Project overview
The product:
The website deals with the planning of staff shifts at music clubs.
Project duration:
November 2022 – June 2023
The problem:
Planning shifts in spreadsheets is complicated and time-consuming: a dedicated website can enhance the process and provide more benefits for both staff and managers.
The goal:
A website where it is possible to plan events and spread shifts to the staff in one place.
My role:
In this project I was responsible for UX research and UX design.
Responsibilities:
- User research
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
- Usability testing
- High fidelity mockups
Understanding the user
User research: summary
I did several interviews with staff and managers of music venues. I had actually no feeling for any challenges in that field so the research gave me good insights into that area.
Turns out that not using a dedicated app and doing the planning within spreadsheets is not satisfying for both user groups. Having an overview for what events coming up is a big enhancement for the staff so that they can decide when to work. And not when music is played which they does not like.
Also the responses for the available times for the shifts are rarely done in the expected time, so the managers often has to repeatedly ask after that.
User research
Pain point 1
Not knowing which event is coming up in forefront. So to sign up for a shift and not knowing what music is played is frustrating.
This led to making events visible before the planning takes place in form of a calendar.
Pain point 2
Not receiving feedback from the staff on their availability for the shifts in time and going after that is time-consuming. An automatic reminder out of the app takes care of this process.
Persona: Arne Ziegler
Problem statement: Arne is a music interested part time worker who needs to know which music is played in forefront because he does not like work when specific genres are played.
Persona: Sue Green
Problem statement: Sue is a student and works part time. She needs to get feedback from their colleagues while planning the shifts without getting after them so that she can focus on the shift planning.
User journey map
Mapping Sue’s journey revealed how helpful it would be for users to have a dedicated planning app.
Sitemap
To plan a convenient access to all functions of the website I created a sitemap
Starting the design
Paper wireframes
I tried different solutions within the wireframes and played around with some ideas.
Digital wireframes
I developed several digital wireframes to meet the ideas of the sketches.
Low-fidelity prototype
This is the flow to add an event to the calender.
Mockups
Accessibility considerations
- Provided access to users who are vision impaired by adding alt text to all images and forms for screen readers
- Used icons to make the navigation easier.
Going forward
Takeaways
Impact: Using a dedicated website makes it faster and easier for both the shift planner and the staff.
What I learned: From the first ideas to the final design there was very much evolution in the process. Especially the studies helped to enhance the design.
Next steps
- Conduct further studies to validate whether the pain points have been addressed well.
- Also doing more research could led to more insights.