Improve your remote work with the app.
WORK ZEN CONNECT • DESIGN FOR MOBILE
Work Zen Connect -
Mobile App
Work Zen Connect is the final project for people working remotely/hybrid. The application aims to support remote workers in organizing their workday, while taking care of comfort and life satisfaction in all 3 areas - physical, mental, social. It emphasizes building relationships between employees and reminds us to take breaks, during which we can take care of our body and mind, thanks to short exercises, which are available in the form of several-minute videos.
Support for people working remotely who are experiencing more and more negative effects.
GOAL
PROBLEM
How to help those working from home take care of their health and quality of life?
FOR WHOM?
For those working remotely/hybrid.
For corporations and freelancers.
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Highly involved at every stage of the project, leader at the researching, modeling and prototyping stage
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Me and other students (2 Graphic Designers)
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9 months
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Double Diamond Process, User - Centred Design
Business Criteria for Success
GOAL:
To become the leading app for people working remotely/hybrid.
70%
of users extend their subscription.
80%
premium users.
Increased user satisfaction.
KEY RESULTS:
How will I know that the goal has been achieved?
Increase in the number of downloads, new, paid registrations.
Customer retention rate
(measured quarterly).
Monitoring opinions and comments.
Business Criteria for Success
GOAL:
KEY RESULTS:
To become the leading app for people working remotely/hybrid
80% premium users.
70% of users extend their subscription.
Increased user satisfaction.
How will I know that the goal has been achieved?
Customer retention rate (measured quarterly).
Increase in the number of downloads, new, paid registrations.
Monitoring opinions and comments.
Estimation
How many people are employed in enterprises in Poland? - 6.5 million (data from the Central Statistical Office).
How many people work remotely? - 7%, that is 455,000 people (data from the Central Statistical Office).
What will be the subscription amount that the employer has to pay for the employee? I assume PLN 10 (a rough initial estimate).
How many remote workers will use the application after a year from the launch? I assume 5% of the market, that is 22,750 users. In the 12th month from the premiere, there will be PLN 227,500 in revenue (this number doesn’t represent net profit).
UX Strategy Brief
Qualitative research
In-depth interviews IDI,
Netnographic research,
Desk research (analysis of existing research).
Quantitative research
Surveys,
Statistics,
Reports.
Benchmarking
Alarm - hybrid competitive analysis,
Productive - indirect competitive analysis.
3 Voices
VOB (Voice of Business),
VOC (Voice of Client),
VOM (Voice of Market).
DesignThinking
Value Propostition Canvas,
Jobs to be done,
How might me,
Product Vision Template,
Storyboard with AI.
Designing User Paths
User Story Mapping.
Content structure
Tree architecture,
Card sorting closed,
Tree testing.
Design studio
Wireframe (Lo-fi, Hi-fi),
Mockup,
Prototyping.
Expert audit + usability testing
Method RITE,
Survey SUS.
Individual in-depth interviews (IDI’s)
GOAL
Learning how people behave in remote work (what they do during it, how they work, what frustrates them, what their habits, behaviors, motivations are).
Additionally, maintaining the objectivity of decisions made, taking advantage of market opportunities, bringing my perspective closer to the user's reality.
On this basis, Personas were distinguished.
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9 people:
8 Generation Y people (28-43 years),
1 Generation X person (44-59 years, Manager). -
Google meet,
Miro,
Exel
Netnographic research
Based on research by NTT DATA Business Solutions (2024), employees do not want to completely give up their offices.
Why?
They treat the office not only as a place of work, but also as an emotional space where they can feel part of the team, talk to people they know and feel good with.
This is a great space for UX design.
Quantitative research
22% of remote workers say that disconnecting from the network after work is their biggest challenge,
24% of employees report feeling lonely,
86% of remote workers say that working on their own increases productivity,
40% of remote workers feel that after switching to remote work, they spend more time on it than before.
Benchmark - indirect competition analysis
personalization,
daily challenges to increase motivation,
modification of notifications.
PROS
CONS
too many questions to complete - which can be discouraging,
lack of integration,
complexity of the interface.
Productive
(habit tracker app)
Benchmark - hybrid competitive analysis
GOAL
Implement simple solutions in use.
Alarm
(clock app)
„Users spend most of their time on other websites and they prefer yours to work the same as all the others they already know.” Jacob's law
3 Voices
VOB (Voice of Business)
revenue in the 1st year after launching the service,
profit in the 3rd year after launching the service.
VOM (Voice of Market)
mobility,
synchronization,
work-life balance,
usability,
accessibility
VOC (Voice of Client)
integration,
friendly relations,
self-discipline,
good daily organization,
lower team turnover.
TRANSFORMATION
Positive change in my life:
I take care of myself and my relationships
(I live and work better).
Persona 1
Hania, 38 , single
Senior Analyst, 8-16
„Sometimes I get caught up in the whirlwind of work and forget to drink or take a break.”
ABOUT THE PERSON
She loves remote work because she feels inner peace when she can work at her own pace and on her own terms. Unfortunately, during the day she forgets about her needs and has difficulty maintaining work-life balance. She participates in meditation or breathing meetings that are organized by the company, but the number of places is limited.
EXPECTATIONS
more meditation/breathing workshops,
meetings with physiotherapists
better quality of life, i.e. taking care of work-life balance.
FRUSTRATIONS
limited number of places for meditation/breathing workshops,
back pain,
forgetting to eat, drink while working remotely.
