AYUSHA MEHROTRA
UX / UI Designer & Strategist
X
Project Timeline
10 weeks
My Role
UX Research
UX Design
Tools
Figma, Keynote
InDesign, Imovies,
Miro.
Team
Multidisciplinary team of 11 including Ayusha
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Research Process
Double Diamond
We used the double diamond framework for our design process.
Design Criteria
Week 2
Define
1
2
4
Deliver
Develop
3
Secondary Research
18 Personal Interviews
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User Journey Maps
Key Insights
Personas
45 survey responses
Final Prototype
User Testing
Lo-Fi Wireframes
Concept Generation
Brand Development
Discover
Week 1
Week 3
Week 4
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 5
At Home Employee Experience
Instead of recreating the workplace at home, Let’s make work a place that feels like home.
At the beginning of our SCADpro, we discussed the challenges we were facing. Employers & employees were in the stage of transitioning to working from home, possibly permanently. We faced the challenge accommodating and caring for the new "remote" employee.
Identifying the problem
Project Goal
How might we design and deliver an inclusive supportive experience, enabling employees to be productive, engaged, and successful, while working from home in this new era?
Initial Brainstorming
Primary Research
Through primary research, we were able to identify the biggest problems of working from home, and divide them into five categories:
1.
Wellness
Environment
2.
Communication
4.
3.
Work Life Balance
5.
Onboarding
We conducted online surveys ( n=45) and 10 interviews to understand the problems of working from home. Below is an infographic & key quotes that summarizes the entire primary research.
“Work-Life balance guilt”
“Zoom fatigue is a real thing”
“I feel anxious”
“I miss having someone to talk to”
“I usually just walk to someone’s desk to ask them a question, but I can’t now”
“No avenues for networking for new employees”
“Work more than the required time”
All our insights from the primary research, tie back to one problem, BURNOUT.
Secondary Research
Over 69%, of employees are experiencing burnout symptoms while working from home
Stress & financial anxiety are high, yet workers are not taking enough time off to recharge.
Burnout is now categorized as a “syndrome” that results from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” according to WHO.
Research Hypothesis
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There is no work life balance while working from home and it leads to burnout.
Thinking what BURNOUT looks like? A sneak peak into our life!
Defining
Network Users
We developed personas to better understand the specific needs of the work from home employees.
Persona 1
Persona 2
​Design
Criteria
Pain Points
Stress, mental & physical exhaustion due to long working hours.
Lack of socializing with colleagues.
Work Life balance guilt.
How might We's
How might we reduce the burnout caused by working from home?
How might we create socializing opportunities while working from home?
How might we motivate employees to take guilt free breaks while working from home?
Design Opportunities
Encourage & integrate seamless breaks throughout the day.
Enhance the communication/ social interaction between colleagues.
Incentivize employees for taking breaks.
Concept
Generation
Five E's
Decision Matrix
The big idea was the "BREAKS MATTER" & we should incorporate & incentivize seamless break taking into the everyday schedule of work from home employees.
The Story
After constant brainstorming, we named the app PEBBLE. A pebble is such a small thing, but when you drop it into water it makes a huge ripple, huge vibration. We decided to name the small breaks as "pebble breaks" & big breaks as "boulder breaks."
Pebble breaks seem small but they make a massive impact. Many small stones can build a foundation and that's the foundation we are building with PEBBLE.
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Design Ideas
1
Categorize breaks into two : Small & big breaks. Encourage employees to step away from the computer & pursue their hobbies.
2
Develop a social community among the employees where they can share their breaks.
3
Include gamification.
Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for encouragement.
Competition
Analysis
Habitica is a productivity app that uses gamification to help the player keep track of and remain motivated to achieve their goals. In order to “win” you have to be active and constantly plugging in your daily tasks.
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Headspace is a wellness app that helps users deal with their mental health by the use of meditation.
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Be Focused uses the pomodoro technique to boost productivity.
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How is PEBBLE different than the competition?
Pebble’s main goal is to promote a healthier lifestyle, but it doesn’t limit its opportunities only to meditation. It’s users have the chance to schedule whatever activities they enjoy doing for those break times.
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Pebble’s automatic system for scheduling the pebble breaks, helps the user not be constantly engaged with technology avoiding yet another distraction.
