Aniket Lamkhade

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// Workforce Management System

HR360

Smart.

Connected.

People-First

HR360

Smart.

Connected.

People-First

// Duration

12 Weeks

// Role

UX / UI Designer

// Platform

Mobile

// Discipline

Research · Design · Prototype

01 — Challenge

The system worked.

The people didn't.

Through analysis of internal workflows and user behaviour, it became clear that employees, managers, and HR teams were operating in silos. The platform had all the features — but they were buried, scattered, and role-blind.

Through analysis of internal workflows and user behaviour, it became clear that employees, managers, and HR teams were operating in silos. The platform had

all the features — but they were buried, scattered, and role-blind.

Problem Statement

"Users struggled to navigate multiple workflows across roles, resulting in

inefficiencies in attendance tracking, approvals, reimbursements, and request

handling — at every level of the organisation."

"Users struggled to navigate multiple workflows across roles, resulting in inefficiencies in attendance tracking, approvals, reimbursements, and request

handling — at every level of the organisation."

Problem A

Fragmented navigation

Attendance, leaves, timesheets, and requests

lived in separate menus. Users spent more time

finding features than using them.

Attendance, leaves, timesheets, and requests lived in separate menus. Users spent more time

finding features than using them.

Attendance, leaves, timesheets, and requests lived in separate menus. Users spent more time finding features than using them.

Problem B

One-size-fits-nobody dashboard

A single generic home screen tried to serve

employees, managers, and HR — surfacing

irrelevant information for every role, every

time.

A single generic home screen tried to serve employees, managers, and HR — surfacing irrelevant information for every role, every

time.

A single generic home screen tried to serve employees, managers, and HR — surfacing irrelevant information for every role, every time.

Problem C

Approval bottlenecks

Managers had to navigate deep into the app to

handle approvals. Requests sat pending for 4+

hours. Teams were blocked waiting for simple

sign-offs.

Managers had to navigate deep into the app to handle approvals. Requests sat pending for 4+ hours. Teams were blocked waiting for simple sign-offs.

Problem D

No centralised HR visibility

HR teams lacked a unified view of grievances,

reimbursements, and compliance. Each module was its own disconnected island.

HR teams lacked a unified view of grievances, reimbursements, and compliance. Each module was its own disconnected island.

02 — Goals

Four things to fix

Simplify workflows

Reduce approval friction

Improve role clarity

Enable faster actions

03 — User Types

Three roles, three realities

Each user group had fundamentally different daily tasks, mental

models, and pain points. Designing one experience for all three

was the core challenge.

Employee

Daily task executor

→

Mark location-based attendance

→

Apply leave & regularization

→

Submit timesheets

→

Track reimbursements & requests

→

Raise & track grievances

Manager

Team decision maker

→

Manage team attendance &

activity

Manage team attendance & activity

→

Approve leave, timesheets &

expenses

→

Monitor team performance

→

Handle team requests

efficiently

→

Review reimbursement claims

HR Admin

System-level controller

→

Oversee org-wide operations

→

Manage announcements & events

→

Handle grievances & employee

support

→

Monitor approvals & compliance

→

Manage reimbursement policies

04 — Feature Architecture

Structure before screens

Features were reorganised into clear functional clusters based

on usage frequency, user role, and task criticality — reducing

cognitive load before a single pixel was designed.

Features were reorganised into clear functional clusters based on usage frequency, user role, and task criticality — reducing cognitive load before a single pixel was designed.

Attendance & Time

→ Clock In / Clock Out

→ Attendance Logs

→ Regularization

→ Timesheet

Leave Management

→ Apply Leave

→ Leave Balance

→ Leave History

→ Calendar View

Approvals

→ Leave Approvals

→ Timesheet Approvals

→ Expense Approvals

→ Bulk Actions

Expense Reimburse

→ Raise Claim

→ Category Selection

→ Claim History

→ Status Tracking

Grievances

→ Raise Grievance

→ Category & Priority

→ Status Timeline

→ Resolution History

Org & HR

→ Announcements

→ Events & Birthdays

→ Team Directory

→ Documents

05 — Key Insights

What the data said

High-frequency actions

Attendance and leave

dominate 70% of daily

interactions. These

needed 1-touch access.

