WorkZen: Mental Health in Workplace
It is a project that aims to provide employees with a effective stress management tool to prevent burnouts and maintain good mental health using emerging Mixed Reality technology.
Project Type
Collaborator with VeeR Beijing
Time
2023
Role
UX Designer, Visual Designer, Prototyper
Tools
Figma, Blender, Unity
Overview
Problem & Solution
Overview
Process
Desktop Research
Literature Review
Research has shown that the use of immersive technology is very effective in coping with stress and anxiety, particularly in a stressed workplace environment.
Going through many related literature, I conclude four main benefits of using Mixed Reality (MR) technology in supporting employees mental health.
Desktop Research
Competitive Analysis
There are not a lot of similar products on the market. I choose four representational competitor to compare the products across 7 different feature.
Therefore, it will benefit the users if we provide an immersive experience that is easy to access, affordable, and can be customized to fit individual mental health needs.
User Interview
Observation and Interview
I conducted observations and interviews with 5 company employees and Ph.D. students with workplace stress experience. Through the observed user journey map, I dove deeper to understand their pain points, needs, and design opportunities. Here is one sample Journey Map
User Interview
Insights
Ideation and Design
Brainstorming Use Case
Our targeted users include employees in high-stress environments, such as corporate offices, academia, and healthcare facilities. Particular focus on those with limited time for traditional stress management practices.
Ideation and Design
User Flow
The chart shows the user flow for both first-time users and returning users. New users will have "an onboarding questionnaire" and "a sample session." Returning users will start their working day with "an everyday onboarding" experience, have flexible "stress recovery" sessions in between their work tasks, and close their day with "an everyday debriefing" experience.
Ideation and Design
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Here are some sample sketches made when I was brainstorming the design.
Ideation and Design
Core Experience 1: Everyday Onboarding
The user starts with a brief MR session that assesses their stress levels through smart wearable devices which will send data to the headset. Based on the stress value and the starting time of the first scheduled task of the day, user will be prompted to do a relaxing activity.
Sample views
Ideation and Design
Core Experience 2: Collect and Display Plants
Each activity the user completes will be rewarded with a virtual plant. As the user progresses, their plant grows and evolves, visually representing their stress management journey. Users can interact with the plant, collecting and displaying them to decorate the working environment.
Key Screens
Ideation and Design
Core Experience 3: Immersive Garden
Users also have the option to fully immerse themselves in a virtual garden.
Ideation and Design
Core Experience 4: Everyday Debriefing
Users also have the option to fully immerse themselves in a virtual garden.
Development
Protyping in Unity
After the first round of low-fidelity user testing using Figma, I started to develop the interactions in Unity for future user testing and iterations.
Here is the demo of everyday onboarding and collecting the plant.
Here the fully-immersive virtual garden.
There will be more to come…