My Roles

1. Research: Market research, user interviews

2. Define: Empathy map, persona, storyboard

3. Design: Task flows, hand sketches, wireframes, prototypes, usability tests, UI design, branding

The Team

This was primarily an independent project with input from other UX designers, visual designers, and users.

A gap in the market

To round out my market research, I looked into current product offerings for tools that would be beneficial for remote workers. There is already a strong offering of products related to project management, collaboration, and productivity.

I felt there was a noticeable gap in the market for products that reflect a more human-centered approach to the experience of remote work, rather than focusing exclusively on issues of productivity or output. Apps like Headspace already exist as tools for improving mental well-being, but what about a solution that could bridge the gap between productivity and mental health?

If I could validate my assumption that there was an aspect of mental well-being that was at stake in the transition from an office job to remote work, I felt there was an opportunity to fill this gap in the market.

Hearing from users directly

I chose to interview participants between the ages of 25-35, with the rationale that this age group is more engaged digitally and more likely to adopt a digital product. To reduce the amount of bias I was bringing into the interviews, I kept my questions broad, asking what a typical day looks like since transitioning to remote work and how they feel about the shift.

After arranging the insights I gained through user interviews into an affinity map, I was able to identify general patterns in the experiences of the different people I spoke to. I noticed the following patterns:

1. Lack of work/life boundaries

   9/10 participants described challenges with feeling either a lack of structure throughout the day, or an inability to set boundaries between work and home life

2. Working longer, but not better

   8/10 participants described working longer hours throughout the day, either because they don’t have people around to motivate them, or they don’t feel the same urgency when the day feels so unstructured

3. Decreased motivation and accountability

   There was a common theme of feeling less motivated to be productive or maintain good work habits when there aren’t other people around

My conversations with users revealed challenges that extended beyond work itself. People described a loss of structure that was disruptive to their routine and overall mental state.

Visualizing key pain points

I sketched out a storyboard to illustrate some of the behaviors my users described during our conversations.

The storyboard illustrates challenges the user faces during a typical day working from home where there are no external markers to give her day structure:

1. Has a hard time waking up and keeping a consistent start time

2. Doesn’t take defined breaks throughout the day 

3. Continues to work into the evening, contributing to feelings of burnout

Brainstorming the solution

How might we:

• Help users create and stick to set work hours

• Encourage boundaries between work time and personal time

• Instill good habits for work/life balance

• Create external accountability

• Allow users to set goals

• Allow a user to measure and track their progress

Bringing in other perspectives

I involved a few friends and facilitated a Crazy 8s brainstorm session over Zoom.

After sharing and critiquing our sketches, we voted on the best ideas. We ultimately decided on a core timer feature that would allow the user to “clock in,” creating a mental separation between work time and personal time.

I iterated on the ideas generated during the Crazy 8s exercise with additional sketching.

Returning to the user’s goals

The challenge at this point was prioritizing secondary features so I didn’t overwhelm the functionality of the app (or myself as the person responsible for designing them).

I returned to the user goals to prioritize the features that would actually be most useful to my target audience.

I ultimately had to de-prioritize some of our ideas that would personalize the user experience, like suggesting activities for how users could spend their breaks. This broader brainstorm list could provide a good starting point for future iterations of the app.

This was a stage I later had to return to and revise as I was originally too ambitious in my estimation of the number of features I would be able to design. 

Priority Features:

Timer with an animation that allows the user to enter a timed work session

Saved routines to allow for easy access for previous work sessions and the ability to set alarm notifications to begin a routine at the same time and on particular days

Break reminders during the work session to encourage work/life balance

Stats page that allows the user to view progress and number of sessions completed

Social features including the ability to schedule a work session with a friend, enter a friend’s live session, or participate larger group work sessions

Habits where users can set alarm notifications for good behaviors throughout the work day

Mapping out the features

I created a provisional site map to lay the foundation for the app’s information architecture. My core navigation would feature three pages:

1. Home: from here users can create a new work session and enter their saved routines

2. Teams: this screen would be home to the more social features within the app

3. Stats: users can view their activity history and progress

Incorporating the timer feature

I originally played around with the idea of making the timer itself the homepage in order to create as little friction as possible for the user to begin a work session. But looking at competitors with a similar feature, I decided I wanted the app to be focused less on productivity and more about creating a mental effect of leaving your home to enter your designated workspace.

I decided to make the homescreen a landing page representative of a virtual workspace. The timer feature would be discoverable within specific task flows.

In my initial task flow, I chose to combine the tasks of starting a new session and creating a new routine into the same flow. Users would be presented the option to jump immediately into a session or save the session as a routine.

Designing the screens

Version #1: Hand Sketches

The design phase was the most extensive part of this project. I began with hand sketches of my core screens, using my site map and task flows as a guide.

Version #2: Mid-Fidelity Prototype

I knew from earlier challenges in designing the app’s architecture, I wanted to test the user’s ability to differentiate between going straight into a work session and creating a routine.

After testing the Adobe XD prototype with three users, I realized my initial idea to combine the task flows caused too much confusion.

A virtual workspace

My final solution, Workspace, is a platform designed for people working remotely or, more generally someone struggling with a lack of structure, routine, and balance in their daily work life.

Workspace strikes a balance between traditional productivity trackers and resources for mental wellness, creating a virtual space for users to structure and manage their work routine, while creating boundaries and balance between work life and home life.

Create structure

Users can enter timed work sessions to give their work day a sense of external structure, while creating more clear boundaries between work time and personal time.

Users customize the duration and number of breaks before starting the session. An animated illustration inspired by zen rocks provides visual feedback and encouragement for the user’s progress throughout the session.

Encourage balance

The “Habits” feature allows users to set alarm notifications for healthy work habits like “Close out of Email” every day at 5pm or “Go for a Walk” each afternoon.

At the beginning of a session, users can designate the number of breaks they would like to take. Break reminders prompt short intervals that break up the work session.

Making the experience fun

When developing the brand strategy for the app, I brainstormed words that would address the mental component of the problem I was solving for. I wanted to differentiate the app from productivity tools that tended to use sleek, cool-toned color palettes.

The brand identity aims to bring more positivity and levity to the daily work experience

I decided on a bright and optimistic color palette that would make the app feel welcoming, hopefully encouraging people to use it on a daily basis.

For the visual identity, I chose illustrations that felt playful and organic, but simple enough to not be overwhelming or distracting. The animation for the time feature echoes zen rock piles and adds an element of fun to a person’s work day.

Positive Reinforcement

The content strategy of the app aims to provide both positive reinforcement and the external motivation and accountability users felt they were lacking in a more isolated work environment.

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