Finding some inspiration
I took a deep breath and started from scratch again. Then, I searched for some inspiration for layouts and taking this slower approach made me more confident in believing I’m going in the right direction.
Design principles
Flexible
A structure that adapts to the content in real-time
Accessible
Eye-catching and easy-consumable content
Inspiring
Encouraging users with incentives to ensure interaction
Validation
Paving the way for better unity within the organisation
Note: A collection of all the possible layouts I had in mind.
Flexible
A structure that adapts to the content in real-time
Accessible
Eye-catching and easy-consumable content
Inspiring
Encouraging users with incentives to ensure interaction
Validation
Paving the way for better unity within the organisation
The long awaited result!
Instinctively I began to design, design and design
I quickly realised this was a bad move, so I came to re-evaluate the user-centered methods that got me to this point in the process. Looking back at the persona, I adapted the (highlighted) insights into four design principles to help me keep track of what actually matters in terms of design.
Let’s start this journey
“How might we create more awareness and a feeling of belonging between Youwe and its employees?”
Motivation & context
Youwe Agency
Youwe Agency actively makes e-commerce related websites from begin (design) to end (development).
My clients
Joëlle Voogt & Patrick Hessels from the Design team submitted this project to me during my internship.
youwe wrapped
“In an international company where employees are divided by borders, but united by achievements, this dynamic real-time information feed makes them feel like one and the same”
!
Problem statement
At the end of the year there is still little oversight of the statistics of what an employee has done, for how many hours and for which client(s). Consequently, we see this as a problem that, if not fixed, will result in lesser awareness and a feeling of belonging between Youwels individually and Youwe Agency.
Goal statement
To create more awareness and a feeling of belonging by releasing statistics publicly to Youwels in an aspiring way so that they want to share it. What we want to accomplish by this is to have people start talking about interesting statistics of theirs.
Connecting with the user
These two people have a wider idea and opinion of the Youwe workplace and its departments, which, although very focused on the office in Rotterdam, is a highly important source for me to find out if the assumptions made by my clients are valid.
Aletta Seij (Office Manager of the Rotterdam Office)
Jikky Lam (Learning & Development Specialist)
Note: Insights from the expert interviews and a poll targetted at the employees that says 64% is interested in improving the connection between colleagues.
Getting to know Youwe’s workplace in this way I found three key insights that validate the problem and name a few causes:
Employees will forget if it is always around
Confluence, a website on which updates and announcements are shared among the entire organisation is barely being used, because its usually forgotten thanks to it not being quickly accessible.
(Expert interview with Office Manager, 2023)
Employees will forget if it is always around
Confluence, a website on which updates and announcements are shared among the entire organisation is barely being used, because its usually forgotten thanks to it not being quickly accessible.
(Expert interview with Office Manager, 2023)
Employees will forget if it is always around
Confluence, a website on which updates and announcements are shared among the entire organisation is barely being used, because its usually forgotten thanks to it not being quickly accessible.
(Expert interview with Office Manager, 2023)
Expert interview with the HR department
Interviews with employees
F.O.M.O. (Fear of Missing Out)
What makes employees not forget things? What is important to them?
Inspiration
What doesn’t make employees feel a part of the team?
Statistics
What draws employees to learn about other colleagues and where do they draw the line?
Afterwards of the interviews I evaluated all findings into a compact overview using a persona!
I love to use personas as these make it so much easier for me as well as for clients to identify with the target audience.
It makes our situation less black & white.
The cause is found, but to better understand how I can create a solution I sat down with 11 employees to ask them about their struggles and goals within the company. Furthermore, the findings from the expert interviews brought three topics to my attention to further investigate:
🌟
🥶
📈
Although most ideally I would love to consider all needs and pains for this project, but in order to set my focus on a clearer goal I decided on the following three points:
The work atmosphere is open to both professional and informal interactions
Needs & Goals 3
I don’t want to be bothered with details that are not relevant to my job description
Needs & Goals 1
I am frustrated because it takes me a lot of time and effort to keep track of what is happening
Needs & Goals 2
Note: A persona about the employees of Youwe Agency, A.K.A. the Youwel.
research phase
ideate phase
Concepting with the user
I worked together with employees to let them create their very own storyboard about the answer, solution or idea to the current design question: "How might we help the Youwel with an overview of their work?"
Storyboarding with the user
Note: These are the left-over storyboards of the storyboarding session that received the most praise by participants voting on them.
A total of nine storyboards were created! After asking everyone to vote on their favourites, only five were left over. I took a snaphshot from each of those that had the most striking and interesting elements and categorised them into three different concepts as seen below.
Note: The striking and interesting frames.
Note: 3 concepts, an information hub, employee gallery, and live work items.
What platform can I use as an information hub?
A collection of potential sources of information that is used throughout Youwe were found with the help of fellow colleagues to make sure the information hub wouldn’t be easily forgotten about.
Winning concept: The information hub.
This concept sets out to be actively around and used with the organisation and its employees by making sure you get easy access to all the information, so you don’t need to put in a lot of effort. You could even share things yourself and create more awareness and recognition.
Note: At the time a Vibeboard only displayed an event calendar as seen here.
We use what is already there!
Throughout the Rotterdam Office of Youwe there are seven tv-screens called Vibeboards and of these, six are faced in the direction of several departments.
Employees can easily take a look at these Vibeboards all the while keeping their main focus to their work-related tasks.
Employees seek a more confronting way of accessing information and to let inspiration and support come their way instead of them having to look it up themselves.
design phase
Creating for the user
the finishline
Design result
Company wide
Information feed
Situational
designed