We added real-time coworker shifts — here’s why

One of the most interesting features we’ve built for ShiftMate is coworker shift sharing.

Originally, ShiftMate was mostly about one person managing their own schedule.

But shift work is rarely completely individual.

Nurses often want to know:

“Who am I working with tonight?”

“Is my coworker off tomorrow?”

“When do we both have a day off?”

And outside work, families and partners often ask:

“Are you working this weekend?”

So we started thinking about schedules as something that can be shared selectively.

In ShiftMate, users can share shifts and see selected coworkers’ schedules in real time.

We deliberately didn’t want the calendar to become crowded with everyone.

Instead, users can choose whose schedules they want to see.

The Home screen can also show who is working the same shift today.

It sounds like a small feature, but it changes how useful a shift calendar can be.

The interesting design question has been balancing collaboration and simplicity.

Too little information and sharing isn’t useful.

Too much information and the calendar becomes impossible to read.

We’re continuing to improve this.

If you use a shared calendar with coworkers, friends, or family:

What information do you actually want to see — and what would feel like too much?