Moodcast
Revolutionizing the approach to workplace well-being through strategic user experience research and design.
Overview
During my 2 months working on this solo project, I delved into the world of health and wellness. I kicked things off with a brainstorming session to generate ideas related to wellness. After that, I did a deep dive into a competitive analysis of my top ideas. This process helped me narrow down my focus to a key question: "How can I support mental and physical wellness in the workplace?"
Duration:
2 months
My Role:
UX Design, UX Research, Wireframing, Interaction Design, Prototyping, User Testing
Research Indicates:
Happy employees are more productive and work better on teams
Strong teams allow for a productive work environment and company culture
Productive work environments and positive company culture allows for the production of quality work that allows a company to thrive
Stress leads to burnout, which leads to low morale and higher turn over
Statistics:
One-third of an average American’s life, or 8.5 hours a day, is spent at work. (OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
71% of surveyed employees strongly agreed that the workplace affects their mental health. (Times | Mental Health America)
48% of employed Americans report feeling mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the workday. (Society for Human Resource Management)r
Problem Space
How do I improve workplace wellness?
Design Process
discovery
I began by immersing myself in research related to workplace wellness, I started by completing a competitive analysis of applications and websites that attempt to address challenges related to workplace wellness. My goal in doing so was to analyze competitors, identify gaps in the market, and uncover how I could address these gaps and differentiate my product to create a unique user experience.
Findings
What competitors did well
Incorporates a variety wellness tips
Integrates with existing platforms
market gaps
Requires installation of an extension
Do not offer social accountability
Are not workplace specific
what can i do differently
Calendar plugin for offices using Gmail, provides recommendations and auto plans out exercise breaks
Plan times to workout alone or with coworkers
Dedicated mental health times and customization to increase workplace productivity
Interviews
To ensure I was catering the product to the needs of its users, I decided to conduct 5 user interviews. I spoke with 2 supervisors and 3 individuals who had experience working in a professional workplace environment.
Sample Questions
Does your employer value mental health in the workplace? If yes, how so?
How do you manage stress in the workplace?
Have you experience remote work? In your experience, do you feel that remote positions are similar to those in person as it relates to stress?
How do you maintain your motivation during a typical workday?
“Right now there is no mechanism (other than me directly confronting supervisors) to let them know what's currently on my plate.”
— Direct quote from participant
Survey
What prevents people from taking a break?
This insight really challenged my original idea since we thought the issue may me a matter or time management, when in fact, being perceived as lazy plays a much larger role in preventing employees from prioritizing their wellness.
Insights and Analysis
Taking into consideration feedback gathered from survey and interview data, I created an affinity map to uncover three main themes
-
Mutual interests
Employers are looking for new ways to support the mental health of their employees; and employees value a workplace that provides such support.
-
Employee Guilt
The greatest deterrent of employees requesting breaks or mental health leaves is fear of appearing lethargic
-
Employee Empathy
Employees feel that employers can do a better job at encouraging them to take care of their mental health.
Keeping these insights in mind, I created a journey map to help me envision the type of solution that could address the goals and pain points that arise during my users’ journey.
My journey map assisted me in developing my “how might we” statement which help kick off my design ideas. My statement is as follows:
How Might We …
help employees communicate their
Mental health needs in the workplace?
Based on this question, I opted to create a solution aimed at supporting employees in managing and expressing their mental well-being. Additionally, the solution serves as a platform for employers to monitor office stress levels and engage with their teams.
Design solutions
I began designing my platform by creating Mockups
Mood Casting page
Account Creation
Home Screen
Resources Page
Creating mid-fidelity prototypes allowed me to receive effective feedback without the bias that could be associated with displaying visually appealing mockups.
Introducing moodcast
Moodcast is a desktop app for team members to share daily mental wellness updates with their managers. It helps create a supportive workplace culture that prioritizes employee morale and wellbeing, leading to happier, healthier, and more productive teams.
Colors & Typography
Psychology
I decided to use purple (peace) and orange (energy) because these colors strike a balance between providing calmness and energetic psychological effects.
Why Poppins font?
Not only does Poppins meet WCAG Accessibility standards but it is cited as a font that is know for exceptional readability across the board so I decided to use this font to construct my prototype.
Interface
Daily check-in screen
Employees are able to communicate their mood daily which is anonymous to everyone except their supervisor.
How is this helpful?
This feature allows communication to be given directly to supervisors without directly approaching or reaching out to them.
employee dashboard
This is the employee dashboard. Here teams are able to see the overall mood of the office and engage with one another open posts.
How is this helpful?
Leadership dashboard
This is the leadership dashboard. Here supervisors/managers are able gauge the mood of individual employees as well as the office as a whole.
Leaders can also schedule team activities, nudge employees who’s daily mood raises concern, and manage employee dashboards.
How is this helpful?
It can be difficult for leaders to assist their team if they are not aware of the hardships their team may be facing. Moodcast allows them to monitor each team member and provide a safe space for communication.
Teams receive tips, videos, and updates about their average mood reports to help them maintain a good mental health.
oodcast’s employee dashboard enhances company culture, serves as a hub from company communication, and also helps team members track their mental well-being as well as that of their peers.
Reflection
Working on this project was amazing however the time constraint was a limiting. There are a few things I would like to do if I had more time to work on this project. First, I would create prototypes with responsive designs for a mobile version of Moodcast. Secondly, I would love to test the accessibility of my platform more. Lastly, after adjusting these factors, usability testing would be my next step to help me uncover what can be improved within my prototype.