connecteam · a clock that follows you out.
A self-initiated home-page redesign for the #1 employee management app for deskless workers. Two redundant Time Clock buttons collapse into one, and the running shift lives in the Dynamic Island — so forgetting to clock out becomes much harder.
one tap to start a shift, ambient timer outside
Connecteam’s Home shows Time Clock twice — a shortcut pill, and again as its own section right below. Both arrows go to the same place. The redesign drops the duplicate heading and keeps just the Clock In button, protecting the feature reviewers single out as their favorite (“easy to use, allowing employees to clock in and out directly from their mobile devices”). The freed attention extends that flow into the Dynamic Island for three reasons:
- Forgetting to clock out is a common worker behavior — something Connecteam already addresses with push reminders. An ambient Live Activity complements that safety net by making “am I still on the clock?” answerable in zero taps.
- On break, the lock-screen pill flips pink and counts up like an iOS kitchen timer — the user can see how much break time is left without unlocking.
- Live Activities live in iOS, not the app process. A mid-shift crash — the most-cited 1-star complaint — doesn’t take the timer with it.
ideate → wireframe → ship
Two Time Clock arrows share the upper half of the Home screen and both lead to the same place. Meanwhile, the Time Clock itself is what reviewers consistently call out as Connecteam's strongest feature — 'easy to use, allowing employees to clock in and out directly from their mobile devices.' Opportunity: cut the duplication and extend the praised flow into iOS-native surfaces.
Collapse the two CTAs into one. Move the running clock onto the most ambient surface iOS provides — the Dynamic Island — with a long-press menu for the time-sensitive actions (break, end shift) and a tap to return.
Built as a working prototype: tap Clock In and the island morphs into a live HH:MM:SS counter that ticks in sync with the in-app weekly chart. Long-press to expand for break / end-shift; tap to collapse. The Home screen stops repeating itself.
what changed, and why
- 01.Two arrows deep-link to the same destination — a Time Clock shortcut pill and a Time Clock section heading right below itThe section heading is gone. Beneath the pills is just the Clock In button — open the app, tap once, shift startedWhen two arrows on the same screen point at the same place, the second one stops being navigation and starts being noise.
- 02.Clocked-in and clocked-out look identical — the user has to read the button label to know which state they’re inWhen clocked in, the Clock In pill swaps for a tall blue running-shift card: live timer, “Started at H:MM PM,” and Break / End pills inlineState should be visible at a glance, not gated behind a label read.
- 03.Ending a shift or starting a break means re-opening the app, finding Home, and tapping the section CTALong-press the Dynamic Island. The coffee cup (break) and X (end shift) appear inline; the timer keeps ticking right above themThe most time-sensitive actions in the app belong on the most ambient surface iOS exposes.
- 04.Returning to Time Clock from another app is a multi-tap journey: home screen → Connecteam icon → Home tab → scrollTap the island. Jumps straight into Connecteam with the Time Clock screen pre-loadedA shift action should never cost more than one tap.
- 05.Weekly hours is static — only updates when the user re-opens the appToday’s bar grows live while the timer runs; the weekly total ticks up in tabular-nums underneathIf the canvas is already showing today’s hours, it should be the same hours the island shows.