Indiana University
6 Weeks
Sketch
InVision
Blender
Principle
Akshay Yelmar
Ashish Durgude
Abhinav Sikharam
As a UX Designer, I contributed to data collection, problem framing, ideation, prototyping, and evaluation. I led the visual designs while creating the interactive prototype.
The physical inactivity in white-collar workers is observed mainly due to the sedentary jobs, making it challenging to stay active during work hours.
According to the CDC,
According to the American Heart Association, sedentary jobs have increased by 83% since 1950.
How might we design a technology to address physical inactivity in a white-collar worker?
GoDesk is a smart desk gadget that nudges the user to sit less by emitting colored light signals. The companion mobile app suggests physical activities to the users and keeps track of it.
The device blinks ambient red light to notify the users if they have been sitting at the desk for too long.
The app recommends various activities to the user based on their sitting pattern and physical profile.
The users can track their activity data using the app. The app interface provides users with simple, meaningful insights.
To come up with the design solution, we followed a non-linear design process that involved learning about the users and problem space, constructing a point of view, ideating solutions, prototyping, and evaluation.
The background research about the problem space helped us familiarize ourselves with the problem and determine what we wanted to learn from the research. We utilized the following research methods to get answers to our high-level research questions.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with the six participants that matched our target user group - 'white-collar workers.' Participants' work ranged from administrative, technical to research and all of their jobs required sitting at their desk.
Key insights from the interviews:
1. Participants often forget to break the continuous sitting pattern
"Oftentimes, I just forget to take the breaks once I am in the flow during work hours."
"On busy days, I'd sit for 1-2 hours straight without even noticing it."
2. The work environment and the schedule limits participants' ability to dedicate time for physical activity during work hours
"I wish I could dedicate some time for walking."
"It's nearly impossible for me to set aside time specifically for any physical exercise."
3. The participants are not aware of the amount of physical activity required for them to minimize health risks
"I have always wondered whether I am doing enough to stay active."
4. Participants felt that wearable technology was too obtrusive and tracking stats are not helpful
"I am tired of seeing all the data and numbers associated with my daily activities... I just want to run!"
"Health apps are tracking everything and it's almost neurotic."
"Okay, it's good that I have access to all this data about my health. What am I supposed to do with that information?"
We also conducted six observations where we observed the behavior of our target users in their context - indoor workplaces. The observations helped us analyze the behavior pattern of the users in the office environment.
Here is what we observed:
Once we finished our data collection, we used the following analysis methods to find emergent themes and patterns and model the key characteristics of the users.
Affinity diagramming session to find emergent themes and patterns among the data.
View Affinity Diagram
User persona to model our target users and capture their goals and pain points.
View PersonaWe discovered the following three key problem areas from our primary research
The long duration of continuous sitting contributes to physical inactivity during work hours.
The workplace structure and the schedules are not ideal for accommodating physical activities.
There is a general lack of knowledge about the health risks associated with sedentary behavior.
We decided to address the problem area of prolonged sitting. Based on the findings, we constructed our point of view and refined our design challenge to the following opportunity statement:
How might we design a technology to address physical inactivity in a white-collar worker?
With this point of view as our guide, we generated a list of ideas. We used dot voting method and a selection criteria to converge on the following three ideas:
A reward-based social platform that encourages users to engage in physical activities at workplace
A desk gadget that reminds the user to get up after a prolonged duration of sitting
An AI assistant as a personal health coach that provides tips for staying active during office hours
For our MVP, we moved forward with the idea of "Desk gadget" as it satisfied our selection criteria and the HMW statement.
We explored various form factors for the device
Once we had a clear picture of how the device and app were going to work together, we materialized our explorations into a prototype.
We conducted the think-aloud exercise with our participants using the prototype. For this, we used the Wizard of oz technique to control the prototype's behavior as per user inputs.
1. When users explored onboarding flow, they had concerns about entering their personal information such as height, weight, etc.
2. User felt restricted by the fixed time duration of the snooze functionality of the device.
3. Users struggled to figure out the units of measurement for entering height and weight.
4. Users want to access the historical data about the activities so that they can track the activities over the months.
5. Users felt that light signals were noticeable but straightforward, and it nudged them to move away from their desks.
6. Users found the insights section helpful.
Overall, the concept was very well received by the users, and we gained actionable insights from our evaluations.
I learned how to deliver a user-centered solution while envisioning the end to end product strategy.
When we had multiple design directions to choose from, it was tempting to add more features. However, I learned the importance of feature prioritization to focus on one core functionality that defined the MVP.