OrangeWork Hub — Manoj Venkatesun

The solution

Students can swap, drop or pick up a shift, or ask for time off, in a few taps. Every request shows where it stands. Supervisors get a short list to approve instead of an inbox, and simple swaps go through on their own.

Three phone screens. Home greets Manoj with the next shift today at Halal Shack, a Needs you card where Jamie wants to swap with Accept and Decline buttons, and two open shifts. The Shifts tab with a Take this shift sheet listing three checks: no class conflicts, trained on Panda Express, and 16 of 20 hours this week. The Requests list with a pending swap, a dropped shift marked Still yours, and a pending time off request, each with a row of steps. — Home, taking an open shift, and the Requests list.

It opens on Home, with your next shift and Jamie's swap request waiting. Click around to move between the screens in this case study. Figma prototypes don't work with a screen reader or keyboard, so the screens above are described in this case study too.

The problem

Student shifts ran on paper and email.

At Syracuse, student jobs ran on pen and paper, a shared doc and email. If I wanted to swap a shift, I had to find my supervisor in person, or email and wait. More than once I was still waiting the day the shift started.

Students have classes. Every request went to one supervisor, who said yes or no to each one by hand.

1. Find your supervisor. In person, or send an email.

2. Wait. Sometimes a day, sometimes two.

3. Hope you hear back. Ideally before the shift starts.

Key decisions

Open shifts: only the ones you can work

The app only shows shifts you can actually work: no class clash, under your weekly hours, and you're trained for the station.

I didn't want first come, first served. That favors whoever is holding their phone, and students are in class.

Shifts screen on the Open shifts tab, with Fits my classes and Under my hours filters turned on and a note that only shifts you can take are shown. A sheet asks Take this shift? for Saturday at Panda Express, with three green checks: no class conflicts, trained on Panda Express, and 16 of 20 hours this week after this shift. Below are Take shift and Not now buttons. — Taking an open shift. The three checks are on the sheet.

Swap: three short steps

Swapping takes three short steps: who, which shift, review. I split it up because one long form feels like homework.

The last screen says what happens next, so nobody hits send without knowing.

Swap shift screen, step 3 of 3, titled Review and send. A You give card for Friday at Halal Shack and a You get card for Saturday at Panda Express from Jamie K. A What happens next box lists three steps: Jamie has 4 hours to answer, then Dana approves it or it approves itself if it meets the rules, then both calendars update. A note says Friday stays your shift until everyone agrees. A Send swap request button sits at the bottom. — Step 3 of the swap. What happens next is spelled out before you send.

Drop: it stays yours until someone takes it

A dropped shift stays yours until someone takes it, and the screen says so before you confirm.

That might feel unfair. I'd rather say it up front than have someone find out later.

Drop shift screen for Friday at Halal Shack. It asks Why are you dropping it? with Class conflict selected, and Sick, Emergency and Other as options. A yellow short notice warning says the shift starts in 2 days and Dana will be told right away. A What happens next box says it goes to Open shifts, it stays your shift until someone takes it, and if it is still open 12 hours before, Dana steps in. Drop shift and Keep my shift buttons are at the bottom. — Dropping a shift. The screen says it stays yours before you confirm.

Supervisor approvals: only what needs a person

Supervisors are on the floor, not at a desk, so this is built for a phone. Each request shows what it does to coverage.

Simple swaps go through on their own, so this list only has the ones that need a person. If everything needed a tap, I'd have rebuilt the email problem.

Supervisor Approvals screen showing 4 waiting, oldest 3 hours, with Needs me and Auto-approved tabs. A swap between Manoj and Jamie has a green check saying coverage stays 4 of 4. A drop from Alex has a yellow warning saying coverage drops to 2 of 3 until covered. Each card has Decline and Approve buttons. A banner at the bottom says 9 requests were auto-approved this week, with an Edit rules link. — The approval queue. Each request shows what it does to coverage.

