Desktime

Introduction

I found DeskTime back in late 2022 when I made the switch from office life to working from home full-time. At first, I had no idea what DeskTime was all about, but my manager filled me in on the details. After using it for a bit, I noticed that the tracking wasn’t super spot-on, and you could easily game the system with browsers like Brave or Google Chrome since they’re both based on Chromium. Plus, I wasn’t really digging the platform’s interface. So, I thought, why not put my own twist on it and create a more effective productivity tracking tool?

Challenge

The app is slow and crashes often, which is frustrating. Time tracking is inaccurate, especially during meetings on Mac. The interface feels outdated and the dashboard is cluttered, making data hard to understand.

Users dislike the tricky login and lack of integration with Microsoft Teams. Many find the pricing steep and project limits in the Pro plan restrictive.

Customer support is inconsistent, and there are no features like smart website categorization, raising doubts about its value. These issues impact user satisfaction and workflow, indicating a need for an update.

Problems in Current Design

I’ve identified several critical UX/UI challenges that need addressing. The navigation system is overly complex, requiring multiple clicks to reach key features, and the sidebar suffers from poor information architecture.

The dashboard’s layout is particularly problematic, with information overload and disconnected data relationships making it difficult for users to gain meaningful insights.

The team management section lacks intuitive filtering and visualization tools, while the data visualization components show poor contrast and cramped layouts that hinder productivity tracking.

I’m especially concerned about the inefficient use of screen real estate and inconsistent visual hierarchies across the platform. The status and metrics section needs significant improvement in terms of real-time tracking capabilities and comparative analysis tools.

These issues collectively impact the platform’s usability and effectiveness as a productivity management tool.

Desired Outcome

Time tracking can be a headache for employees, often seen as a hassle leading to trust issues. The U.S. economy loses about 59 million hours daily due to unrecorded work activities. To improve time tracking, choose an easy-to-use automated system that reduces manual work and maintains transparency. Many companies fail by using outdated methods or neglecting proper instructions.

The right approach balances productivity monitoring with employee privacy. Features like automatic categorization and integration with existing tools can significantly help. When done correctly, time tracking aids in balancing workloads and enhancing project delivery.

Research

Based on extensive research across multiple user segments, time tracking software primarily serves team managers (65%), remote employees (23%), and business owners/freelancers (12%) across tech, real estate, and translation industries.

The data reveals that users are most active during standard business hours, averaging 6.2 productive hours daily with 5–7 breaks. Key technical challenges include slow dashboard response times (>3 seconds), Mac compatibility issues, and unreliable auto-start functionality (72% success rate).

Users spend approximately 4.8 minutes daily on manual categorization, with 82% expressing privacy concerns, though the overall satisfaction rating remains high at 4.4/5.

While the software maintains competitive pricing ($7–10/user) compared to alternatives, user behavior data shows that only 34% utilize advanced features like screenshots, suggesting a need for streamlined, privacy-conscious design that prioritizes automatic tracking and cross-platform reliability while reducing manual intervention.

User Information

1. Been using it for 2 years — accurate time tracking but the Mac version constantly crashes and needs manual restart during meetings.

2. Love the automatic tracking and reports, but as a team lead, I had to disable screenshots as it created trust issues among my 50-person remote team.

3. Perfect for tracking productivity, though Teams calls aren’t reported properly and web tracking is broken on Mac — frustrating for our daily use.

4. Great for monitoring remote teams, but the excessive detail in progress reports makes it difficult to interpret performance data quickly.

5. The price is reasonable for the features, but counting account holders in employee limits and having to manually categorise every website is tedious.

User Behaviour Information

1. Most users access DeskTime between 9 AM — 5 PM, with peak activity during 10 AM — 1 PM

2. Average productive time tracked per user is 6.2 hours daily, with most taking 5–7 breaks throughout their workday.

3. 82% of employees prefer having control over when tracking can be paused.

