monthly sales competition and bonus incentive could take sales data and post the results to a leader board in the "Southwest Region" channel.
- Employees who have upcoming training and certification requirements could receive an on time notification and access the company LMS from their Dashboard.
The Results
I guided the stakeholders through these explorations and got feedback.
It certainly re-ignited the team and provided a cohesive vision that would keep the conversation alive and provide avenues for further exploration including researching the tech stack and considering the impact of "de-bundling" the current app.
The key success is that articulating this vision brought the broader team into alignment and secured budgeting and committed resources for the effort beginning in Q1 of 2022.