Persona 2
Bogdan, 36 , husband and father
System Engineer, flexible working hours
„I find inspiration for work when I have relationships with my coworkers”.
ABOUT THE PERSON
He values contact with people, which is why he takes part in integration meetings. During those meetings, he can joke and talk about the problems, which allows him to take a step back and distance himself from his daily problems. This in turn reduces his stress levels and increases cooperation in the team.
EXPECTATIONS
getting to know your team well at work,
building and strengthening bonds between employees.
FRUSTRATIONS
it is difficult to establish satisfying relationships with co-workers,
it is difficult to establish quick contact with co-workers via instant messaging,
a sense of alienation.
User Story Mapping
GOAL
To clearly organize ideas and turn them into actionable, real user needs.
WHY?
Because understanding users better leads to better products.
Content structure - Card sorting closed
GOAL
Building a more intuitive and easy-to-navigate information architecture (Tab bar).
Why card sorting closed?
limitation: max. 5 categories in Tab bar,
eliminating possible large differences in results,
minimizing rough categorization,
difficulties in later analysis,
desire to obtain more precise data,
finding a potential problem.
Research results from optimalworkshop.com
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10 people:
8 Generation Y people (28-43 years),
2 Generation X people (44-59 years)
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Results analysis - card sorting
After the study, I made a change:
Adding an additional subcategory (Games) to the Team Category.
This change will systematize the Team category, in which not all subcategories were logical for users.
They wrongly assigned for example Charades or Quiz to the Mind category. They explained their answer by saying that the games listed above engage the brain.Changing the name Mind to Meditation and Body to Exercises - the name will be more understandable for the target group of 50+.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Content structure - Tree testing
GOAL
Checking whether an item is in the correct place in the tree hierarchy.
Research results from UXtweak.com.
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10 people:
6 Generation Y people (28-43 years),
4 Generation X people (44-59 years).
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UXtweak
Wireframe Lo-Fi
Usability testing with users
GOAL
Detect as many errors as possible in the shortest possible time and minimize costs for the business.
After completing the study, I asked them to:
complete the System Usability Scale (SUS) survey,
indicate what emotions were present before/during/after the study (Premo emotion cards),
provide an example of a cartoon character they would identify with the app.
Research conducted on a prototype of a mobile application (Work Zen Connect) in the Figma program.
Design decisions
#1 Contrast ratio WCAG
Adjust the color contrast between the content and the background to ensure accessibility for visually impaired users (minimal contrast 4,5:1).
#2 Intentional delay
A short, intentional delay (1,5 s ) was introduced before displaying the main screen to support the user’s perception of personalization. Crafting a narrative that makes the user feel cared of [1].
#3 Multi-path access
To improve access to a key function, we added a “+” icon as a third entry point [1]. Tapping the “+” icon [1] reveals a contextual menu [2] with options that can be added to the timeline. This allows users to reach the same action in three different ways [3], [4], which:
supports diverse navigation habits and mental models,
reduces the number of steps for advanced users,
increases the sense of control and overall intuitiveness.
#4 Tap bar design
The tap bar [1] includes the most frequently used and key features that users need daily:
Meditation - users can add relaxation exercises is dedicated to people who feel overwhelmed,
Workout - helps users take a break and reduce muscle tension or pain caused by long periods of sitting,
Day (Timeline) - support users in organizing and following their daily schedules. It’s the app’s primary screen and central point of interaction.
Team - users can connect and engage with co-workers through shared events, activities and informal interactions.
Notifications - remind users about important events or tasks throughout the day, helping to reduce cognitive load and free up mental space.
Improvements made
A description of the problems that users encountered while performing tasks on the prototype. I assigned weights to the encountered problems, defining how serious the problem is.
#1 START/STOP icon setting – too few available.
Huge problem
The START/STOP icon at the top of the screen is inconvenient to use. It's placed too far from the user's fingertips [1].
Recommendation
I recommend setting the START/STOP icon in an area of greater access/range. On the left side at the bottom of the screen [2].
#2 Adding video to the Day.
Minor problem
The presence of the “play” icon often encouraged users to click in the center of the screen instead of on the “three dots” icon on the right side [1]. Clicking the “three dots” icon allows the user to add the video to a break or to favorites [2].
Recommendation
We recommend replacing the “three dots” button with a “+” button, positioned on the right side of the video [4]. The button for adding to favorites (represented by a heart icon) should be located in the top right corner [3].
#3 The icon ”<“ is not tappable, it works only as a swipe gesture.
Medium problem
The user tapped the icon “<“ several times instead of swiping [1].
Recommendation
I recommend two ways of interacting with the icon “<”: swipe and tap to improve usability [2].
#4 Daily schedule visible only after clicking the “Day” icon.
The user does not remember his daily schedule when he selects the time in which he plans, for example, exercises.
Medium problem
Recommendation
I recommend creating a "Show day" pull-out tab to make as little reference to the user's memory as possible.
What’s next ? - continuous optimization
Continuous optimization can be effectively guided by the HEART framework, helping to improve user satisfaction, engagement and overall product performance.
Lessons learned
Teamwork requires emphasis on communication skills, assertiveness, emotion control.
Test the design as quickly as possible. Testing early with imperfect versions will save time and minimize costs for the business,
Good design requires many iterations,
Conducting user research adds great value to the project and allows you to look at the project from a different perspective.