Margherita Cucchi
Digital Product Designer
OVERVIEW
The project Workplace Matters has been developed following an in-depth analysis, carried out during the internship period at the BSD design, aimed at understanding the changes dictated by the Covid-19 pandemic within the industrial contexts.
SOLUTION
The approach used for the development of the project is based on the principles of Design Thinking and Human Centered Design in order to create a solution that meets the real needs of people.
The output is a conversation storytelling web app to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, engaging users through gamified and data-driven experiences.
EMPATHIZE
The COVID-19 pandemic has people everywhere reevaluating their lives and work. Many of them now expect their jobs to be a significant source of purpose in their lives. Companies, in order to support this challenge, will have to take more and more into account the psychological aspects of their employees and manage them with emotional intelligence.
The first thing that I have analised is how the work routine has changed according to the type of work. In particular the two main categories are: works that can be done only in presence and works which can be done remotely.
Production workers: Routine unchanged but adapted use of shared spaces, strict hygiene, mask use, and social distancing.
Office employees: Routine disrupted with remote or hybrid work, new digital tools, new environments, and changed interaction patterns.
All these changes has had a psychological impact on people. Indeed, the World Health Organization has defined the Pandemic fatigue as the "natural feeling of stress, fatigue and exhaustion due to a prolonged crisis". This is having and will have a strong impact especially in the workplace.
50% of employees
reported an increase in fatigue perceived during their work.
*Humanitas survey on the psychological impact of the pandemic
90% of employees
reported that the COVID-19 crisis was affecting the behavioral health and often the productivityof their workforce.
*McKinsey survey of approximately 1,000 employers
After have understood the context it is time to interact with people.
The aim of the user research in this case is to understand how Covid-19 regulations have influenced the work experience of employees in industrial production contexts, what are the scenarios that occur, what are the behaviors and attitudes towards regulations, which situations are most challenging and how this has affected the emotional state of employees.
The final output of this phase is the collection of all the needs of employees during and after the pandemic.
In particular, have been conduced:
Structured interviews with business executives and key company figures for managing Covid-19.
User Diary of daily work activities of employees in productive industrial settings.
User Survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data about employees’ lives during the pandemic.
DEFINE
While all employees have experienced this crisis, they haven’t all experienced it in the same way. Uncertainty about the future, fear of contagion and concern about colleagues’ failure to comply with the Covid rules are the main causes that feed the stress and anxiety of employees in the workplace. The workforce expects employers to take the consequences of the pandemic seriously and they want to be reassured about their safety. It is up to the company to address the feelings that employees feel about being at work.
There is an imminent revolution in the way that companies think, talk and deal with all the forms of problems due to the consequences of the pandemic. What has been so far a "don’t ask, don’t say" approach at the workplace is becoming instead "ask, say, talk". In such a particular historical moment, it was essential to expand the company’s communication channels, taking advantage of the new digital means of communication.
After have collected all the needs I have transleted them into the corrispondent insights. In particular, I have generated 16 insights that I have grouped according to the topic. Then through the insight clustering matrix methodology, I mesaured how one insight in the list is similar to another using the relation in similarity.
This allowed me to figure out four main clusters:
1. Building confidence and engagement in the workplace
2. Raising employees’ awareness of compliance with the Covid regulations
3. Making the employees feel an active part of the company organization
4. Promoting wellbeing the workplace Workplace
IDEATE
The aim of the project is to raise awareness of compliance with the Covid-19 rules and at the same time build genuine relationships with and between employees. The answers of the analysis will allow to know what changes employees want in the post Covid hera.
Storytelling is the art of telling stories, and also cognitive psychology confirms that humans process information in the form of stories because this is the ancient and simpliest way that we have to memorize information. Stories are able to catch the attention of the audience arousing emotions and leading the interlocutor to concrete actions. One of the most basic universal form in which stories are expressed is through ordinary conversation. In particular, conversational storytelling means interacting with a conversational agent that in this project I have developed as the figure of Milo.
The user interacts with Milo through a multiplatform web app, the answers of the user will be collected in order to generate two different outputs. The first one is a complete report shared with the company, that is a valuable source of data on which conduct specific analysis.
The other one is a collective data visualization where employees, through a personalized data portrait, observe their values and hopes for the future compared with the rest of the collegues in the company.
As soon as the user opens the link he is introduced to the project and fills the registration form.
In the registration form the user will indicate his working area.
By accessing the dashboard the user sees the three stories. Milo shows up and entertains the user with a light conversation.
Milo introduces the moral dilemma and asks the user what he would do in his situation. In this case the topic is the Covid pandemic.
The conversation continues by analyzing the decision-making process and the moral justifications that led the person to make certain decisions.
I designed a system that turned each answer into a unique set of shapes, colors, and symbols to represent people's views and personality.
The color, shape, position, and rotation of every element indicate a different response, creating a work of art from the data that makes each person unique.
A sculptural, interactive experience that brings company people together to share their wishes for a positive future. In doing so, they become a visual part of the "data community".
The sharing of digital sculptures among employees implements connections and stimulates the deeper knowledge of their colleagues, contributing to corporate cohesion.
PROTOTYPE & TEST
UX Evaluation
Through the testing phase I wanted to answer the following questions (measures):
- Does the user see the system as visually attractive?
- Does the system give to the user inspiration and engagement? ATTRACTION
- Does it feel pleasurable in hand? AESTHETICS
The methods for UX evaluation differ according to the duration of the experience of use, if they have to measure a momentary or episodic experience (i.e., Assessing how a person feels after executing a task) or an experience over time, also known as an Longitudinal experience.
In the case of this project the experience of use is prolonged over time. I then evaluated among the Longitudinal UXA methods which was the most suitable and I selected AttarkDiff that is a questionnaire for overall UX evaluation developed by Hassenzahl and his colleagues in 2003.
The prototype received very positive evaluations across all dimensions. Users consistently perceived it positively, with high scores in pragmatic quality (ease of use), hedonic quality-identification (communication and identity), hedonic quality-stimulation (interest and engagement), and overall attractiveness. This indicates that the prototype effectively meets user needs and expectations, with no major weaknesses identified.
Surely this type of format acquires greater meaning if inserted within a larger format linked to awareness campaigns to be able to periodically carry out within various work contexts. An extension that continues over time would make it possible to familiarize employees and, thanks to the digital representations of the information collected, improve well-being and corporate cohesion.
In the future, the family of conversational agents may expand. The pandemic has overestimated other issues that are still in existence within companies, such as the theme of gender equality, the inclusion of different ethnic groups and respect for the environment.
Another aspect with ample room for improvement is the part related to data collection, at the moment it has not been developed an ad hoc dashboard that allows data analytics.