Streamlining experts scheduling

A future state of the scheduling tool my visual design partner and I put together.

Overview
Created in-product messaging for a scheduling system that enables tax and bookkeeping professionals to set their own hours.

TD:LR
Each year, Intuit hires thousands of financial experts who must schedule their hours before being officially hired. This is critical for both Intuit and the applicants. Our goal was to enable users to create their schedules while meeting Intuit’s staffing needs. The current schedule tool was unclear and overloaded users with dense content.

As the Content Designer, I created in-product messaging for a scheduling system that enables tax and bookkeeping professionals to set their own hours.

Role
Content Designer

Team
Intuit, Virtual Expert Platform

Timeline
May 2020 to June 2021

What were our goals?

Timing
Deliver the right message at the right moment to guide users effectively.
Upbeat
Keep the tone friendly and encouraging—celebrate the user’s achievement of landing a new job!
Show the way
Simplify the process—guide users through scheduling without adding unnecessary complexity.

First-time use experience

In the original version, the screen shows the user all the information at once. They’re expected to remember everything, placing an undue cognitive load on them at a time when everything is new.

During my audit, I took a moment to create a scrappy version of this content with the ideas chunked together. When I tested this concept, this screen performed well, as the subheads made the information scannable and easier to comprehend.

Before launching this screen, we cut a lot more copy. I worked with my stakeholders to make sure we included only what the user needed to know at this point.

After the experience launched, I had an opportunity to think about a future state. I tightened up the headline, focused on the hierarchy, and moved messages to other contextually relevant areas of the experience.

Creating helpful error messages

Audit reveled a lot

During the audit, I found some error messages unhelpful—some just repeated the issue, and hourly ranges lacked specificity.

To improve clarity, I created a quick mockup and discussed with partners the importance of guiding users to resolve errors independently.

After receiving feedback, I collaborated with partners to audit the live experience, identifying ways to prevent errors. For unavoidable errors, we tailored specific, actionable messages. In this iteration, we focused on leading users with clear actions to resolve the issue, though we questioned whether the minimal approach was the best solution.

Understanding that personal and unforeseen factors affect scheduling, we launched with a broader headline that allowed for flexibility in error resolution, covering all possible user actions.

In-product guidance

The original screens were overloaded with content. We identified that some information, particularly at the top, would be more effective in other channels outside the product.

We removed terms like “minimum” and “maximum” hours and replaced them with simpler ranges, making the content more readable. Before launch, we repositioned the content to the left, prioritizing the user’s scheduled hours as the most important information.

Learnings

Judging the content’s performance (separately from the design) is very difficult. We overhauled the old experience, and the issues people are having with schedules are very different from last year. In many ways, that’s a success, but a success that was hard to judge quantitatively.

Kyle Stewart

Made with ❤️ in my San Francisco living room with support from excellent friends.