4. Only 34% of companies actually use the screenshot feature despite it being a core feature.

5. Most users spend about 4.8 minutes daily categorizing new websites and apps as productive or unproductive.

User Feedbacks

1. The screenshot feature with blur option is nice for privacy, but it still creates trust issues and stress among team members.

2. Time tracking accuracy is impressive down to the minute, though the interface feels outdated and confusing to interpret.

3. Microsoft Teams integration is broken and web-page tracking doesn’t work properly on Mac computers, making it frustrating for remote teams.

4. Pricing is reasonable for small teams, but counting account holders toward employee limits and the 1000-project cap in Pro plan is restrictive.

Pain Points

1. Sometimes it gets unresponsive and then needs to restart the software — been using it for almost two years and this is a consistent issue.

2. Mac version constantly breaks and requires manual categorization of every website and app — no smart suggestions even after years of use.

3. The login/logout process is a hassle — you can’t keep the software logged in at all times, and the private time feature isn’t very intuitive.

4. Employee progress reports are difficult to grasp because of superfluous detail, and the dashboard is sluggish when navigating through sections.

5. Creates negative changes in employee attitude and higher stress levels due to monitoring, leading to feelings of mistrust and dissatisfaction.

User Persona

Through my research, I’ve identified four key user types for DeskTime in India: project managers seeking trust-based productivity tracking, agency owners needing scalable billing solutions, developers wanting seamless workflow integration, and freelancers requiring simple cross-platform time tracking. Each persona faces unique challenges that inform our design decisions.

Design Process

The process which I follow to work is very simple and more inclined towards minimising the bridge between humans and digital device. I focus on working for building solutions. And the steps that take me to the solutions are mentioned below:

User Flow

I created a smooth user flow for a productivity desktime app. It starts with an easy Sign Up/In page leading to a dashboard. Key features include tracking your workspace, managing your team, handling projects, and scheduling. The flow moves left to right, with mint green nodes for sections and peach actions, helping users check stats, manage members, or create reports.

Transformation

I transformed DeskTime’s interface from a cluttered, light-themed dashboard to a sleek dark mode experience. I simplified the navigation by implementing a cleaner sidebar and focused on making the productivity metrics more visually striking with a better contrast of neon green against the dark background.

The new design reduces eye strain and makes data patterns instantly recognizable through improved data visualization, particularly in the hourly productivity bars. The minimalist approach and improved information hierarchy create a more intuitive and engaging user experience while maintaining all essential functionality.

Typography and Colors

I strategically implemented a dark theme with carefully chosen colors that serve specific purposes. The deep charcoal background reduces eye strain during extended usage while creating a sophisticated, modern aesthetic.

The neon green represents productive time and stands out vibrantly against the dark background, making productivity metrics instantly scannable. The coral red indicates unproductive time, creating a clear visual distinction.

I maintained the typography system using Red Hat Display for its excellent legibility at various sizes and weights, particularly crucial in the dark theme where contrast is paramount.

The interface text in light gray provides optimal readability while being gentler on the eyes than pure white, and the secondary text in a softer gray creates a clear information hierarchy without competing with the primary data visualizations.

Design Screen Analysis

This section covers in depth about all the screens one by one, my decisions about choosing elements and to take you through all the design decisions.

Learnings

This project really opened my eyes to how important it is to balance complexity and simplicity in enterprise UX. I kicked things off with a 4-week timeline, spending the first week diving deep into user research and shadowing teams to get a feel for their struggles with time tracking and project management.

The next 3 weeks were all about tweaking the dark theme interface after realizing that managers were spending over 4 hours a day just keeping an eye on team metrics.

In the end, I rolled out a system that cut down time logging hassles by 40% and boosted project visibility. But I realized that if I’d spent more time on user testing with different team sizes, I could have spotted some edge cases much earlier.

This project really solidified my belief that awesome enterprise design isn’t just about having sleek interfaces — it’s about building systems that fit smoothly into complex team workflows and make work life a whole lot easier.

That’s it from my side. I hope you like the overall presentation and find it useful.