Shift Scheduling Management,
Shift Scheduling Management,
Shift Scheduling Management,
Bread & Roses
Bread & Roses
Timeline
Timeline
5 months
Role
Role
Solo Product Designer
Skills
Skills
Interaction Design, Visual Design, UX Research, Systems Thinking
Team
Team
1 Project Manager, 1 Tech Lead, 10 Developers, 1 Product Designer (me)
Overview
Problem
Bread & Roses serves over 1,000 volunteers annually, but scheduling is managed manually by 7 staff members through phone calls, emails, Google Forms, Google Calendar, and spreadsheets. This administrative burden reduces staff capacity for higher-impact work and creates delays in filling volunteer opportunities. Moreover, as the volunteer base grew, this fragmented process became difficult to scale.
Solution
A 0→1 centralized scheduling platform that enables flexible volunteer time slot selection and gives staff a single system to manage schedules, attendance, and mass communication.
Problem
Bread & Roses serves over 1,000 volunteers annually, but scheduling is managed manually by 7 staff members through phone calls, emails, Google Forms, Google Calendar, and spreadsheets. This administrative burden reduces staff capacity for higher-impact work and creates delays in filling volunteer opportunities. Moreover, as the volunteer base grew, this fragmented process became difficult to scale.
Solution
A 0→1 centralized scheduling platform that enables flexible volunteer time slot selection and gives staff a single system to manage schedules, attendance, and mass communication.
Impacts
+25%
Increase in volunteer application
-40%
Reduction in manual scheduling time
Early Research
Staff interviews (n = 5)
Understand business constraints, current workflow, expectations and assumptions, etc.
Volunteer surveys (20+)
Understand pain points, gather interest in the platform, etc.
Remote Contextual Inquiry
Since we couldn't visit the site in-person, I resorted to remote walkthrough to understand the real-life workflow and current business operations.
Research Document
Overarching Insights
Limited volunteer autonomy in time slot sign-ups
Currently, only staff can manually assign time based on volunteer availability, resulting in extra back-and-forth coordination and scheduling delays, especially during busy periods.
Staff has no centralized database to track volunteer attendance and log hours
Staff need a system beyond just manual paper where they can manage a large database of 50,000+ volunteers.
Lack of mass communication method
Currently, there is no way of informing the volunteers all at once about any upcoming changes to the schedule. The staff had tried using emails in the past, but it was largely manual.
Mapping Real-Life Workflow From Research
Key Design Challenge
How might we give volunteer autonomy in time slot sign-ups?
Volunteers have limited control over selecting shifts, requiring staff to manually assign schedules and manage back-and-forth coordination. Designing a system that increases volunteer flexibility while reducing staff workload became a key UX challenge.
Navigating Tradeoffs
During ideation, we considered a full Google Calendar-style scheduling system (option 1), since it matched with the current system used by the staff. However, the engineering team raised concerns around development complexity and maintenance costs. Instead, we prioritized a hybrid calendar-card experience that delivered the key user benefit (time-based visibility) (option 2) with significantly lower implementation effort.
Early Explorations
The Pivot
However, after early user testing, I found that an event-based selection experience did not match how volunteering actually works. Therefore, I shifted the design toward a flexible, time-based sign-up experience that better fit both staff workflows and volunteer needs.
After discussions with my engineering team on the feasibility and time scope of a new design approach, we found a middle ground that kept the old layout while shifting the selection process for volunteers.
Design Highlight 1
Giving volunteers control over time slot selection
This allows volunteers to sign up at times that work for them while easing the coordination workload for staff.
Individual Signups
Group Signups
Design Highlight 2
Records of volunteer attendance and hours
Accurate records of volunteer attendance and hours are critical for both staff operations and volunteers who need verified hours for school, clubs, or work. A centralized system removes manual cross-checking and makes records clear, accurate, and easy to manage.
Design Highlight 3
Automated Group Notification
Connected to the Nodemailer API to streamline mass communication, reducing manual outreach and enabling admins to send timely updates to large groups of volunteers.
Think in System and Scalability
As a solo designer, I initiated a new design system based on the current branding. I also designed for edge cases, such as empty states or mobile experience. This process heavily involved the engineers in the loop for feedback as well.
Design Systems
Edge Cases
Key learnings
Connect with devs early and often
From the start, I regularly had dev validation discussions with my PM and Tech Lead, which proved incredibly fruitful in uncovering tech limitations that influenced my design decisions. I also maintained an open line of communication throughout the build to clarify any questions, which led to a smooth launch and a refined final product.
Let research challenge assumptions
Initial designs drew from familiar tools like Google Calendar, but stakeholder feedback and user testing revealed these patterns didn’t match volunteers’ real workflows. Pivoting away from these assumptions toward a more flexible approach ensured my solution actually reflected actual operational needs.
Design for scales, even in small team
Although Bread & Roses is a small nonprofit, they manage a large and growing volunteer base. This pushed me to think about scale early, particularly when designing admin-facing views and data management tools.
Do you know that I also got featured here?
