Breakroom
An interactive breakroom mobile app for remote workers
Hackathon | Hack the Curve | The DMZ Ryerson
Position | UX Researcher, UI Designer
Duration | 2 Weeks
Tools | Figma, Illustrator
Background
#HacktheCurve challenges teams to develop a solution that could alleviate some of the greatest difficulties being faced by Canadians as a consequence of COVID-19.
Problem
With many individuals working remotely - colleague engagements and interactions has decreased. In addition, many believe casual colleague interactions stop when working remotely.
Outcome
Mobile app that offers a platform for organized engagement within teams.
Primary Research
My team and I started our research with identifying our target market. We concluded that our focus is for individuals who have the opportunity to work from home or their roles permits them to.
User Interviews
To begin the process in creating the solution, we determined key aspects to implement in the mobile app as guided by the following problem statements.
Personas
Meet Alexis and Carl, our main personas for the context of this hackathon and solution project.
Secondary Research
To guide the process in creating a solution, I synthesized how I might solve the following problem statements through searching data and percentages of individuals working from home and those who feel lonely when working at home or remote.
Design Process
Visual Identity
One of the first steps that I considered in the design process was the Smithsonian Visual Brand guide. Below is a glimpse of their established brand guidelines.
Wireframes
As the UX/UI designer I first began designing low-fidelity wireframes prior to finalizing the high-fidelity prototypes.
Feedback + Iterations + Testing
Using the feedback received from my team and our mentor for the hackathon I thought about how we can not only continue engagement between colleagues during the pandemic, but also how individuals can continue using the mobile platform. What keeps our users of the app engaged? How do we increase longevity of use?
Engagement Standings
This creates a friendly competition amongst colleagues while at home. The gamification aspect would help with the continuous use of the mobile app as it sparks the competitiveness between individuals, especially when you are recognized for your efforts.
The Solution
After receiving feedback and iterating my wireframes, I moved on to creating the high fidelity designs and revisited my problem statements and guiding questions.
Interact with It!
Play around with the prototype however you want. Experience the app on how it would work when actually playing with the prototype Play around with the prototype however you want.
Reflection
There are more pressing challenges individuals are facing aside from the lack of in-person interactions during the pandemic. Although our mobile app and solution solves the problem regarding the lack of employee collaborations and interactions when remote, it does not directly support the frontline workers or improve healthcare as stated in the brief.
It was and continues to be very challenging to design a solution for a global event that is still ongoing and ever-changing. We all were not prepared for a pandemic to occur however, ensuring to conduct user testing and interviews truly helped with the feedback and validation of our solution. This gives us an opportunity to branch out and determine how else we can fight the pandemic aside from apps.