A Digital Solution that Allows Remote Workers to Stay Connected
Loop is a native iOS app that allows remote workers to increase inclusivity through team-building activities.
Introduction
Due to the rapidly changing workplace climate in response to COVID-19, I wanted a deeper understanding of how traditional office employees were adapting to remote work.
The result was Loop - a communication platform that brings together remote workers through team-building activities. Users can browse a library of activities and customize them based on time, number of participants, and sometimes themes or number of tasks. Users are then prompted to host that activity right away and send an invite to a specific group chat or schedule it for later in the week or month. Aside from that, users can interact via group chats, each catered to different topics.
Overview
TIMELINE: 3 months (July-Sept 2020)
ROLE: UX/UI Designer
TOOLS: Sketch, InVision
TEAM: Solo Mission
Design Process
The Design Council’s Double Diamond is a non-linear framework that breaks down the design process into four phases: discover, define, develop, and deliver. I tried to adhere to this process and follow its philosophy which encourages creatives to go back and forth between the phases (iterating, iterating, and more iterating) in order to fully understand the problem so that they can come up with an appropriate solution.
Problem Space
Employers might find it difficult to gauge the mental health of their employees remotely due to a lack of communication and relationship- building. Employers need to take into account the mental wellbeing of their employees as 47% of working Canadians consider their work to be the most stressful part of their day. Mental health issues cost employers billions of dollars yearly in absenteeism, sick days, presenteeism, disability, and lost productivity.
Project Goal
The initial goal of this project was to understand the pain points, attitudes, and behaviors of individuals who had recently made the shift to remote work due to COVID-19. I specifically wanted to know the mental health repercussions of individuals in remote workplaces because of the drastic change in environment and work culture.
Key Research Insights
I reached out to 10 remote workers to gain insights on their needs, motivations, and frustrations to help shape the app solution. There were three common themes.
Pivot
After analyzing the information I gained from my interviews, I realized I needed to pivot in terms of the way I wanted to pursue my problem space. According to the interview insights, the most widespread pain point that employees working from home faced was a lack of social engagement, team-building, and overall lack of bonding with their colleagues.
For this reason, I decided to turn my focus to target social engagement and team-building in remote workspaces rather than strictly mental health for remote workers. Furthermore, I believe that a solution that targets this specific problem can also indirectly aid remote workers in easing the tension and isolation they feel because of the lack of social engagement.
How might we empower remote workers to build strong social connections with their colleagues in order to improve work relationships?
User Personas
Following the user interviews and the synthesis of the findings and insights, I was able to create a primary and secondary persona. The role of these personas was to see where I could potentially intervene with my solution.
Primary User Persona
Secondary User Persona
Experience Map
After creating the persona for Seth Riddle, I created an experience map that depicts Seth’s beginning to end journey at work. This experience map helped pinpoint the user journey touch points that caused pain or delight and overall general human behaviour.
Task Flow
I created a user task flow that showcases how a user would progress through a certain path. This is a simple, linear flow that shows the high-level steps a user would take if they were trying to complete a task.
USER STORY: As a remote worker, I want to participate in virtual team-building activities so that I can build a connection with my team.
TASK: Schedule a team-building activity.
Visualization & Prototyping
Keeping all the information I had collected in mind - primary and secondary research, core value proposition, competitor analysis, user interviews, personas, task flows - I was ready to brainstorm product functionalities. The main functionalities I was able to come up with were:
Team-building activities
To combat isolation but promote communication
Customizable group chats
A way for remote workers to connect over things that are not work-related
Syncable calendar
Sync their work calendars to the app so that they are reminded before any event - work-related or otherwise
Concept Sketches
The very high-level sketches that are displayed below mostly incorporated the screens necessary to complete the task of scheduling an activity. Some of the usability heuristics I kept in mind while concept sketchings were Aesthetic & Minimalist design (a minimal design without too many options prevents the user from feeling overwhelmed) and Match between system and the real world (because I would be simulating activities that are done in real life in a virtual way, I wanted to incorporate activities, languages, and icons that the users would be familiar with).
Click to enlarge
Usability Testing
Next, I began to translate my concept sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes. I took these wireframes and conducted 10 usability tests with 10 users. I introduced the users to the prototype with a scenario to provide some insight into the problem space and the persona of Seth.
Using the feedback and suggestions I got from the testers, I was able to iterate on my design from version 1 to 2.
Final Product
Playing with colours, sizes, and orientations brought me to my high-fidelity prototype. Seth can schedule an activity, ex. a scavenger hunt, and send that invite to a group chat of his choice. If he likes, he can also schedule an activity for later in the week which will appear on his calendar along with any other events or activities he has going on.
Design Impact
The pandemic has changed the course of the entire world. With social distancing in effect all over the globe and millions of employees working from home, people are compromising several facets of their life to protect themselves. Accompanying this huge change, there are several challenges and pain points that remote workers face that Loop could potentially alleviate. In order for employers to run healthy workspaces, collaboration, connection, and team-building is very important. With short team-building games and group chats, remote workers can experience some semblance of what it is like to work with their colleagues on a more personal level.
Takeaways
Have empathy
Going into this project, I knew and had heard multiple times to have empathy for the user. To understand and share the feelings, perspectives, and experiences of another person. However, as it usually is, it was easier said than done. It is not easy to put yourself in another’s shoes. I was able to work around this by doing research, conducting usability tests, and getting feedback and advice from my peers.
Don’t be afraid to sketch
Furthermore, as someone who can only draw the sun in the corner of a paper, knowing that I would have to eventually sketch out my ideas was unnerving. However, when I began to do it more and more, I realized how helpful it is being able to sketch out your ideas instead of immediately inputting them into a digital tool. Doing things like crazy 8s and concept sketches allowed me to brainstorm freely.
Learn to value criticism
Lastly, I am surprised at my outlook on usability tests and seeking criticism in general. Same as everyone else, I was defensive about my design decisions in the beginning, but when I realized how valuable user and peer feedback was, I began to look forward to those meetings. I learned to not seek validation but instead seek criticism. If you go into things like usability testing with the mindset that criticism is okay and valuable, you begin to appreciate the process.