Edge cases I designed for

What if someone takes the shift first?
A sheet says someone just took it, and shows similar shifts that are still open.
What if a coworker doesn't answer a swap in time?
The request ends after 4 hours and your shift doesn't change. You can ask someone else or keep your shift.
What if the supervisor doesn't answer?
They get a reminder after 2 hours. After 4 hours, it goes to the manager.
What if a drop leaves a shift short?
Drops always go to the supervisor, who sees the coverage change first. If the shift is still open 12 hours before, the supervisor steps in.
What if a swap puts someone near the weekly hours cap?
It goes to the supervisor with a note saying why: Jamie would be at 19 of 20 hours.
What if there's no connection?
You still see your schedule, but you can't send requests until you're back online.
What if a request fails to send?
The app says your shift has not changed, and you can try again or save it as a draft.
What if a student drops a shift by mistake?
An Undo button shows for 10 seconds.
What if no open shift fits?
The screen says nothing fits right now, and offers an alert for new shifts.

Eight phone screens. An empty Shifts week with Browse open shifts and Request time off. An empty Open shifts tab saying nothing fits right now, with an alert button. An empty Requests list. An offline banner above the saved schedule. A sheet saying someone just took this shift, with a similar open one. A swap where Jamie did not answer in time, with Ask someone else and Keep my shift. A swap review with a red could not send message and Try again. A Requests list with a Shift dropped bar and an Undo button. — No shifts, no connection, someone took the shift first, a request that timed out or failed, and undo.

Accessibility

I looked at all 916 pieces of text on the screens. 139 were too light to read easily, mostly gray text on tinted backgrounds. I changed one color and they were all fixed.

I also made buttons, switches and filters big enough to tap comfortably. They were 28 to 35 pixels tall. Now all are 44 pixels or taller. Bigger buttons pushed content down, so five screens needed tighter spacing.

Table with three rows comparing before and after. Text readability: 139 of 916 pieces of text were too light, after: all 916 are easy to read. Tap size: switches, tabs and filters were 28 to 35 pixels tall, after: all are 44 pixels or taller. Fit: bigger buttons pushed content down, after: five screens needed tighter spacing. — The readability check: what I found and what changed.

Results

I tested the first version with 8 friends who work at Food Services. All 8 swapped a shift on the first try. Scheduling a shift in the app takes under 30 seconds. On paper it took about 30 minutes.

The redesign hasn't been tested yet. It has 38 screens across 9 user flows, for students and supervisors.

How I got there

Research

A few buildings over, Residential Aides used an app called Sub It Up. You open it, see what's open, and grab it. Nobody has to say yes first. I wanted that for Food Services.

I sent a survey to my coworkers at Halal Shack. About 20% answered. That's not many, but the answers matched what people said in the kitchen. The biggest complaint was scheduling. Then communication. Then swapping and dropping.

Three columns of research notes. Shift availability and scheduling, shift management tasks, and in-app messaging and notifications. Each note has a tag saying whether the design covers it fully, partly, or is just context, with the screens that cover it. — My research sorted into three groups: scheduling, shift management, and messaging.

Competitive analysis

I also looked at four scheduling tools: Sub It Up, When I Work, Shiftboard and Deputy. The last three are built for businesses. None of the ones I checked looks at a student's classes or weekly hours before letting them take a shift. So I built for students.

Table comparing OrangeWork Hub with Sub It Up, When I Work, Shiftboard and Deputy. Rows cover primary and secondary audience, features, swap and drop approval, student-specific checks, strengths, weaknesses, free version, pricing and color scheme. The OrangeWork Hub column is highlighted in orange. Cells I didn't research say Not checked. — OrangeWork Hub next to the four tools I compared.

The idea

What hurt most was the waiting. Waiting for an email back. Waiting to catch my supervisor at the desk. So I asked what it would look like if the app did the waiting instead of me.

Lived it. Worked the job for two years. Asked. Surveyed my coworkers. Compared. Four scheduling tools. Mapped. Sorted the research, drew nine user flows. Designed. Sketches, then 38 screens. Tested. 8 friends, on the first version.

User flows

Before drawing any screens, I mapped how each task would go: swap, drop, pick up a shift, time off, first-time setup, notifications, hours, error cases and the supervisor side. Each map shows who does what, so I could see where a request might get stuck.

