Background
This UX course project’s purpose was to create a native app focusing on wellness in one of the following categories: exercise and fitness, eating and diet, meditation, time management, etc. For my project, I decided to focus on maintaining mental and physical balance while working from home.
With the rise of Covid-19, the number of remote workers has grown significantly. While there are some clear advantages, this new situation also created new challenges. The goal of my research was to discover the main issues as well as the main advantages of a home office.
Research
Insights
As part of my research, I have conducted several interviews and a survey, in addition to exploring existing research about home office and its effect on health. The following main issues came to light:
Social isolation
People miss their colleagues, the spontaneous small talk during the day, having someone to ask for a professional opinion, and having lunch with other people.
Lack of work-life balance
There are no clear boundaries between work time and personal time since they happen in the same space- no clear cut after work hours.
Less productive
In the conditions of home office people feel they need to be more self-disciplined to be productive. When they fail at this and get distracted, they feel less productive- which leads to stress and guilt.
Lack of movement
They have fewer reasons to leave the house, as well as no spontaneous coffee breaks with their co-workers. In addition, in times of lockdown, many sports clubs and gyms are closed. Some feel less motivated to do sports activity on their own.
All that being said, people are quite happy working from home as there are newly gained advantages: flexibility, saving time on commuting and personal freedom - and perhaps these could assist in coming up with a solution that would improve their mental and physical health.
Defining:
Persona and User Journey
Based on research the following persona and user’s journey were created:
The Solution
Problem Statement
While working from home, our users want to stay productive and use their newly gained flexibility and extra time saved on commuting to improve their health. However, it’s hard for them to stay focused and motivated. They don’t know when to take a break and are not motivated enough to exercise. They have fewer reasons to leave the house because they work from home and they’re alone.
So how might we encourage our users to maintain their physical and emotional health while taking advantage of the flexibility and the extra time they have at home, in a fun, engaging way?
The game Pokemon Go (to which I was addicted at the time) inspired me to create a game-like AR-based solution that would encourage users to walk in a fun and unobtrusive way, without being a fitness app in itself. This would presumably increase their well-being as well as their productivity.
The idea was to create a digital pet that the users would have to take care of- and subsequently, take care of themselves. The following site map and user flow were created:
Mid-fi Prorotype
Final Screens
Final screens
Conclusion
Covid-19 has created a new reality of remote working, which might be convenient, but requires self-management and motivation. While it can be easier for some people, it can be also challenging for others.
Looking at the results of my project, I believe it could help motivate these specific users to move in a fun, engaging way, therefore helping them maintain their well-being.