Remotobot
Your Work From Home Companion
INTRODUCTION
With the shift in many companies towards remote work, ensuring that employees stay focused and productive while on the job is crucial. By understanding the needs of remote workers and the factors that play a role in remote work, we hope to design a product or service to boost productivity so that everyone has the opportunity to do the best work that they can.
OUR TEAM
James Tran
Margaret Hsiao
Shadmani Shaikh
Tiffany Li
PROJECT DURATION
This project took place over a period of 10 weeks from September to December 2022 for the HCDE 518 (User-Centered Design) course at the University of Washington.
OUR DESIGN QUESTION
““How can we improve productivity for remote workers in their 20s who are living alone?””
USER RESEARCH
We conducted research to answer our design question. Our main goals when doing research were to identify what remote workers need to be productive, what factors impact productivity, and how people define productivity. We ran diary studies, conducted interviews, and administered surveys to address these goals.
Following the conclusion of our research methods, we gathered all of the qualitative data and began to analyze it to look for themes and patterns. By creating an affinity diagram, we were better able to visualize and understand the commonalities within the user data gathered from the three methods used.
Affinity diagram of the qualitative data we gathered
KEY FINDINGS
From our user research, we identified four major findings:
1. Productivity is defined as how much progress they make within a set amount of time
2. Having goals creates motivation to be productive
3. Enjoyment can indirectly increase productivity by improving mood
4. Phones are a common distractor that prevents people from being optimally productive
PERSONAS
Using our research findings, we constructed three personas to represent our key user segments. We created a primary, secondary, and negative persona and ultimately decided to focus on our primary persona, Harper, to narrow the scope of our project.
IDEATION
We conducted a brainstorming session to sketch possible design ideas to address the problems that our persona Harper experiences during the work day, such as a need for accountability, minimizing external distractions, and maintaining focus throughout the day.
SOLUTION SKETCH
Ultimately, we decided on the robot companion design to move forward with because it would help to address all three of the main problems that Harper experiences with the added benefit of making the overall work day more enjoyable.
We identified three key user flows for the robot companion, which include:
Integrating productivity tools (e.g., Outlook, reminders) with the robot
Voice interactions with the robot
Accountability for the user when taking breaks
PROTOTYPING
We created a mid-fidelity prototype for our robot companion idea. We focused on incorporating the three key user flows we previously identified.
Integration between phone app and robot
Voice interaction with robot
Reminders to alert user to return to work
TESTING & ITERATION
We then brought our prototype to five users and asked them to complete some tasks in order to identify usability issues with our prototype.
The tasks included:
You already have an account with the robot. Please login and sync your Google calendar information with the robot.
Add a task called “prepare presentation” for today by using the robot’s voice UI capability.
Start a timer for the Pomodoro technique using the default settings of 25 minute work time and 5 minute break time.
Create a goal called “complete professional certificate” and check to make sure it has been added.
Based on the usability test findings, we identified the following four recommendations to follow in our next iteration:
Improve visual design
Maximize screen real estate and place most important information upfront.
Improve accessibility
Make text and button sizes larger and easier to read.
Allow For Customization
Provide users options for customization (e.g., UI elements, adding time and priority to items).
Provide Clear Navigation
Have a back button on all pages and support redo/undo.
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
We incorporated the four recommendations above and updated the visual look and feel of our robot design to produce a high-fidelity prototype.
MOBILE APPLICATION UI
Welcome Screen
Sign Up Screen
Integration Screen
Homepage
REMOTOBOT UI
PROTOTYPE WALKTHROUGH
NEXT STEPS
Add a gamification element to the robot (e.g., users get badges for completing goals or to-do items).
Allow users to connect with friends or coworkers through the robot to keep each other accountable.
Enhance personalization to make interacting with the robot a more enjoyable experience (e.g., personalizing notification sounds, customizing robot faces).