Working from home has become a dynamic solution for organizations around the world since the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Young professionals who work from home and share a living space often mix their professional and personal lives, which can lead to conflicts, loss of boundaries, and depression.
Collaborating with three Service Designers at SCAD, we designed a digital product to help young couples who live together find the best times to communicate with their partners while working from home and arranging activities together.
After using various research methods, we gained a systematic understanding of the home office experience. To better analyze and demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships, we created a causation map to reveal the deeper reasons behind these dynamics.
Most young professionals who work from home experience a better work-life balance due to the flexibility inherent in remote work, which allows them to take lunch breaks, naps, and engage in morning rituals, among other activities.
The loneliness caused by working from home has led young professionals to share their space with loved ones, pets, or partners for companionship.
Living with pets or partners often brings distractions to work. Four out of eight interviewees indicated that they need to address sound-related issues, such as using headphones, to manage these distractions.
We started with a paper prototype to quickly visualize solutions. Based on that, we developed a draft site map as a guideline for all prototypes. We tested our prototypes using task flows and card sorting to examine the navigation, organization, and labeling systems. A survey followed the task flow to evaluate our design. All feedback from user testing guided us in refining our prototype and design.
The goal of the task is to test whether the prototype can meet the requirement of finding a suitable lunchtime for the user and their partner, and to determine if the user can create an activity for both.
Main Issue
This task aims to examine the process of reviewing achievements and setting new goals for future accomplishments.
Feedback
We invited five potential users to participate in open card sorting to determine if our labeling system aligns with their mental model.
The results of the card sorting indicate that the labeling system is fairly good. Interviewees suggested making the labeling system feel warmer. Researchers revised parts of the labeling system to enhance its warmth.
After users completed the two tasks we prepared, we asked them to take a survey to evaluate the app. Overall, the feedback from the survey was positive, but it indicated that we still need to make improvements in the following aspects:
This project experience prompted me to rethink what hybrid working modes might look like for young people in the post-pandemic era. I discovered that while productivity and well-being are highly valued by young people, these two standards often conflict with each other. This presents an opportunity for designers to think outside the box and create innovative and delightful tools that help improve both aspects simultaneously.
Throughout this experience, I gained in-depth practice in all UX design processes. Our team focused on usability testing to ensure that all pages and interactions met users' expectations and were easy to understand and use.
