Pebbles
What does it mean to feel safe ? This was the prompt given to our team by IBM. Our goal was to find the latent needs of IBM employees in times of COVID and design a solution for safety to allow for companies to empower and retain their employees moving forward. We followed a human centered design process with an agile team structure. As lead of design strategy - I guided the team through the creative process of ideation and iteration. We started by doing primary and secondary research on the subject to open up the spectrum of solution possibilities. We then did brainstorming sessions to get our initial ideas on paper. The solution could be anything physical or digital, but nothing that could overlap with Watson technology.
To deliver the sense of serendipity and safety we were looking for we needed an aesthetic that would convey it visually with its colors, movement and forms.
Rebuilding Trust
We synthesized the data from over 40 initial interviews and developed 5 archetypes to help us develop our solution. Each archetype has specific needs, but one person might be more than one archetype. Some people were happy with the current situation and could see value in continuing in the same way after COVID while others were desperate to return to normal. We recognized the need for a solution that could live in the new normal collectively imagined, one that wouldnt fade away once the pandemic was over and that could prepare communities for others in the future.
We prioritized the needs we heard to understand the biggest pain points in the community and found three guiding principles evolved from this process: flexibility, spontaneity, human connection. Flexibility would allow users to feel equal and in control of their time while spontaneity and human connection would ignite their creativity and resilience.
Main Insights
Concept testing with Users: What kind of space would you like to have to share with your co-workers? Could we build a virtual office?
There were many different ways of connecting with others online, multiple subjects that could prompt a conversation between employees. We wanted to uncover the ideal MVP for our idea so we could build a prototype to test with our users. Our test focused on the end goal of the rooms - networking, surprise, gratefulness, learning, sharing of ideas, or just random conversation. Users told us they wanted all of them - yet were worried about being more overwhelmed with digital connectivity.
User Flows and Prototype Planning
As lead of design strategy, I focused on helping determine the platform structure, main pages, and user flows. I looked at how other social platforms delivered their content and built quick screen prototypes for our lead UX designer to finalize our prototype. The main goals were to make the experience as intuitive as possible maintaining a sense of serendipity with the least amount of buttons and a sense of clear visual content organization.
Although I did not build the final prototype I was very involved in the UX/UI design from the start. This is an example of my contribution - highlighting the process of the radio rage, one of our final main pages. The small screens are the conceptual and design direction screens I developed to explain what the look and feel and actions on the page should be like. I took inspiration from the radio dial to create an engaging and intuitive experience.
