Deskless Work Communication App
INTRODUCTION
Communication is such an important element to any workspace. Without it, it can hurt a company significantly. With 70% of employees today working deskless jobs, it’s imperative that employees and employers have a means of communicating with each other.
The Problem
I noticed at my place of work, which is a retail store, that communication between employers and employees seemed to be all over the place. It was then when I realized what the problem was: there was a lack of effective communication within a retail workspace. I decided I wanted to find a possible solution to allow employers and employees to communicate more efficiently, so I dove into my research.
DESIGN PROCESS OVERVIEW
Diving into Secondary Research
I began conducting my secondary research. My sources revealed that there is room for improvement in a retail setting. One source revealed that 90% of employers said there is a need to talk to employees daily, however only 54% of the employees agreed that they received regular updates.
Another source revealed insight that confirmed my theory in how I was going to improve communication between employers and employees:
“70% of employees today don’t work at a desk. In order to reach everybody, especially in such a dispersed business as retail, communication has to go digital”
If I were to make improvements in communication, I was going to make a communication app.
Survey
From here, I started my primary research. To start, I conducted a screener survey using Google Forms. I wanted five participants who currently worked in retail, have worked in a retail setting for at least a year, had basic tech skills, and thought communication was important.
It was now time to start on day 2. Before I began on my sketching, I had to start out with my lightning demo. However, since I was a team of one on this sprint, I wasn’t sharing my findings with anyone else. With this in mind, I began to scour the internet for examples. I came back with five websites: Petfinder, Humane Society, Adopt a Pet, the Iams dog breed quiz, and the Dogtime breed selector quiz. They all seemed to have a simple layout, which I liked.
I also found it interesting that Petfinder also had a pet matching quiz. However, their quiz appeared and disappeared throughout my journey on the website. If I wanted to do it again, it was a challenge to find. I really liked the information section Adopt a Pet had for each dog, which let the user know important information that most users look for, such as if a dog is spayed/neutered, good with children, housebroken, ect.
The Humane Society website also had a similar feature, which was set up a little differently. What they did was create an “attributes” section, which showed off some of the important stuff, as well as a little bit about the dog's personality, such as “couch potato”.
The breed quizzes from Iams and Dogtime allowed me to look at different layouts for a possible quiz. In Dogtime specifically, I like how it gave the user random facts about dogs concerning different questions, which allowed the user to make a more informed decision about their answer.
It was now time to move onto my crazy 8s sketches. I tried to grab insights and inspiration from all of my research to help me when working on these sketches.
Interviews
With my participants chosen from my screener survey, I began to schedule interviews. I found five participants to interview. Of the five participants I found, four were employees, and one was a manager. They were a mix of male and female, and ages ranged between 27 and 45.
During the interview process, I asked my participants about their experience with communication between their coworkers and managers. I wanted to know how they communicated, as well as if they felt their communication needs were met. In addition, I asked them how they communicate outside of work, as well as their communication preferences. My final question was a hypothetical question to see how they felt about a potential communication app being implemented at their place of work.
Affinity Mapping
It was now time to review my interviews and work on my affinity mapping. I sorted my sticky notes into six different groups: Apps, Effective Communication, Features, Negative Communication, Hypothetical Retail Social App, and Current Communication. I noticed current forms of communication seemed to be all over the place. My participants all agreed that some sort of vocal or written form of communication would be preferred. They all wanted something that was simple, quick, and easy to use when it came to features in apps that they used in their personal life. When it came to asking about a hypothetical retail communication app, there were mixed responses. Most thought it could potentially help for the better, and lead to less confusion. Others felt it either wasn’t necessary, or there was concern there would be some miscommunication or resistance by those afraid of technology.
Empathy Mapping
I began to analyze my research and created empathy maps to help figure out what type of users I would be designing for. I used direct quotes from participants I interviewed, as well as insights and observations.
Who am I Designing For?
After looking over my research, I designed three personas. These personas were not based off of any specific person, but based off of the concerns of the participants, as well as what the participants wanted to gain from a communication experience with their employers or employees.
JTBDs
Now that the bulk of my research was completed, I began to work on Jobs to Be Done (JTBDs), to help me focus on the solution I wanted for this project.
