Inn-Flow wanted to create a redesigned scheduling interface to allow their users to quickly create schedules and make changes intuitively.

I was contracted to redesign the entire Inn-Flow platform, including creating a design system, designing all core flows, and also including all of the research and designs for the Scheduling feature below.

1: Redesign the scheduling feature to match the new platform .

2: Increase adoption of the scheduling feature.

As scheduling was a feature that existed already, we were looking to build off of the positives and improve where there were opportunities.

We started by aggregating customer feedback through discussions with internal users, such as customer support, as well as through a round of user interviews.

Because the existing solution had low adoption, we had a particular interest in why, and how users were scheduling outside of the application. We learned that while their solution was very manual and primarily based spreadsheets, the major advantage was the ease of use in duplicating schedules from week to week.

During this phase we also did extensive competitive research both in the hotel property management space, as well as in more general HR solutions that dealt with scheduling.

We moved on from discover and analysis once we had a good feel for the major pain points and opportunities with the current solution.

I began by sketching several solutions. Our goal was to create a drag-and-drop centric experience that prioritized quickly duplicating schedules and making small adjustments based on expected hotel capacities and required coverages.

Once we had a good direction we moved onto low fidelity prototypes. These prototypes were run by several internal users, iterating based on the feedback, and ultimately tested with a set of external users to validate the approach.

The feedback on this approach was overwhelmingly positive. We did identify a few areas of improvement, in particular dealing with very large organizations and the need to have alternative approaches to making schedule changes other than drag-and-drop if, for example, a user wanted to move someone to a significantly different part of the schedule through a short series of overflow menu options.

With validated prototypes and direction, we began creating a high fidelity design in Figma matching the designs of the design system I create for Inn-Flow.

Inn-Flow is currently in Beta, with a limited number of users in the Labor module, which includes Scheduling. We are monitoring the usage through Pendo events, as well as Hotjar session recordings. We continue to make improvements working towards general release.

By doing proper homework up front, we were able to identify the key features we needed to execute well on for Scheduling to be a success. With the quick ability to duplicate schedules, make changes, publish to employees, and automatically send notifications, users are able to quickly and easily make informed schedules.

Though the feature is still in beta, adoption by the beta users has been very high, with almost all of them using it. We will monitor in general release and iterate as necessary to ensure broad adoption.