Attendance and leave dominate 70% of daily interactions. These needed 1-touch access.

Approval bottlenecks

Managers averaged 6

taps to reach

approvals. Requests sat

pending for 4+ hours on

average.

Managers averaged 6 taps to reach

approvals. Requests sat pending for 4+ hours on average.

Managers averaged 6 taps to reach approvals. Requests sat pending for 4+ hours on average.

Cognitive overload

Users saw 12+ features

on a single screen

regardless of role. No

information hierarchy

existed.

Users saw 12+ features on a single screen regardless of role. No information hierarchy existed.

Users saw 12+ features on a single screen regardless of role. No

information hierarchy existed.

Centralised HR needs

HR required unified

visibility across

grievances,

reimbursements, and

compliance — spread

across 5 disconnected

modules.

HR required unified visibility across grievances, reimbursements, and compliance — spread across 5 disconnected modules.

HR required unified visibility across

grievances, reimbursements, and

compliance — spread across 5 disconnected modules.

06 — Design Decisions

Four decisions that changed everything

Role-based dashboards

Rather than one screen serving three personas,

we designed tailored home screens for Employee

and Manager. Each surfaces only what's

relevant to that user's daily context.

Rather than one screen serving three personas, we designed tailored home screens for Employee, Manager, and HR. Each surfaces only what's relevant to that user's daily context.

Rationale

Usage analytics showed 80% of sessions started with the same 3 actions per role. Surfacing those on the home screen eliminated the need to navigate at all.

Feature grouping & tab navigation

Navigation consolidated into 5 core tabs: Home,

Attendance, Timesheet, Leave, and More. Related

sub-features nest logically, reducing top-level

feature count from 12+ to 5.

Navigation consolidated into 5 core tabs: Home, Attendance, Timesheet, Leave, and More. Related sub-features nest logically, reducing top-level feature count from 12+ to 5.

Rationale:

Card sorting with 6 users revealed clear mental groupings matching this structure. "More" acts as a progressive disclosure mechanism for

less-frequent actions.

Inline approval shortcuts

Manager approvals moved to the home screen as a priority widget. Approve or reject directly from

the list — no navigation required. Bulk actions

added for high-volume days.

Manager approvals moved to the home screen as a priority widget. Approve or reject directly from

the list — no navigation required. Bulk actions

added for high-volume days.

Manager approvals moved to the home screen as a priority widget. Approve or reject directly from the list — no navigation required. Bulk actions

added for high-volume days.

Rationale:

Managers confirmed approval delays were the single biggest daily frustration. Bringing approvals to the surface reduced the action from 6 taps to 2.

Priority action system

Employees see contextual priority actions on their home screen — info, Exception status, outstanding timesheets — so the app tells users what needs attention before they search for it.

Employees see contextual priority actions on their home screen — clock-in state, pending leave status, outstanding timesheets — so the app tells users what needs attention before they search for it.

Rationale:

Research showed users checked the app at the start of each workday as a "what do I need to do?" ritual. The home screen was redesigned to answer that question instantly.

07 — User Flows

How each role moves

Employee — Clock In

Open app

→

Home screen

→

GPS detected

→

Swipe to confirm

→

Clocked in ✓

Open app
→
Home screen
→
GPS detected
→
Swipe to confirm
→
Clocked in ✓

Open app
→
Home screen
→
GPS detected
→
Swipe to confirm
→
Clocked in ✓

Manager — Approve Leave

Open app

→

Approval widget

→

Review details

→

Tap Approve

→

Confirmed ✓

Open app
→
Approval widget
→
Review details
→
Tap Approve
→
Confirmed ✓

Open app
→
Approval widget
→
Review details
→
Tap Approve
→
Confirmed ✓

Employee — Raise Expense Reimburse

More tab

→

Expense Reimburse

→

+ New Claim

→

Category + amount

→

Attach receipt

→

Submitted ✓

More tab
→
Expense Reimburse
→
+ New Claim
→
Category + amount
→
Attach receipt
→
Submitted ✓

