ComfortZone
Service Design - OnSite Working Environment
Duration
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June.2022
My Role
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UX researcher
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Service designer
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UX designer(conceptual)
Methods
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User interviews
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Stealth field research
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Design Thinking
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Problem framing
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Concept Ideation
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High-Fi Mockups
Introduction
Encourage remote employees back to office during COVID-19
As a software development company, have been working remotely for over a year because of COVID-19. But the company still built a new headquarter during the pandemic, so the leaders of the company decided to have 80% of the employees back in the office.
Due to this change, leaders are worried this change will increase employee turnover. So as a designer, I need to get along with ways to solve this problem, improving the office environment to support on-site employees.
Challenges & Goals
Most employees do not want to back to the office after adapting remotely
Challenge:
Based on the secondary research, employees are shifting their working habits during COVID-19. Most companies now stay in a hybrid working mode, even encouraging employees to work everywhere.
So recalling employees back to the office from remote is a big challenge.
Goal:
Rethink the employee experience to improve their motivation, productivity, and satisfaction after back to the office, including resigning the office layout to make employees feel as comfortable as possible working in the office.
Research Process
Why employees don't want to back to the office?
Based on the secondary research, I'm thinking about why employees prefer to work remotely rather than back to the office?
So I think the key element to encouraging employees back to being productive is to understand why they don't want to return and to propose solutions to solve their problems.
Then, I did primary research to get insights into employees' attitudes toward returning to the office.
I conducted interviews with 8 remote workers, asking them questions about how they would feel if they needed to go back to the office and listening to their working experience.
Ideation Process
How I get efficient solutions？
Based on the results of the interview, I found out the reasons that employees prefer working remotely. Standing on their side to think about the opportunities and gaps that I can improve the onsite working environment.
The physical environment
The biggest difference between remote work and working in the office is virtual and reality. For in-person work, employees spend lots of time in the office, so the physical environment is important for them.
So, based on the interview analysis, I’m thinking about ideas to eliminate employees’ worries about going back to the office.
Challenges
While I was thinking about how to design a good physical environment, I also considered the drawbacks of implementing it, which could make my design become more perfect.
Then,I recognized combining technology can compensate for these drawbacks.
Design challenge 1
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Have auto temperature detector to support COVID detection
Providing a clean and sanitized workspace seems less intuitive for employees to understand their health considerations.
I decided to set up auto temperature detectors throughout the company. If someone stays at a high temperature, detectors could give an indicator light when they use it. And it still has automatic sanitizer dispensing for hand disinfection
So employees can understand their health conditions under the auto temperature detector’s support.
Design challenge 2
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How to book a private room
If our company provides private rooms, how can employees book a room is the following the question we need to think about.
To better solve this problem, I recommend we can use a third-party system for employees to book online, which is time-saving and straightforward.
If we have enough time and technology, we can build our booking system without relying on third-party software. Data will also be more secure with our system.
Conceptual internal booking system design
Design challenge 3
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What if the private room is fully booked and employees want a quieter working environment?
This is a common situation we might encounter. As I mentioned above, we still can set up some private areas around open working spaces, like having a single desk in a corner.
Of course, privacy is worse than a private room. To create a quieter working area, we can put some products with noise reduction technology to support, like noise-canceling headphones to let employees have a quiet corner even in an open work environment.
Design challenge 4
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How to rationalize the design of these relaxation areas
To keep professional working space, I decided to gather relaxation areas together. The major relaxation areas would be divided into 3 small parts: cafeteria、lounge and fitness center.
Improvements
Good corporate culture can build a long-term healthy and stable relationship with employees
It’s important for leaders and managers to use simple and straightforward ways to communicate with employees, listen to their experiences, show respect to them, encourage employees in decision-making, and care about their mental health.
So companies need to show our care and respect when we require them to change the way they work.
Reflection
Consider all aspects of design rationality and limitations when thinking about design solutions
I found considering limitations and drawbacks while brainstorming ideations could assist me to come up with better solutions and make my design logic is also more complete.
For instance, If I only focus on providing a good physical environment for employees, I can easily come up with solutions to build comfort environment. But I might miss thinking about what additional problems employees might encounter when they are placed in the comfortable environment that I designed for them. So I can’t make a prediction and get along with the corresponding solutions, and my design solutions are not good enough.
Of course, no design solution is perfect all at once! But as a designer, I will try my best to get a better solution based on employees/users‘ needs. Think as much as possible to increase the breadth and depth of thinking.
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