Shift Scheduling Management,
Shift Scheduling Management,
Shift Scheduling Management,
Bread & Roses
Bread & Roses
Timeline
Timeline
5 months
Role
Role
Solo Product Designer
Skills
Skills
Interaction Design, Visual Design, UX Research, Systems Thinking
Team
Team
1 Project Manager, 1 Tech Lead, 10 Developers, 1 Product Designer (me)
Overview
Problem
Bread & Roses serves over 1,000 volunteers annually, but scheduling is managed manually by 7 staff members through phone calls, emails, Google Forms, Google Calendar, and spreadsheets. This administrative burden reduces staff capacity for higher-impact work and creates delays in filling volunteer opportunities. Moreover, as the volunteer base grew, this fragmented process became difficult to scale.
Solution
A 0→1 centralized scheduling platform that enables flexible volunteer time slot selection and gives staff a single system to manage schedules, attendance, and mass communication.
Problem
Bread & Roses serves over 1,000 volunteers annually, but scheduling is managed manually by 7 staff members through phone calls, emails, Google Forms, Google Calendar, and spreadsheets. This administrative burden reduces staff capacity for higher-impact work and creates delays in filling volunteer opportunities. Moreover, as the volunteer base grew, this fragmented process became difficult to scale.
Solution
A 0→1 centralized scheduling platform that enables flexible volunteer time slot selection and gives staff a single system to manage schedules, attendance, and mass communication.
Impacts
+25%
Increase in volunteer application
-40%
Reduction in manual scheduling time
Early Research
Staff interviews (n = 5)
Understand business constraints, current workflow, expectations and assumptions, etc.
Volunteer surveys (20+)
Understand pain points, gather interest in the platform, etc.
Remote Contextual Inquiry
Since we couldn't visit the site in-person, I resorted to remote walkthrough to understand the real-life workflow and current business operations.
Research Document
Overarching Insights
Limited volunteer autonomy in time slot sign-ups
Currently, only staff can manually assign time based on volunteer availability, resulting in extra back-and-forth coordination and scheduling delays, especially during busy periods.
Staff has no centralized database to track volunteer attendance and log hours
Staff need a system beyond just manual paper where they can manage a large database of 50,000+ volunteers.
Lack of mass communication method
Currently, there is no way of informing the volunteers all at once about any upcoming changes to the schedule. The staff had tried using emails in the past, but it was largely manual.
Mapping Real-Life Workflow From Research
Key Design Challenge
How might we give volunteer autonomy in time slot sign-ups?
Volunteers have limited control over selecting shifts, requiring staff to manually assign schedules and manage back-and-forth coordination. Designing a system that increases volunteer flexibility while reducing staff workload became a key UX challenge.
Navigating Tradeoffs
During ideation, we considered a full Google Calendar-style scheduling system (option 1), since it matched with the current system used by the staff. However, the engineering team raised concerns around development complexity and maintenance costs. Instead, we prioritized a hybrid calendar-card experience that delivered the key user benefit (time-based visibility) (option 2) with significantly lower implementation effort.
Early Explorations
The Pivot
However, after early user testing, I found that an event-based selection experience did not match how volunteering actually works. Therefore, I shifted the design toward a flexible, time-based sign-up experience that better fit both staff workflows and volunteer needs.
After discussions with my engineering team on the feasibility and time scope of a new design approach, we found a middle ground that kept the old layout while shifting the selection process for volunteers.
Design Highlight 1
Giving volunteers control over time slot selection
This allows volunteers to sign up at times that work for them while easing the coordination workload for staff.
Individual Signups
Group Signups
Design Highlight 2
Records of volunteer attendance and hours
Accurate records of volunteer attendance and hours are critical for both staff operations and volunteers who need verified hours for school, clubs, or work. A centralized system removes manual cross-checking and makes records clear, accurate, and easy to manage.
Design Highlight 3
Automated Group Notification
Connected to the Nodemailer API to streamline mass communication, reducing manual outreach and enabling admins to send timely updates to large groups of volunteers.
Think in System and Scalability
As a solo designer, I initiated a new design system based on the current branding. I also designed for edge cases, such as empty states or mobile experience. This process heavily involved the engineers in the loop for feedback as well.
Design Systems
Edge Cases
Key learnings
Connect with devs early and often
From the start, I regularly had dev validation discussions with my PM and Tech Lead, which proved incredibly fruitful in uncovering tech limitations that influenced my design decisions. I also maintained an open line of communication throughout the build to clarify any questions, which led to a smooth launch and a refined final product.
Let research challenge assumptions
Initial designs drew from familiar tools like Google Calendar, but stakeholder feedback and user testing revealed these patterns didn’t match volunteers’ real workflows. Pivoting away from these assumptions toward a more flexible approach ensured my solution actually reflected actual operational needs.
Design for scales, even in small team
Although Bread & Roses is a small nonprofit, they manage a large and growing volunteer base. This pushed me to think about scale early, particularly when designing admin-facing views and data management tools.
Do you know that I also got featured here?