elise ansher

Shift Swap

Shift Swap
iOS App

streamlined scheduling for a
federal security agency

Project Type Synthesis, UX/UI Design
Role Experience Design Lead Elise Ansher
iOS Engineer Zach Smith
Project Management Kevin Fossett
Length 4 weeks

Shift Swap empowers security officers to control their own schedule. Working with an iOs developer, I designed Shift Swap to simplify scheduling at a large security-focused federal agency.

Project brief and background.

My goal was to help security officers (SOs) and security directors (SDs) manage schedule changes by building a digital prototype that balances the agency’s three key challenges:

  1. Agency policy requires SOs to set their schedules a full year in advance, including any time off.

  2. For any further changes, an SO must arrange coverage. Officers currently resort to workarounds such as social media, which poses an IT risk.

  3. SDs manage scheduling using Salesforce, but the Shift Trade Request process still requires SOs to submit paper forms.

Policy constraints.

In the federal space, project constraints are often dictated by government policy.

Assessing existing agency policy allowed me to fully appreciate the scheduling system and where I could, and could not, implement change.

Shift trade request form

Per agency policy, employee work and leave schedules are determined annually through workgroup shift bids. For any changes once schedules have been established, an officer needs to find someone who is available and qualified to cover their shift.

Both SOs sign and submit a Shift Trade Request form to their supervising SD for approval. Security Directors are required by law to review all trade requests within three days regardless of how many requests are received.

With a deeper understanding of how scheduling is managed at the agency, I was able to contextualize existing user research.

User research.

Synthesizing output from a previous co-creation workshop, I extracted critical needs & pain points impacting the SDs, SOs, and agency IT, represented by the following stakeholder quotes:

Security Directors

  • With a deeper understanding of how scheduling is managed at the agency, I was able to contextualize existing user research.

Security Officers

  • When we set the schedule a year in advance it's hard to predict when I will need time off. Usually I have to use Facebook or WhatsApp to even find anyone available to cover for me."

Agency IT

  • We're a very risk adverse bureau, especially with IT. So officers trading shifts through un-secured social media is a huge risk."

While SDs need to be able proactively address staffing needs, it’s impossible for SOs to know when they may need to miss work. The current shift trade process is tedious, paper-heavy, and insecure which creates stress and headaches for all involved.

Design.

Working with Zach, my iOs developer, we devised a plan: to build a “digital billboard” where SOs can post and browse through shifts to trade.

Creating an in-network hub for SOs to connect and digitizing the Shift Trade form allows IT to protect all sensitive security information.

With a digitized request form, we could then integrate easily with Salesforce platform SDs are already using to manage scheduling.

Future state wire flow diagram

I wire-framed and built out a user flow in an InVision Freehand which allowed Zach and me to easily share ideas and collaborate.

Prototype.

Following USWDS component and color guidelines, I designed high-fidelity UI and interactions in Adobe XD which Zach then developed in Swift.

Locked Down

To safeguard agency data, we integrated Shift Swap into a mobile app already cleared for SOs to use on the job.

Users are required to set a Shift Swap password as an added level of security.

Paperless

Digitally collecting Shift Trade Form data reduces the manual workload needed to process requests.

SDs still have the option to print forms to maintain a physical paper-trail.

Swaps, Simplified

With a secure way to connect with coworkers at their fingertips, SOs can browse and filter through available shifts.

SDs can also add open shifts to increase staffing as needed.

Impact.

Our Shift Swap prototype has been moved into production and deployed to a pilot group of users for testing.