Case Study: Easing a company’s transition from a manual to a digital payroll process
This case study was conducted mid-2017. To protect the client’s identity, the company name has been changed to XYZ Group and some visual design elements have been altered.
Stretching across many industries, XYZ Group is a labour hire company who work with several high profile clients. They manage the payroll of over 700 employees using a manual process, which requires handling many different formats of timesheets. As the company grew larger, this resulted in increased errors and a low satisfaction rate amongst staff.
XYZ Group needed to improve this process by building a mobile app to manage the submission and approval of timesheets.
Despite the financial compensation attached, the timesheet process is one of the least glamorous tasks at any company. Very few employees enjoy incorporating clocking in and clocking out into their workdays. XYZ Group presented the challenge to turn this mundane task in a delightful experience.
The client had a tight budget which limited the time and resources available in the design phase. Despite the hurdle, I didn’t allow the excitement and potential for the project to deter. With efficient planning and smart use of time, I was able to conduct valuable discovery and research phases before moving into design.
Effective user experience starts with a good understanding of the users
To make efficient use of the time available, a workshop session with key stakeholders gave compelling insight into the user. By diving deep into their motivations, mentality, and behaviours, many user needs where uncovered. Three key takeaways from this session where;
- On average, employees had a low level of academic intelligence. Majority of employees did not finish high school or attend tertiary education and came from a low socioeconomic background.
- Employees are generally working on a construction site. They are exhausted both physically and mentally when finishing their shift. This is not an ideal environment to process statistical information.
- Incorrect timesheets and late submissions where major pain points for XYZ Group admin and payroll staff.
As a problem arises it can be easy to focus on the symptoms exhibited rather than the root cause of the problem. I discovered that many employees completed their previous week’s timesheet only moments before the 9:00 am Monday morning deadline. This was a major strain for employees who arrived at work on Monday only to begin by remembering the start, finish and break times from the previous week.
Psychologists think of memory as organised chunks of information. Memory encoding is the crucial first step to storing this information. As a result of their exhausting shift, employees are subject to high cognitive load. There is not enough mental effort available at the completion of a shift for employees to store statistical information in their brain.
The best time for employees to complete their timesheet is after their shift. Many employees choose not to because they are exhausted. Unfortunately, this is also the worst time to encode information in their memory.
Another factor influencing employees memory is the amount of time that has past since their shift and when they recall the information. Recent events are more easily remembered in chronological order. This explains why employees on a Monday morning find it easier to recall events from the weekend, than their shift times from the previous week. The events that took place over the weekend also removed memory storage previously reserved for the statistical information related to the timesheet.
Two conclusions came from understanding the root causes of current problems..
- Monday morning is not the most ideal deadline to submit the previous week’s timesheet.
A user experience report presented to XYZ Group included a recommendation to change the deadline to a more suitable time. XYZ Group Stakeholders agreed with the recommendation and planned to work with their employees to find an alternative deadline. For the purpose of not delaying the project, the current deadline will remain in the mock-ups. - The mobile app needed to make the process of submitting a timesheet effortless.
This will not be achieved by removing the number of clicks users make from point A to point B, as justified by usability tests from David Hamill and Jakob Nielsen. It will be achieved by organising information into distinct areas with clear themes. While also constructing intuitive navigation that guides the user through clear, well-defined paths and decision points.
General employees, project managers, and admin staff all require varying functionalities that reflect their role in the timesheet process. As a result, separate mobile apps were created for three different user groups.
- General Employees
The timesheet journey begins with general employees. General employees require the functionality to complete daily time sheets, submit weekly time sheets and view past time sheets. - Project Managers
After a weekly timesheet has been submitted, the time sheet is then forwarded to their respective project manager. Project managers require the functionality to approve or decline general employees time sheets and to view awaiting and approved time sheets for each week. - Admin
Admin then receives all timesheets from project managers. It is their responsibility to process the information and complete weekly payroll.
Creating structure
The app is broken into four distinct areas.
- Calendar
This also acts as the homepage. Presenting the daily timesheet immediately makes it easy for employees to complete. - Timesheet
Users navigate here to submit their weekly timesheet and find previous timesheets. - Notifications
This is where users see notifications in relation to their timesheets. - Profile
The location for basic profile information and company details.
Locating navigation at the bottom of the screen is a simple and comfortable way for users to reach their goal without unnecessary clicks.
