Web Kiosk
SUMMARY
Spur originally launched as a mobile-first, mobile-only employment platform including worker time tracking via the Spur mobile app. When the workplace web application was launched, the worker experience remained exclusively mobile. While many businesses and workers valued the convenience of clocking-in and -out via their smartphone, a number of businesses were more comfortable with and more accustomed to having a kiosk on site for worker time tracking.
MY ROLE
Lead UX/UI Designer
Winter/Spring 2019
THE CHALLENGE
A number of businesses that employ hourly workers wanted a kiosk on site for worker time tracking. This would provide a number of advantages, specifically:
Ensure trustworthiness
Some businesses were concerned that with the ability to clock in/out from their phones, some workers would clock in/out off site causing the business to pay for time the worker wasn’t working
Clocking in/out via a kiosk would provide them more confidence that the worker was on site and discourage workers from clocking in/out off site
Avoid smartphone issues
Some locations have poor cell reception which could lead to delays getting started working while trying to clock in on their phone
Some workers simply did not have a smartphone
THE SOLUTION
Create a web-based kiosk that could be launched by customers from a web browser on the device of their choosing and that would enable workers to clock in with as similar an experience to the mobile app as possible.
Researched 6 other kiosk/time tracking tools to compare features and understand what was common among those tools
Designed wireframes based on research and our existing mobile app
Collaborated with PO and engineers to decide on features to include in the MVP
Designed
hi-fidelity mock-ups and simple prototypes
Launched MVP and conducted follow-up interviews with customers to get feedback. Overall it was a relatively simple app, and it did the job, but there were 2 follow up features we pursued:
Unscheduled shifts - allowing workers to clock in on the kiosk without having a previously scheduled shift
Matching the mobile app timeline - since workers could use either mobile or kiosk, it would give a more consistent experience regardless of which they used
LESSONS LEARNED
If you build it, they might come!
The kiosk was used daily by some customers while others struggled to adopt it
Success - businesses that were already using a different web-based kiosk were able to easily launch Spur’s kiosk as a replacement and workers had no issues clocking in or out as usual
Failure - businesses accustomed to more tradional timeclocks with proprietary software and hardward struggled to adopt the new, browser-based kiosk on what they saw as a consumer tablet
After additional interviews we learned about the need for consistent placement of the hardware. That contributed to forming a small team to design, build, and launch a stand-alone kiosk product including recommended devices and mounting hardware. The new kiosk continued to allow for web-based launching, allowing customers to run it from their device of choice.