OMA
Office Management Made Easier
OVERVIEW
Managing professional work can get tough. Especially when there are a lot of tasks to do, meeting to attend, and a team to coordinate with. To make these things easier, an idea is developed for a mobile application that lets you do everything, manage everything, and stay updated from anywhere, with a click of a button.
Few features of the app include a work based discussion platform, team chats, coordinated tasks, and project lists, meeting rooms information booking access, food information in office cafeterias, and other colleague information to coordinate carpooling, projects, and plans.
TEAM
Individual
DATE
Sep 2017 - Nov 2017
MY ROLE
• Performed research on Anxiety Disorder and wearable sensor technology via user interviews, SME interviews, literature reviews, and competitive analysis
• Created sketches, wireframes, and various levels of fideli conducted usability tests to iterate ideas
• Conducted 12 rounds of in person and remote usability testing to find usability issues and refine product design
• Lead visual design and created an interactive prototype to present the solution
PRODUCT FEATURES
FINAL DESIGN
Make daily work easier with schedule, notes, live team chat, and automatic notifications
Switch seamlessly between 2 cards on the homepage, one that tracks your daily targets, and other your team's chat group. Also, add tasks and meetings, assign tasks to team members, and check updates easily.
Book Meeting Rooms with ease
Never go searching for an empty room when the client has arrived. OMA provides an updated schedule of meeting rooms, with a list of facilities in each, so that you can book one as and when you want beforehand.
Stay updated with office news and participate in discussions
Stay updated with ongoing discussions on important work place topics, and participate to make a difference in decisions with ease and on the go.
User Research
PROBLEM DOMAIN
The idea originated from my experience while working as an architect. I faced the problems of managing multiple platforms and lack of interaction opportunities, which led to my initiative to make an attempt to solve this issue. To gain further feedback, I conducted interviews amongst my colleagues and found they feel that the problem exists, which they attributed to general corporate culture.
Key Insights
After interviewing 20 people from various levels in the company, and few contacts from other companies, I derived a few key Insights that were common to all. These issues fitted in 3 broad categories.
Ideation
After understanding the problem space and the target user to a certain depth, I created mind maps and diagrams to brainstorm ideas that could help target the problem
First Iteration
After getting my ideas down on paper, and creating a flow for important primary and secondary features, I created wireframes to visualize my ideas, and translated them to low fidelity diagrams for usability testing.
User Testing and Learnings
I conducted usability testing after low fidelity designs on colleagues and realized there were major design problems regarding the primary features and information flow.
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Landing page needs to be redesigned for current tasks, meeting and work status. Social platform is a secondary feature, and need not be given so much importance.
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Not every employee wants a public employee profile and carpooling functionality. It should be on a voluntary opt-in basis.
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The User Interface design and visual design was unimpressive, and not appealing. The clutter needs to be reduced to enhance clarity and appeal.
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Icons need to be reselected for more recognizability. Recognition is faster than recall.
Reflections
The design journey with my teammates and Prof. Fleming was a rewarding and enriching experience. We gained in-depth knowledge about the design process and learned how to overcome problems with research, design, and iteration.
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User research is more than just a first step.
User research is a lot more than a first step. It is the backbone of every design decision you make in your journey. I initially was content with some user research, but during various stages, I found myself conducting more research in search of information to make informed decisions in design.
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The first design is almost always never a perfect solution. Iteration helps, and is essential.
It is hard to let go of first designs, but keeping them intact is a sure shot failure. Explorations and re-iterations based and research and user testing are what plays a crucial part in determining how well the product would serve its users. Working and changing the design direction is better than letting the process stagnate.
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Understand the problem and goal of each step before jumping in action.
Many times, I found myself so eager to start working on the solution, but through the journey, realized that each stage and process has a different aim. The design solution is the last stage, and an important but end stage of the process. Outcomes from each stage are different, and focusing and achieving those targets defines a successful stage completion.