Who’s Working
Real-Time Status Indicator
2024 · 3 MONTHS · QUICKBOOKS TIME, INTUIT
Design Process
BRIEF
To enhance the Who’s Working list of workers in QuickBooks Time. When the team moved the Who’s Working feature from the classic QuickBooks Time experience to the updated AppFabric widget in QuickBooks Online, it lost 5 rows of workers while trying to follow QuickBooks design patterns. QuickBooks has since expanded the design system components with QuickBooks Time’s use cases in mind, and it was time to update the Who’s Working feature.
CUSTOMER PROBLEM
I am a business admin with 40 employees and contractors using QuickBooks Time. I am trying to review and see who’s working to ensure they are on the clock and tracking time to the right customers. But I have to navigate to the legacy QuickBooks Time to see more than three people in the list at once, which is inefficient, and scrolling through a tiny list is annoying. Because my team is large, I have multiple workers tracking time at different locations for our customers, and sometimes they forget to clock in. I need to check this a couple of times per day. Which makes me feel torn; the legacy QuickBooks Time displays over twice as many workers in the list. I’d like to use the updated version in QuickBooks Online, but bouncing back and forth takes too much time.
IDEAL STATE
In a perfect world, I can run my business efficiently, easily viewing who is working and where. The biggest benefit to me is being able to quickly assess my team, so I can staff job sites accordingly. Which makes me feel at ease and confident while billing time to my clients and paying my team, knowing that we are running at optimal efficiency.
OUTDATED FEATURE
To improve QuickBooks Time’s PRS score, we looked at customer feedback to find the most important features that need fixing. The Who’s Working window was deemed unusable for customers who have laptops with smaller screens like 1440 x 900. In February 2024, we tracked 34K non-map events for the Who’s Working List over 90 days, more commonly used among MM companies - 60% vs 40% SMB. To improve usability, we knew it was important to increase the visible number of workers listed and through our research uncovered other usability issues to solve.
Filter
Profile icon not fully built out, redundant with names
Green dot = on the clock and Orange dot = on a break
Accessibility guidelines not met
Sort
Show in groups
Fixed- doesn’t scroll with the page - takes up valuable real estate
Worker list
Only 3 workers listed - insufficient for admin use
Confusion around total day/shift
Research
Three rounds of unmoderated usertesting.com usability tests were conducted, each with an updated version of the Who’s Working feature. Each test had 10 participants, who ranged from managers to business owners. Each participant manages at least 10 workers that track time for payroll or invoicing purposes.
ROUND I
The first round of usertesting.com tests used a concept with the settings, filter, and group options relocated into a gear icon. This was very successful with 100% confidence in where to find the settings and how to adjust.
Removed the profile icon as it took up valuable real state and had little to no added value.
However, I uncovered confusion around column headers and table formatting.
ROUND II
To address the confusion around column headers and table formatting, I decoupled “day total“ and “shift total“ columns, resulting in 40% confidence when asked how long a team member has been clocked in, a slight increase but not much.
To make the table more accessible, I swapped out the break dot indicator for a coffee mug icon. 100% confidence when asked who is on a break, who is working, and who is sharing a location while working.
ROUND III
By adding “hr“ and “m“ next to the totals, this round of testing showed an increase in user confidence by 50% when reviewing who is working and for how long. An improvement from 30% to 80% confidence through this update.
To make room in the table, I swapped the “Edit“ link with a pencil icon, with 100% confidence in how to edit a timesheet. No issues were found.
Redesign
After reviewing customer feedback, three rounds of tests on usertesting.com were conducted on different concepts for the Who’s Working feature.
Search
Kept as it's helpful- especially for MM when finding workers
New table
Updated table component that fit more workers with less padding in rows
Screenreader accessible
Details
New break icon - coffee/tea cup adds clarity and delight
Decoupled from clock-in-dot - less confusion
Settings
Combined filter, sort, and group to free up realistate
Timesheet data
Pencil icon for edit - intuitive
Decoupled totals (day/shift)
Added “hr“ and “m“ for clarity
Total workers
16 workers listed - adding +9 workers for admins and managers view
Outcome and Final Design
Optimized the Who’s Working List for small screens (1440 x 900).
16 workers listed, a 5x increase, and 2x the classic experience.
This work contributed to the +9-pt increase in PRS for FY24.