More tab
→
Expense Reimburse
→
+ New Claim
→
Category + amount
→
Attach receipt
→
Submitted ✓

Employee — Raise Grievance

More tab

→

Grievances

→

+ Raise Issue

→

Type + priority

→

Describe issue

→

Submitted ✓

More tab
→
Grievances
→
+ Raise Issue
→
Type + priority
→
Describe issue
→
Submitted ✓

More tab
→
Grievances
→
+ Raise Issue
→
Type + priority
→
Describe issue
→
Submitted ✓

08 — Final UI: Approvals

Approvals, finally surface-level

Managers can review, approve, or reject requests directly from

the home screen. The detailed view expands inline with full

context — no context switching required.

6 taps → 2 taps

Approval action reduced from deep navigation to home screen widget.

View by type

Leave, Timesheet, Expense — managers handle by

category for faster batching.

Full context inline

Reason, timeline, and days visible before deciding.

No blind approvals.

09 — Final UI: Reimbursements

Claims that don't get lost

Employees raise reimbursement claims in under a minute.
Category, amount, and receipt attachment in one guided flow.
Status updates are trackable from submission to settlement.

Single guided flow

Category → Amount → Receipt → Submit. No dead ends or optional confusion.

Status always visible

Pending, approved, rejected — employees never wonder where their claim stands.

Aggregate view

Total pending amount at a glance — employees track
their money, not just their requests.

10 — Final UI: Grievances

Concerns raised, not buried

A structured grievance module gives employees confidence that
issues are tracked. Every submission has a visible status
Raised → Open → In Review → Resolved.

A structured grievance module gives employees confidence that issues are tracked. Every submission has a visible status
Raised → Open → In Review → Resolved.

Visible pipeline

4-step status track removes anxiety about where an
issue stands.

Priority levels

High / Medium / Low priority ensures HR action is
proportionate — sensitive issues escalate faster.

Leave, Timesheet, Expense — managers handle by category for faster batching.

HR notes inline

HR leaves status updates visible to the employee —
closing the communication gap without external tools.

Reason, timeline, and days visible before deciding. No blind approvals.

08 — Impact

Numbers that matter

Based on usability testing with 5 participants and internal

workflow step analysis conducted across both old and redesigned

flows.

Based on usability testing with 5 participants and internal workflow step analysis conducted across both old and redesigned flows.

67%

fewer steps to clock in

6 steps → 2 steps

3×

role-based dashboards replacing

one generic view

Employee · Manager · HR

4/5

users completed leave flow without

assistance

usability test · 5 participants

Before

6 taps to mark attendance

Single generic dashboard for all roles

Approvals buried in nested menus

No reimbursement tracking or claim flow

No grievance module at all

After

2 taps — swipe to clock in

Tailored dashboard per role with priority actions

Tailored dashboard per role with

priority actions

Inline approval shortcuts surfaced

on home

Inline approval shortcuts surfaced on home

Full reimbursement flow with receipt + status

tracking

Full reimbursement flow with receipt + status

tracking

Full reimbursement flow with receipt + status tracking

Structured grievance module with 4-step pipeline

Structured grievance module with

4-step pipeline

Marking attendance now takes seconds. I don't

have to think about it anymore.

Marking attendance now takes seconds. I don't have to think about it anymore.

R. Patil

Employee · usability test

Approvals are right there when I open the app.

I used to miss requests for hours.

Approvals are right there when I open the app. I used to miss requests for hours.

S. Mehta

Manager · usability test

09 — Learnings

What this project taught me

Role separation is a design constraint, not a feature

Simplifying complex systems is more about

structure than visuals

Simplifying complex systems is more about structure than visuals

Surfacing priority actions reduces navigation load

by orders of magnitude

Surfacing priority actions reduces navigation load by orders of magnitude

Small interaction improvements — like swipe-to-

clock-in — compound into major time savings at

scale

Small interaction improvements, like swipe-to- clock-in, compound into major time savings at scale

Small interaction improvements — like swipe-to- clock-in — compound into major time savings at scale

← PORTFOLIO

SYSTEM LIVE

CASE STUDY

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SYSTEM LIVE

CASE STUDY

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