Designing time tracking for craftsmen
2022 · Product and interaction design
Context
Craftsmen, such as plumbers and electricians, often juggle unpredictable schedules and a variety of tasks – from traveling to job sites to installing new lights. As a result, tracking time spent on each project can be tedious and error-prone, leading to incorrect invoices, inefficiencies, and frustration.
ToolTime is a platform that helps craftsmen manage and digitalize their business operations. It provides a mobile app for employees in the field to receive and document appointments, while the web interface focuses on administrative tasks such as creating offers, generating invoices, and managing projects.
Opportunity
At ToolTime, our mission is to digitalize the craftsmen business, enabling them to spend less time on manual administrative tasks and more on their actual work. Together with a user researcher, I conducted 9 user interviews to better understand their pain points with time tracking. Through these interviews, we learned that:
Manual methods lead to errors
Craftsmen relied on paper logs and spreadsheets, which were prone to mistakes, easily lost, and time-consuming to manage.
External tools weren’t ideal
Third-party apps were inefficient, introduced additional costs, and weren’t integrated into ToolTime.
Need for efficiency
Users emphasized the importance of a simple time tracker that wouldn’t interrupt their workday.
These insights – combined with data from surveys and user feedback – presented a clear opportunity to design a time tracking feature within the existing ToolTime mobile app to address craftsmen’s frustrations.
Solution
I led the design of the time tracking feature for the ToolTime mobile app, working closely with engineers and the product manager to deliver the solution. Over five months, we conducted usability tests, interviewed users, and iterated on prototypes to ensure the solution met their needs. The MVP was successfully launched on both mobile and web platforms, providing craftsmen with an easy way to track their working time.
The core of the time tracking feature is an overview page that gives users a clear, consolidated view of their tracked hours. It allows craftsmen to effortlessly manage time entries by assigning them to appointments, adjusting start and end times, and adding descriptions.
Pattern for Easy Time Tracking
One of the biggest challenges was integrating time tracking without cluttering the UI, while still giving users an at-a-glance view of their active timer and total hours worked. To address this, I designed a stopwatch pattern that remains anchored at the bottom of the screen for easy access. This allows users to see, start, pause, or stop their timer from anywhere in the app.
For situations where users forgot to add a time entry, I added manual options for creating working time and absences to ensure their workday could still be fully captured.
Automating Time Management
After creating a functional prototype, I tested it with users in their daily workflows. Testing revealed that users forgot to stop the timer, which led to inaccurate logs.
This insight led me to design an automatic stop function to prevent entries from running indefinitely. When a time tracking entry exceeds the preset 8-hour limit – the standard full-time workday in Germany – it stops automatically, and users receive a notification with an option to edit it directly.
Oversight for Managers
For managers, we developed a web interface that provides an easy way to view time entries. This helped them quickly spot missing working hours and reduced the need for manual follow-ups.
Outcome and Future Potential
The time-tracking feature launched successfully on both web and mobile platforms, improving billing accuracy and directly impacting business revenue. With 2,000 active mobile users (roughly 50% of all mobile users) engaging monthly and over 45,000 time entries logged , the feature has quickly proven its scalability and relevance.
Craftsmen especially appreciated the feature’s intuitive design and seamless integration into their workflows, which made time tracking very easy for them. By addressing this critical pain point, the feature not only enhanced user satisfaction but also established ToolTime as an indispensable tool in the craftsmen industry.
You’ve got one thing right: that it’s easy for the guys to use. That’s the main thing.
This feature is really great. Now I know how long my guys are working on something.
While the feature has already transformed how users manage time tracking, I see potential for future enhancements. On mobile, future enhancements could include tracking overtime or multiple-day absences. For managers using the web app, features like an editing function or visibility into who’s working overtime would add even more value.
Reflection
Personally, this project reinforced the importance of designing for flexibility, as ToolTime’s users have incredibly diverse workflows. It showed me the value of actively listening to user feedback and building adaptable features that meet varied needs while supporting long-term business goals.