Three flow diagrams for Swap, Drop and Request time off. Each is a row of boxes labeled Student, Coworker, System or Supervisor, ending in green and red end states. Below is a row called One status vocabulary everywhere, with eight status labels: Scheduled, Pending, Needs you, Approved, Declined, Still yours, Open and Completed. — Swap, drop and time off. Each box says who does the step. The full set is in my FigJam board.

Design system

I set up the colors, spacing and text styles once, and built buttons, switches and other pieces to reuse. So when I change something, it changes on every screen.

A few of the reusable pieces: status labels, buttons, switches, icon buttons, filters, tabs, the top bar, a shift card and the bottom menu.

A row of eleven color swatches: Orange, Peach, Navy, Green, Red, Red text, and five grays from 900 to 100. — Colors come from the Syracuse palette. Screens use named colors, not raw values.

Other flows

Home

When a student opens the app, they want to know three things: what's my next shift, does anything need me, and is anything open. That's all that's on the screen. They're usually between classes, so it has to be quick.

Every request has a status

Swaps, drops and time off sit in one list. Each shows who it's with, the steps, and how long is left.

The old way left you wondering. A clear status means nobody has to ask if it went through.

Notifications: the app tells you, so you don't check

Anything waiting on you sits at the top. Everything else is listed below, with quiet hours so it doesn't buzz at night.

Students used to check email all day. Now the right thing finds them, and urgent things still get through.

Notifications screen with All and Needs you tabs. At the top, a highlighted swap request from Alex with Decline and Accept buttons. Below, Jamie accepted your swap and it is waiting for Dana, a reminder that a shift starts in 2 hours, time off approved, and an open shift that fits. — The request that needs you sits at the top.

Hours and earnings

Students wanted to track their hours and what they'd earn. Food Services already handles pay in MySlice, so I show an estimate, say it's an estimate, and link to MySlice for the real number.

Supervisor schedule

A week at a glance, with the number covered at the top of each day. Gaps are easy to spot, and open shifts sit on their own row. Tap a gap to post it.

Tablet schedule for Halal Shack, March 1 to 7. Each day has a coverage count at the top, in green when full, yellow when one short and red on Saturday at 2 of 3. A grid shows each worker's shifts by day, with one pending change in yellow and a time off block. An Open shifts row at the bottom has two dashed green shifts. A Post open shift button is in the top corner. — The supervisor's week on a tablet.

First-time setup

Classes, availability and reminders. Setup asks for your classes, when you can work, and what you want to hear about. You can connect a calendar, upload a file or add classes by hand.

Five phone screens. A welcome screen with three steps: connect your classes, set when you can work, choose reminders. Step 1 to add your class schedule, with a note that your supervisor never sees your classes. Step 2, a grid of mornings, afternoons and evenings with class times blocked, and hours per week set to 12. Step 3, reminder and update switches. A You are all set summary. — First-time setup in three steps.

The rest of the supervisor app

Six phone screens for supervisors. The approval queue. A swap request with a yellow note about the weekly hours cap and a coverage check. Auto-approve rules with four switches and reminder times for when the supervisor does not respond. A time off request showing the shifts affected and coverage. A day schedule showing 2 of 3 covered. A sheet to post an open shift, picking the station and who can take it. — Approvals, rules, time off decisions, schedule and posting an open shift.

What I'd do differently

You don't need a lot of features to solve a real problem. The first version did three things: schedule, swap, drop. The redesign does more, but each piece comes from something people were stuck on. I left out time tracking and payroll on purpose.

Test with people I don't know

I tested the first version with friends. They're friends, so they were kind. Next I want to test with five students and one or two supervisors I don't know.

Check my numbers with Food Services

A few numbers in the redesign are my guesses, like the 20 hour weekly cap and the hourly rate. Food Services would need to confirm them. The auto-approve rules need their sign-off too.

Finish what's only partly there

Some things from my research are only partly designed. Chat with a supervisor isn't designed yet, and neither is sending a swap to a whole group. Past shifts aren't shaded yet, and shift details don't show job responsibilities.

Build it

It's still a design concept, and I'd like to build it with Food Services.

OrangeWork Hub: replacing paper shift scheduling for Syracuse student workers

Problem

What I did

Result