Easing the transition from a manual, to a digital timesheet process
The above mock-up shows a layout and style explored in the early stages of design. When working on this design, I felt that it was missing something and didn’t feel intuitive. The design lacked perceptible clues to help users understand the interface.
To ease the user’s transition from a manual to digital timesheet process, I transformed the layout and design to mimic elements of a real-world precedent. The timesheet ‘floats’ underneath the calendar and navigation bar. This comparison helps users make sense of the interface and interpret visual hierarchies. The design allows the user to apply prior knowledge to understand that the timesheet is, in fact, a timesheet, and distinct from other visual elements.
The timesheet journey
- The daily timesheet is the beginning of the timesheet journey. This is where employees come at the completion of their shift to record shift details.
- Compiled in the weekly timesheet is information submitted in the daily timesheets. Employees submit their weekly timesheet from this screen.
- After employees have submitted their weekly timesheet, project managers review the information before approving or declining.
- To state that the timesheet is now approved, the horizontal bar changes to green on both the employees and project managers screen.
Selecting the best time input
A keyboard and drop down were both considered for input field selection, though the most logical choice is a time picker.
Including a keyboard input allowed for a greater number of errors. Employees will enter time in many different formats such as 02:15, 1415, 2:15 pm or 2:15.
Using a drop-down for input fields increases the time it takes for users to make a selection, as they are scrolling through a large list of options.
By separating the options into hours and minutes, a time picker is faster for users to scan options in comparison to a long drop-down list.
In his research of mobile usages, Steven Hoober found that 49% of people rely on only one thumb to complete tasks on their phone. In the accompanying diagram, green indicates the area users can reach with ease.
An employee completing their daily timesheet doesn’t have to deviate outside this green area. The input field, time picker, and navigation bar are all within comfortable reach for one-thumb interactions. This reduces the strain employees face when completing their timesheets at the end of a shift. XYZ Group employees are able to open the app and within a few moments, they have completed their daily timesheet.
User interface design
Employee Screens
Project Manager Screens
Sign In, Profile and Notification Screens
Reflection
If time and resources were not restricted by budget requirements I would include User Testing and a Contextual Enquiry in the design process.
Contextual Enquiry
The best way to get to know users is to spend time with them in their own environments. A Contextual Enquiry is a combination of User Interviews and Field Studies. This form of user research produces comprehensive observation and insights about the users.
I begin by scheduling interviews at a time when employees are finishing their shift. During the interview, I adopt a strategy based on open-ended questions, with the aim of conducting a conversational style survey. This strategy will allow the conversation to flow instinctively.
- How was work today?
- When do you normally complete your timesheet?
- What kinds of difficulties have you had with the current timesheet process?
- What’s most confusing or annoying about completing your weekly timesheet?
- What would you most want to change about the timesheet process?
Open-ended questions result in deeper insight, as this technique prompts answers with sentences, lists, and stories. A contextual enquiry will provide surprising answers and mental models previously unthought-of.
Including a Contextual Enquiry in the design process will not drain the client budget. Half a day is required to schedule and prepare followed by a full day of interviewing employees and analysing the information collected.
User Testing
User Testing is a technique, where I ask employees to complete tasks while I observe and take notes. This testing method is usually performed in a laboratory, but for this particular project, it needs to be conducted in the same environment as the contextual enquiry. Pulling employees away from a construction site and asking them to pretend to perform tasks in an artificial scenario will produce artificial results. Employees need to be subject to the same conditions as they would be when using the app in a real scenario.
Tasks include..
- Check last weeks timesheet, is it approved?
- Complete your daily timesheet with the following shift information. Client Name: Energy Australia, Start Time: 10:45 am, Finish Time: 5:30 pm, Break Time: 30 minutes.
- Find the contact details for the XYZ Group Sydney Office.
The goal of User Testing is to identify any usability problems and determine the employee’s level of satisfaction.
Research by Don Norman has proven that the best results come from testing no more than 5 users, and in certain scenarios, elaborate usability testing is a waste of time. Understanding of usability problems increase as soon as data is collected from a single employee, and almost a third of usability issues are now known.
As more users are added, less is learnt because the research conducted reveals the same usability problems again and again. As more users are added the same usability problems are revealed again and again, and less is learnt.
The overall cost to complete User Testing is relatively small. After scheduling the interviews I spend a day or two creating a prototype and preparing tasks. Followed by a full day conducting usability tests and reviewing information.