How Might We Questions
After going over my research, I began to think about how I could organize my thoughts and narrow down the problem. I wanted to explore:
-
How might we make communication in retail more organized?
-
How might we make communication between employers and employees more convenient?
-
How might we make communication more enticing to those that might struggle with it in a retail environment?
-
How might we simplify getting instructions/job details?
At the time, I was only focused on communication in a retail setting. It has since evolved into a way to improve communication in any deskless work.
Ideation
It was now time to ideate. I used what I have learned from my research to help me create some early, rough sketches of some possible solutions that could solve my How Might We questions.
User Stories
From there, I created user stories, to help me figure out what essential features an early user would need to complete critical tasks.
Sitemaps
My next step was to create a sitemap to help me keep track of all of the screens I will need to create for my communication app. It also helped visually organize my thoughts.
User Flows
I based my user flows on early ideation sketches. Initially, I had placed equipment in the groups tab. However, I decided equipment was too important to have as a group in the groups tab, and thought it should have its own tab. I wanted to try and keep everything as organized as possible, so a user could navigate smoothly around the app.
Sketches
I then began creating sketches, which were based off of ideation sketches. I added more tabs, and began to visualize more of what the equipment tab could look like.
Guerilla Usability Testing
It was time to move onto testing. Before I began my guerilla usability testing, I came up with five tasks to ask the participants to complete. I then created a digital paper prototype with my sketches.
From there, I went to my place of work, and asked five coworkers in the breakroom if they would like to participate. My participants were all retail employees, a mix of male and female, and all in their twenties or thirties. After conducting my testing, a few flaws were revealed. I made notes of these flaws, so I could make improvements when creating my wireframes.
Wireframes
When creating my wireframes, I made quite a few changes. Not only did I use the insights I gathered from my guerilla testing, but I also began to look at other communication apps, such as Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, for examples on the UI design. I also went to Dribble for inspiration. In the end, I cut down on quite a few screens, as well as simplifying the design even more.
Visual Design Process
I began to think more about how I wanted this app to visually look. To do this, I created a moodboard, as well as a logo for the app. It was at this stage that a friend, who is a welder, suggested that this app could potentially work for more than just in a retail setting. I then shifted it from just a retail communication app, to a deskless job communication app.
The logo had a few different iterations before I finally settled on a design. The inspiration came from a beehive. In order for a beehive to function, all of the bees have to work together to keep it functioning and alive. This is true for deskless workers as well, so the beehive theme stuck, and the Hive Communications logo was born.
When creating the moodboard, I kept the beehive theme in mind when thinking about colors, as well as the imagery.
Style Guide
When creating my style guide, I kept in mind what is familiar and in common use for a mobile app. I also ensured that my colors passed a contrast picker test for web content accessibility guidelines.
High Fidelity Mockups
Using my style guide, I created high fidelity mockups. Throughout the process, I kept referring back to Dribble for inspiration, as well as looking at other apps for inspiration to further simplify the design, as well as create something more familiar to the user.
Prototype and Usability Testing
It was time to create the prototype, as well as testing it. In the first round of testing, I had five participants of various ages, genders, occupations (all deskless work). I had asked each of them to complete a few tasks. I scheduled to meet up with all of them virtually, and had asked them to share their screen as I watched them navigate through the prototype of my app.
The results of the first round of testing found four issues, two of which were minor, one was major, and one was critical.
I made changes according to the first round of testing, and moved onto the second round. Again, I chose five participants of various ages, genders, and occupations (all deskless work). They all had the same tasks as the first round of participants, as well as met up under the same conditions. I found one issue during this round of testing.
CONCLUSION
Reflection
In the end, I created a prototype of an app that could help create effective communication within a deskless work environment. It’s simple, familiar, and convenient. Throughout the creative process of creating this app, I learned a great deal about communication, as well as the art of simplification. As they say, less is more. I also learned a great deal about familiarity. Using other apps to ensure my designs were familiar to the user really helped make this communication app easy to use for the user.
What's Next?
Future versions of this prototype will include fixing the issue found in the second round of usability testing. Another round of testing could be done to ensure that everything is in the best state it can be. After that, it will stay a prototype for now.
Acknowledgements
Much thanks to the participants in this study for their help and generosity. I also give thanks to my mentor, Lauren McElroy.