I'm Pengyu Zhang, a UX & Service Designer focused on improving users' social connections. I specialise in revealing the truth about data through logical analysis and combining technology with user experience to design more valuable solutions to complex challenges.
Final Project
Tide: Improving The Social Connectivity of Those Working From Home
Tide is a solution tailored for organisations adopting a hybrid work model, aimed at enhancing the social connectivity and work experience of hybrid staff members. Tide affords hybrid workers increased chances for daily interactions, fostering trust. It aids them in conveying non-verbal cues, simplifying the nuances of hybrid working, and ensures they remain integrated with colleagues, bolstering their professional network and furthering personal career growth.
Persona – Hybrid Hannah
About
Hannah’s work schedule is split between working in the office and working from home. She often works with colleagues online but still finds it difficult to build trust with them.
Goals
- Hannah wants to build trust with her colleagues more easily.
- Hannah wants to improve the experience of communicating and collaborating with colleagues both online and offline.
- Hannah wants more opportunities to interact with her colleagues at work.
Needs
- Reliable digital tools that are easy to use and meet the demands of her work.
- Better solutions for effective online communication and collaboration.
- Creating more communication opportunities and scenarios.
Pain Points
- Communication is difficult due to technical issues and lack of face-to-face interaction.
- Missing opportunities for informal communication with colleagues.
- Challenges in online collaboration, particularly in terms of non-verbal communication and maintaining attention.
Key Insights
Hybrid work creates challenges for communication
What it means
Hybrid work takes away some communication opportunities, while most people face difficulties when doing hybrid work due to technical issues and communication problems.
Why it matters
Communication challenges can cause stress and affect productivity. It is therefore vital to provide users with multi-faceted support to help them face these challenges more effectively.
Hybrid work brings challenges to interaction normal
What it means
Communication, especially non-verbal communication, more challenging in a hybrid work environment. It is also easier to get distracted and ignore others when collaborating online.
Why it matters
Effective communication is key to collaboration, relationship building and overall work productivity. It is therefore vital to enhance the effectiveness and involvement of communication.
Dissatisfaction with digital Tools
What it means
Users are not uniformly satisfied with their digital tools, highlighting a need for improved functionality and user experience.
Why it matters
If users are dissatisfied with their digital tools, their productivity and overall work satisfaction could be negatively impacted. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that these tools are intuitive and meet users’ needs.
UX Vision Statement
I believe there is an opportunity to design a service for hybrid workers in the UK who are negatively affected by weak social connectivity with colleagues to support their general communication with colleagues, reduce the challenges they face when collaborating online, and provide them with working support products/services including digital and physical so that they can link the “home office” and “company office” better, work in an unburdened atmosphere and receive adequate support for their professional career development.
Design Outcome
Scenario – Hybrid Office
Crowd – Seamless daily interactions
Immerse yourself in the crowd experience, where every conversation feels as genuine and free-flowing as if you’re sharing the same office space. With the innovative solution Tide, effortlessly glance at the status and location of colleagues, ensuring you’re always in sync. And with the “knock knock” functionality, approach each chat with the same courtesy and subtlety as you would in person.
Scenario – Hybrid Meeting
Meeting – Elevate your formal discussions
Our meeting spaces are finely tuned for the age of hybrid work. They ingeniously bridge the divide, uniting remote and on-site teammates with a lifelike spatial experience. Delve into richer communications, capturing the unspoken, glean insights from facial expressions and body cues, amplifying understanding and collaboration.
Scenario – Rest Time
Lounge Room – Leisurely conversations reimagined
Welcome to a fresh way to unwind and connect. During Rest Time, video meet-ups transform into vibrant engagements via personalized virtual avatars, creating a laid-back, jovial ambience. With versatile zones like the “Public Area”, “Open Table”, and “Reserved Table”, you have a palette of conversational atmospheres to choose from, catering to every mood and preference.
Tea Point – Breezy chats on-the-go
Tea Point is where spontaneity meets technology. Tailored for the hybrid era, it leverages real-time distance and facial recognition to curate dynamic chat groups for on-site teammates, all presented intuitively in the app. Home-based? Dive in or out at your leisure. With vibrant virtual avatars enhancing the group dynamics, there’s never a dull moment. And the pièce de résistance? For those at home, transitioning effortlessly across devices guarantees that whether you’re brewing a cuppa, soaking in nature, or taking a leisurely walk, Tea Point ensures you’re always just a tap away from lively conversations.
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