challenge
Bringing people safely back to office in Covid-19 season
Atos partially reopened Europe offices in Fall 2020 and plans to reopen the entire +200 global offices by the end of 2021. While the vaccine is expected to lower the risk of the Coronavirus, the team wants to ensure employee safety by providing a simplified yet systematic 'back-to-office' solution that guarantee employee safety in Covid-19.
User Interviews & Personas
Before diving into how I would design a safety tool, IĀ needed to know what users wanted. I also wanted to understand their psychology prior to returning to office (i.e. are they excited? scared? what makes them feel in such a way?) IĀ conducted five in-depth qualitative interviews. At this stage, it was imperative that I uncovered a range of user insights from both older and younger employees, from those who are single to those who have family members, and those have already started going to the office and who have not.
The goal was to uncover the needs of the target users to help brainstorm appropriate and impactful solutions. IĀ compiled all these interviews and created a few personas to help guide my design decisions and designs.
Key insights from research
- For those who are still working from home (mainly in the US), they are more worried than excited about returning to office. They believe it is better to just work from home than taking the risks when there is still a chance of catching the virus from their commute or in the office.
- For those who have started going back to office (some employees in Spain have started commuting as of September), they are not as concerned about their office reopening. Rather, they are more curious about practical measures, such as learning safety measures relevant for different office space (i.e. canteen, meeting rooms, reception area, etc), staying safe during commute, and maintaining social distance with colleagues in the office, etc).
- Regardless of regions, those who are married or live with other family members are more concerned about returning to office. They wish not to bring any contamination back home.
From here, IĀ created user flows that heavily guided the feature brainstorming phase.
IDEATION
User Flows
With the discovery and tactical goals of the users defined, it was time to map out the user flow to identify each step that must be completed to ensure safe, covid-free environment. Having a visualization of the user experience helped define key features that should be included in the solution.
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DESIGN
Moodboards
Using tools like Pinterest and Dribble, I compiled a moodboard to evoke the right emotions and set the visual guide. The goal was to create a look and feel that was informative yet entertaining so that users could use enjoy using the app without being overwhelmed by the amount of safety guideline information that the app contains.
Sketches and Wireframes
Based on user flow, IĀ started producing simple sketches and eventually moved to creating wireframes that IĀ could test on users. The goal was to test and iterate fast. Countless changes and adjustments took me through countless prototypes that each built on one another making for a more clear and seamless experience.
Final Solution
After the client meeting, I collaborated with my product designer to produce medium and high fidelity screens. For each screen and flow, we based our decision by balancing the usersā need for simple research and the companyās goal to increase user conversion.
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Features and Design
Here are the key features of the solution.
Health condition self-declaration
Users must fill complete the self-declaration form, which asks for recent health condition, travel history, and potential exposure to virus in the past 14 days. The content abides by the safety guideline shared by the CDC.
Invite colleagues for collaboration
When users reserve their office space, they can also invite colleagues for collaboration. This way, users can easily arrange group meeting or discussion if they need to.
Help request
If employees need help, they can reach out to on-site support workers for help. Requests can range from lunch pickup to hygiene product refill if the supply runs out. Users can avoid unnecessary travels and minimize contact with others.
Style Guide
Here is the style guide to maintain consistency in design.
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Product Launch
Atos Safe Office is currently available on both Apple and Google Play app store for download.
Closing
Looking Back
It was very rewarding to design a product that could protect my colleagues in the pandemic season. Here are the key lessons IĀ learned from the project.
Priorities, priorities, priorities
āSince several team members in the Europe office have already returned to office, it was crucial to build the product asap. In order to deliver the result, I created a project timeline and defined key features to focus on by measuring the impact each feature could create. Setting priorities contributed to receiving high user satisfaction rate, and IĀ look forward to making more impact by focusing on other features in the future.
Team collaboration
āWhile designing new features, it was crucial to understand technical feasibility and limitations to keep my design realistic while useful. IĀ would not have achieved this goal without communicating with my developers, who informed me of technical guidelines throughout my design process. Thank you John and Mallory!
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