Time Frame:
Fall 2022, 8 Weeks
Brief:
Swift Shift is a service that allows contractors to keep track of labor hours on job sites. Through Swift Shift all of the employee’s hours are organized in one spot so that supervisors and office workers can quickly access, edit, and export these hours. In the construction industry time is money, and time should not be wasted on tedious jobs.
The Problem:
The current process to keep track of labor hours on job sites is outdated, complicated, and time consuming.
The Goal
Create a reliable, intuitive, efficient service to stream line the labor tracking process. Swift Shift should relieve the stress of organizing labor hours and allow workers to focus on more important issues.
Team:
This was a solo project that I completed on my own from start to finish.
Responsibilities:
User Research, UX/UI Design, Brand Design
Tools:
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign
Understanding the Problem
To get a better grasp of the problem, several people involved in the labor tracking process including laborers, site supervisors, and office employees were interviewed.
Kim, Site Supervisor
Collects hours from individual job sites and addresses any discrepancies in hours.
"Our current program can log hours, but I don't rely on it because so many little things can go wrong at the sites that it can't account for."
Jo Chi, Project Manager
Organizes hours in excel and formats them into cover sheets to send total cost to the general contractor.
"It's tedious work that takes up valuable time when I could be doing something else productive."
The Current System
Currently, hours are kept by signing physical pieces of paper at job sites, then manually entering these hours into excel. After this, they are put into a cover sheet to submit to the general contractor.
Pain Points
Check-In: During check-in, there is a risk that workers will forget to sign in or out. Additionally, if the power goes out at the site (which is not uncommon due to the electrical power coming from generators) their online sign-in is ineffective.
Collect and Organize: When digital hours are inconsistent with the physical sign-in, it is inconvenient to track down workers and figure out what hours are correct. Organizing these hours into invoices are then time consuming and tedious.
Ideation
At this stage, the layout and navigation of the app were established focusing on streamlining the organization of hours and the check-in process. Based on feedback, the primary platform Swift Shift would utilize was a mobile device due to the highly on-the-go nature of the job.
Branding
The branding behind Swift Shift combines the industrial, rugid feel of a construction site, but also the quick and organized feel that should be associated with logging labor hours. This process, and the construction industry in general, can be stressful, so the cool color scheme of the brand is meant to invoke a calming feel.
Final Design
Project Page
This is the landing page for admin using Swift Shift. From this page they can easily visualize their ongoing projects and have the option to delete, archive, add, or export each project.
Editing Hours
Based on feedback from current project managers, changing the hours imported from virtual check-in was extremely important as there are often discrepancies between what is logged and what the employees actually worked.
When the hours are changed, they are highlighted to know what hours have been changed.
Each employee is classified by a different color to differentiate between what workers are non-contract workers, who are currently on site, and who is not on site.
Employee Information
The employee page gives the admin easy access to important employee information such as employee ID and phone number that may need to accessed quickly. You also are able to see every check-in and check-out time to keep track of when workers and arriving and leaving the sites.
Export Sheet
Perhaps the most important feature is the export hours option that allows employees to quickly export the hours logged into whatever format they desire. This saves time compared to manually importing hours into excel.
Check-In/ Check Out
For employees, this page allows them to check in and out quickly. The check in ensures that the employees is actually at the location of the site and utilizes a face scan to ensure that it is the correct employee checking in.