Pebble does not limit its use only by a specific technique. It is customizable in order to be set up based on what works for the user and it does all of that while introducing gamification.
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Wireframes &
A/B testing
Site Map
Low Fidelity Prototype
Add an icon for notifications & to go into profile settings .
Add an option for
push notifications
Add an option to
customize their timings
Users said that endless scrolls can be addictive & our aim was to reduce addiction to technology rather than increase it.
Users chose this screen over the previous one as here you can see your community member's update as well as their garden. This can motivate you to build yours too.
Users said that there was no visual hierarchy.
Users chose this screen over the previous one as here their weekly break graph is visible . They can also view their rewards
and their streak.
Brand
Development
Brand Board
User -Journey
Map (Before)
Final Prototype
​"Build with pebble. Be the ripple."
Pebble is a tool that will help you foster microbreaks into your busy day.
It’s main feature is the zen garden. Each time you take a break, you earn pebbles with which you can upgrade your garden. Later, these pebbles can be redeemed for real life rewards.
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Once you have downloaded the app and all signed up , you have the option to sync your calendar of choice.
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Once your calendar is synced, now PEBBLE can craft custom breaks for you.
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If you don't sync the calendar you have the option to customise your own break.
Onboarding
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Once you’re logged in, you start your day by choosing the activity for the bolder break and you choose the time.
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The time will be based off of your synched in calendar. If not,you can customize your own time.
Daily Setup
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Once you set up your breaks you’ll start your day.
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Throughout the day you will receive two different types of notifications : one for pebble breaks and one for boulder breaks.
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As we mentioned before, those boulder breaks are the ones you schedule at the beginning.
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The pebble breaks are notifications that the app automatically sends you to remind you to drink water, step away from the computer, etc.
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The type of break you take determines the type of pebbles you are awarded.
Notifications
Gamification
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Gamified elements help to trigger a sense of achievement, and achievement is EVERYTHING for productivity.
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Everytime you finish an activity, you get a notification asking you whether you have completed the activity.
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Once you clicked on the bottom saying you completed the activity, you get pebbles as rewards.
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Even though pebble’s default setting is a zen garden we think that its important to include what brings you zen , a beach or a castle or something else , Pebble has it for you.
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As your pebbles stack higher, so does the motivation to take breaks.
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By slowly increasing the amount of pebbles it takes to make upgrades, users can slowly and steadily build their garden over time.
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Once you earn the required number of pebbles, these can be redeemed to update your garden automatically.
Motivation
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Extrinsic and intrinsic motivators are used to encourage employees to take breaks.
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Extrinsic motivator is the prize/reward of pebbles for completing your boulder break. that can eventually be redeemed for upgrades or real rewards (such as a gift card to starbucks)
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Intrinsic motivators are things that you are passionate about doing, but have no tangible reward, such as learning an instrument, reading a book, etc.
Reinforcement
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How do you keep the habit of taking these breaks? We have implemented three reinforcements :
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Levels: Working towards something. Creating the habit of taking breaks and upgrading your garden.
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Streaks: Avoidance reinforcement. You don’t want to lose the habit of taking breaks.
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Pebbles: Fixed ratio reinforcement. Instant gratification of finishing something and receiving a reward.
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Photo-feed: You have the option to share a photo of you completing your break to your friends/family/colleagues.
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Garden Share feature: This lets you see your friend's garden. By seeing your friends’ gardens and how much progress they have made, this creates a healthy form of competition.
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Community breaks : Here, you can have a shared garden with a co-worker or friend or family member. Once the activity is completed both you and your friend receive double rewards. This incentivizes you to interact with your community and take mutual breaks.
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You will be able to challenge your friends/coworkers to support them in taking more breaks so that they start building that habit of taking breaks.
Collaboration
User -Journey
Map (After)
What I learned
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You cannot solve all problems. Focus on one.
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Use decision matrix to keep the entire team on the same page while choosing the final concept.
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Do not be fixated on one idea. Explore and evaluate every idea on the terms of viability, feasibility, uniqueness & the impact it creates.
Next Steps
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Conduct robust user testing to understand the effects of gamification on the user.
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Build analytics into Pebble.
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Create a desktop version for the app.