Redesigning time tracking, scheduling, and time off for frontline teams

Overview

Workeasy Software's mobile app is how field teams clock in, file reports, and manage their day. As the sole designer on the initiative, I rebuilt its time tracking, scheduling, time off, and settings from the ground up.

The Challenge

The app's information architecture had grown organically over time, to the point that its underlying logic was fully understood by only a couple of people at the company. A few screens from the app at the time show what that looked like day to day.

Original Workeasy scheduler screen with unlabeled icon buttons and tabs cut off at the edge of the screen — The original scheduler

Original Workeasy app showing six unlabeled, brightly colored action buttons stacked on top of the schedule — An unlabeled action menu

Original Workeasy four week approval table with columns cut off at the edge of the phone screen — A table built for desktop

Original Workeasy requests list showing entries already marked expired — Requests seen too late

The scheduler packed four unlabeled icon buttons into its toolbar, next to a row of tabs that ran off the edge of the screen, so people had to tap around just to find out what anything did. Taking action on a shift opened a stack of six brightly colored, unlabeled buttons directly on top of the schedule, which was easy to mistap and hard to read at a glance. Data heavy screens built for a desktop monitor, like the four week approval table, got clipped at the edge on a phone, cutting off columns like overtime and double time entirely. And time off requests often only showed up in the main list after they had already expired, so managers were seeing them too late to act on.

The Approach

I spent weeks mapping the existing information architecture and data flows to understand the system before trying to change it, then benchmarked it against enterprise tools like ADP, UKG, and BambooHR as well as consumer products like ClickUp, Shopify, and Coinbase to see what separated software people tolerate from software people actually enjoy using. The app served frontline roles as different as construction crews and restaurant staff, so instead of assuming one navigation would fit everyone, I mapped each persona's flow on its own, since their home screens, requests, and day to day actions genuinely differed. Working largely on my own, I rebuilt time tracking, scheduling, and time off around how field teams think about their day rather than the system's internal structure, brought navigation and settings in line with that same logic, and extended a consistent design system across the whole app. That meant replacing icon-only controls with labeled, purposeful actions, cutting an overloaded action menu down to what people actually needed in the moment, and rethinking data heavy tables like approvals specifically for a phone screen instead of just shrinking down the desktop version. Screens like scheduling went through multiple phases before I locked down structure and hierarchy, rather than shipping the first version that worked. I presented progress to company leadership every week and used AI assisted workflows, including Figma Make, Claude, and ChatGPT, to move quickly from research to shippable interfaces.

Persona-based flow maps for an hourly construction worker and an hourly restaurant worker, each with its own tailored navigation structure — Mapping separate flows for different frontline roles: a construction worker's app centers on clock in, schedule, and timesheets, while a restaurant worker's adds open shifts, availability, and documents.

Three phases of the personal scheduling screen: a dense current version, an early redesign, and a refined final version with status tags — The personal scheduling screen through its phases, from a dense list view to a clearer weekly agenda with status tags for confirmed and pending shifts.

Before and after of a shift change notification, from a dense wall of text to a structured comparison with a clear approve or deny action — A shift change notification rebuilt around a clear before and after comparison, with the decision, approve or deny, front and center.

Before and after of the time off request form, simplified from a long form with balance and coworker details to a focused two field flow — The time off request form simplified down to what someone actually needs to fill in, so requests reach a manager while there's still time to act on them.

Redesigned Workeasy mobile app company scheduling screen showing a weekly shift calendar — Company scheduling

Redesigned Workeasy mobile app shift details screen with location, department, and notes — Shift details

Redesigned Workeasy mobile app individual timesheet screen with a daily hours breakdown — Individual timesheet

The Outcome

The redesign was validated through internal testing and leadership review ahead of launch, but about a month before it was set to ship, the company went through a round of layoffs that ended my time there along with the project itself. Not every project reaches the people it's designed for, even when the work behind it is sound, and the design system built during this effort carried forward into the desktop platform redesign that followed.