Claudia


Tired of my friends complaining of having no free time when working from home I designed with them a solution. Flowo helps remote employees avoid unproductive overwork, and marks the start of their free time in a fulfilling way.



↓ Discover how



Overview






CONTEXT

MA Major Project

2020

6 months

(about 3 days/week)




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DELIVERABLES

AI Personality

Mascot

Hi-Fi UI for three user journeys

Detailed report

Presentation






MY ROLE

Individual project supported by an academic tutor of Loughborough University.



Problem



UNPLUGGING WHEN WORKING FROM HOME

Working from home is becoming the new normal in a post-lockdown world, research suggests it may lead to exhaustion and burnout because people struggle to unplug from work. As evidence, remote workers work on average four extra hours each week.



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Process



Discovery



RESEARCH CONDITIONS & PARTICIPANTS TRIANGULATION

Due to Covid-19 limitations, primary research was conducted online to gain deep qualitative insights into young (25-30 years) employees struggles and attitudes toward remote working. Half of the participants were new to this condition, while half had already experienced working from home. This factor was extremely useful in terms of the variety of insights and provided two different at once similar perspectives on the detachment problem. Another factor considered for participants triangulation was the degree of introversion of participants, as throughout the research extroverts demonstrated to partly solve the detachment issue by socialising.



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Methods included:

• Diary studies were conducted on private pages on Facebook due to participants confidence with the media to gain insights on people's after work but revealed to be not functional to gain deep insights, therefore, it was stopped after one week.

• Semi-structured interviews to test their level of satisfaction, and detecting any best practice in detaching from work.

• Letter studies to avoid self-justification detected in previous methods.

• Online card sorting into self-improvement areas and the value they assign to free-time activities to identify patterns for improving their free-time usage.

• Second diary study to be completed every 15 minutes after work to gain insights into mental energy levels.



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Synthesis



ANALYSIS, PERSONAS & USER JOURNEY

Data collected were analysed using affinity diagramming, thematic analysis, and quantitative analysis.



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OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT



There is an opportunity for a product or service for remote workers who want to feel the same satisfaction that usually occurs when shutting down their PC and step out of the office door by providing a virtual edge that enables the mental detachment required to start their spare time with a sense of gratification.



Ideation



SECONDARY RESEARCH & HMWs

After defining a project direction my first approach to the chosen opportunity statement was to diverge as much as possible. The secondary research included ways to create satisfaction, mind relaxation and detachment techniques, as well as physical detachment, and existing trends. The how might we statements lead to 13 initial ideas that were evaluated against a validation matrix and 8 target users were involved for feedback on the first five.



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INSPIRATION

The idea preferred by users consisted of an app suggesting free-time activities with the possibility to create accountability with someone. Among other problems emerged from users' feedback, this idea did not address the 'guilt' problem. This idea was integrated then with one that would have acted on the working time inspired by the Sleep Cycle app whose features will be translated into workflow analysis and timeslot to stop working smoothly.



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Definition



METHODS FOR CONCEPT DEFINITION

I storyboarded to explore scenarios, solved some quick doubts through a survey to avoid time-consuming interviews, used brainstorming cards such as Tarot cards, and went constantly back to participants for feedback.



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AI REASONING

The personality of the AI was determined using the OCEAN framework, and was designed as an easy-going and extremely motivating AI to satisfy users’ needs.

After this, in order to prove the feasibility of the idea inputs and outputs were defined. Please note that to maintain a discrete level of accuracy, the workflow prediction will be based on the previous 30-60 days. However, a consultancy with a data scientist is highly suggested in order to verify the correctness of this information and gather insights on how Flowo AI could be smart.



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CONCEPT



Flowo is for everyone who feels like there is no real free time between their working-from-home days, it restores the daily hour saved from the commuting after work, and converts it to a moment to blow off the steam and feel better.



Implem
entation



WIREFRAME, USER TESTING, ITERATIONS

After preparing the initial wireframe of the app for the onboarding, interactive dashboard and activity choice, the prototype was iteratively tested through video calls with target users. This phase aimed to overcome researcher biases, verify expectations for some key features, and test the comprehensibility of UI elements, and lo-fi parts were converted gradually into hi-fi to ensure continuously the usability of screens.



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Outcome



COLOUR CHOICE

The main colour of the app alongside greys is purple. The blue tones bring in a sense of relaxation and stability which is alongside the energy of red. In a physiological sense, purple has a calming effect on the mind and body. While it is often uplifting and inspiring, the blue undertones also ensure a soothing effect is felt, lowering blood pressure and heart rate.



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MASCOT DESIGN

The choice of adding a mascot to the design was made to interconnect the user and the product in a more emotional way to provide a UI element that speaks the user’s language and make the product more user-centred. During an informal conversation with my target users, they were asked which kind of mascot they imagined for the app and they all agreed on a ‘flower-looking mascot like a Pokémon’.



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GRAPHIC ASSETS

Icons: http://thenounproject.com & https://www.flaticon.com Illustrations: https://undraw.co



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Next Steps



PRODUCTIVITY MEASURE

An issue to be tested is surely the reliability of the system currently used to measure the productivity that is now based on some key metrics displayed on the dashboard such as ‘Keystrokes’, etc.



PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT

​Before commercialising Flowo I would also suggest a consultancy with a psychologist to know if a constant comparison with the community might impact negatively or positive impact on users. My concern is also the possibility for users to manifest a sort of ‘performance anxiety’ in seeing low levels of productivity.



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claudiasabb.design@gmail.com

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