Walkme

I designed a wellness app that uses AR-based technology to help people who work from home maintain their mental and physical health.

Role

Research, benchmarking, collaborative interviews, sketches, final screens, prototyping, data visualization

Background

The purpose of this UX course project was to create a native app focusing on wellness in one of the following categories: exercise and fitness, nutrition and diet, meditation, time management, etc.

For my project, I decided to focus on maintaining mental and physical balance while working from home. With the rise of Covid -19, the number of remote workers has increased significantly. While there are some clear benefits, this new situation has also created new challenges. The aim of my research was to identify the main problems and benefits of working from home.

The Outcome

My solution, inspired by the game "Pokemon Go", was to create a game-like AR-based app that would encourage users to walk in a fun and unobtrusive way, without being a fitness app per se, which would presumably increase their well-being as well as their productivity. The user would adopt a digital pet that they would have to take care of - and subsequently take care of themselves.

Research

As part of my research, I have conducted several interviews and a survey, in addition to exploring existing research about home office and its effect on health. The following main issues came to light:

Social isolation

People miss their colleagues, the spontaneous small talk during the day, having someone to ask for a professional opinion, and having lunch with other people.

Lack of work-life balance

There are no clear boundaries between work time and personal time since they happen in the same space- no clear cut after work hours.

Less productive

In the conditions of home office people feel they need to be more self-disciplined to be productive. When they fail at this and get distracted, they feel less productive- which leads to stress and guilt.

Lack of movement

They have fewer reasons to leave the house, as well as no spontaneous coffee breaks with their co-workers. In addition, in times of lockdown, many sports clubs and gyms are closed. Some feel less motivated to do sports activity on their own.All that being said, people are quite happy working from home as there are newly gained advantages: flexibility, saving time on commuting and personal freedom - and perhaps these could assist in coming up with a solution that would improve their mental and physical health.

Persona & User Journey

Defining the Problem

While working from home, our users want to stay productive and use their newly gained flexibility and extra time saved on commuting to improve their health. However, it’s hard for them to stay focused and motivated. They don’t know when to take a break and are not motivated enough to exercise. They have fewer reasons to leave the house because they work from home and they’re alone.

So how might we encourage our users to maintain their physical and emotional health while taking advantage of the flexibility and the extra time they have at home, in a fun, engaging way?

Ideation

Next, I chose an idea and sketched out the content by hand, followed by a site map and user flow.

Wireframes

Final Screens

Takeaways

Covid-19 has created a new reality of remote working that is convenient but requires self-management and motivation. While it may be easier for some people, it can be challenging for others. Looking at the results of my project, I believe that it could help to motivate these particular users in a fun and engaging way, thereby helping them to maintain their wellbeing.