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Product study · Flow Desk

Useful software should fit the work already happening.

One place to keep the person, the evidence and the next step together.

Try the workflowCompare the decision
Problem
Software interrupts the work it should support
Role
Product, interaction and interface design; working front end
Stage
Product study · interactive workflow

K01 · Booked 09:15 · Front brake noise

Mara Okafor

ConfirmedGrey hatchback, plate ending 4KD

  1. Accepted, done
  2. Person confirmed, done
  3. Fields reviewed, current
  4. Handed off, to come

Capture endedDraft to review

Next

Drafted fields

0 of 5 reviewed

  • Source

    Front pads and rotors, quoted

    Inspection sheet D-01, front axle (synthetic source excerpt)
    Pad thickness, front left2 mm
    Front pads and rotors210.00Read here
    Brake fluidOK

    Version D-01 v1

    Model read
    240.00
    Current value
    240.00
    Model confidence
    Model 58% · lowUnchanged by review

    No corrections. The model read is the current value.

Source

Front pads and rotors, quoted

Inspection sheet D-01, front axle (synthetic source excerpt)
Pad thickness, front left2 mm
Front pads and rotors210.00Read here
Brake fluidOK

Version D-01 v1

Model read
240.00
Current value
240.00
Model confidence
Model 58% · lowUnchanged by review

No corrections. The model read is the current value.

Static example: job K01 after its intake was matched, the uncertain quoted amount open beside its source. Synthetic data.

Software interrupts the work it should support

A person at a counter is doing three things at once: talking to someone, checking what was written down, and deciding what happens next. Tools built for that moment often ask for the wrong thing at the wrong time. They start recording before anyone has agreed to it, confirm a number without showing where it came from, or offer a list of near matches for who just walked in.

Timing matters as much as the number of steps

Removing steps is not the goal if the remaining ones land at the wrong moment. A prompt that fires mid-sentence costs more than a deliberate tap later. Flow Desk keeps the person, the evidence and the next step on one surface, and moves each decision to the point where it can actually be made.

01

Accepting and recording are separate commitments

Accepting a job assigns it. It does not start capture, link anyone to it or review anything. Capture asks for its own confirmation, Cancel leaves the job exactly as it was, and a denied or unavailable microphone explains itself and offers a way to keep working.

How it works
  • Capture and review are separate state machines; nothing in one moves the other.
  • Asking to capture is not saved, so Cancel restores the job unchanged. A test checks this.
  • Every saved change names the job revision it was made against; a stale one is refused.

K01 · Booked 09:15 · Front brake noise

Person not confirmed

Not confirmedBooked 09:15 · Grey hatchback

  1. Accepted, done
  2. Person confirmed, current
  3. Fields reviewed, to come
  4. Handed off, to come

Capture offNo draft

Next Resolve the intake from 09:12

After accepting

Capture off. Optional, and never started by accepting.

After Start capture

Start capturing this conversation? Capture begins only when you confirm.

K01 just accepted: capture is off, and starting it asks first. Static example from the demo.

02

Inspect the source at the field that needs judgment

The model read 240.00 for the quoted pads and rotors; the sheet says 210.00. The source opens beside that field, with the model’s read, the current value and its confidence kept apart. A correction needs a reason, changes the value but not the confidence, and keeps the original in history. A question nobody answered stays open; it never becomes a decline.

How it works
  • Fields the model flagged as low confidence come first in the next action.
  • Correcting back to the original read counts as a confirmation, not a correction.
  • The handoff refuses to complete while a required field is unreviewed; the rule lives in the model, not only in a disabled button.

Source and review

Front pads and rotors, quoted

Inspection sheet D-01, front axle (synthetic source excerpt)
Pad thickness, front left2 mm
Front pads and rotors210.00Read here
Brake fluidOK

Version D-01 v1

Model read
240.00
Current value
210.00
Model confidence
Model 58% · lowUnchanged by review

  1. 240.00 to 210.00

    “Sheet D-01 reads 210.00 on the pads and rotors line.”

    You (demo), 09:21

The correction recorded: the model’s read and its confidence stay as reported. Static example.

03

Preserve one identity through the workflow

An intake arrived at 09:12 without a link. Two bookings could fit; only one matches both the time and the concern. Who the job is for is read from that link, so one match updates the queue, the strip and the handoff together, and brings the intake’s document with it. A walk-in becomes its own job and unlocks nothing else.

How it works
  • Identity is never stored twice; every view derives it from the job’s link.
  • A wrong match can be redone, and the other job returns to unconfirmed.
  • A duplicate intake is labelled and kept, never merged. Private contact details re-lock when you leave them.

Before the match

K01 · Booked 09:15 · Front brake noise

Person not confirmed

Not confirmedBooked 09:15 · Grey hatchback

  1. Accepted, done
  2. Person confirmed, current
  3. Fields reviewed, to come
  4. Handed off, to come

Capture offNo draft

Next Resolve the intake from 09:12

After the match

K01 · Booked 09:15 · Front brake noise

Mara Okafor

ConfirmedGrey hatchback, plate ending 4KD

  1. Accepted, done
  2. Person confirmed, done
  3. Fields reviewed, current
  4. Handed off, to come

Capture offDraft to review

Next Review front pads and rotors, quoted

K01 before and after its intake was matched: the same task, the same job.

Built into the workflow

  • Delivered

    A working demo of the three tasks on synthetic data, with a visible Demo status, a deterministic reset and failure states you can trigger: a failed save, a conflict, offline, denied capture, slow processing and a copy failure.

  • Delivered

    Tests for the rules above: accepting never captures, Cancel preserves state, a match changes only the intended job, a correction keeps the original and the confidence, prepared is never contacted, and completion respects review.

Keep the work moving, without losing context.

Try the workflow