User Experience Design | Gamification | Design for Change
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Design to help cope with
Social Anxiety
Workmate is an application to enable the designed onboarding process, the newsletter and mindfulness.
An interactive onboarding process is designed to help the new employees who have social anxiety without differentiating them.
Abstract
1 in 5 experiences mental health issues in India, of which social anxiety is one of the most common. People with Social anxiety experience significant nervousness and fear in social situations. Social anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental-health conditions, especially in young adults.
Existing solutions are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Meditation, Art Therapy, Journaling, Exercise and Improv.
As understood from group discussions, Spot-Light effect, fear of Public speaking and speaking to new people often is experienced. Anonymity helped them while interacting and Hobbies created a safe space for them.
Being comfortable with self is the aim to reduce any kind of social discomfort.
Focusing on Improv and journaling form the solutions and the target of young adults, further narrowing to the age group of 21 to 30, the context chosen is an office ecosystem.
The spontaneous, collaborative, supportive nature of improv exercises inevitably result in improved confidence, creativity, social & emotional skills like empathy and personal interaction, while journaling is aimed to encourage users to identify their personality, behavior and thinking pattern in social situations, the Self and Social Self.
As a solution a gamified onboarding platform and service is designed for new employees of the offices. The designed service is a treasure hunt for the tasks and involves improv for icebreaking sessions with the teammates and colleagues.
A wall of together is an installation depicting the people who experience social discomfort, the bar graph made with transparent tube and Badges. The installation creates an awareness and a realization that, ‘You are not alone in this.’
As understood from Service Blueprint, as orientation is a 2 - 3 days process, and the process also requires involving employees other than the newly joined. Hence, the engagement of the platform is to be extended. Newsletter of the happening in the office, stories from fellow colleagues, deep breathing exercise and hobby clubs
The visual language of the digital application that enables the above function reflects harmony and serenity.
Process
1 in 5
experiences mental health issues in India, of which social anxiety is one of the most common.
What is Social Anxiety?
Social anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental-health conditions, especially in young adults.
People with Social anxiety experience significant nervousness and fear in social situations.
It is issue caused by genetic factors, family environment, unhelpful thinking that develops from events and psychological vulnerability.
Introverts recharge and pleasant when they are alone, whereas,
Social anxiety is a fear of social interactions.
Anxiety levels are
Mild anxiety,
Moderate anxiety,
Severe anxiety
and Panic level anxiety.
Common social anxiety triggers include:
Meeting new people
Making small talk
Public speaking
Performing on stage
Being the center of attention
Common social anxiety triggers include:
Being watched while doing something
Being teased or criticized
Talking with “important” people or authority figures
Being called on in class
Going on a date
Common social anxiety triggers include:
Speaking up in a meeting
Using public restrooms
Taking exams
Eating or drinking in public
Making phone calls
Attending parties or other social gatherings
Interviews
"The therapies used to help people with social anxiety disorders are very focused and require therapist to lead them. "
Dr. Sushmita Roy
Psychology Professor
"Most who consult for Social Anxiety Disorder are in the age group of 13 - 30."
"Environment plays an important role in any kind of anxiety experienced by people. "
Ms. Myra Morris
Counselor
Group Discussions
Focus group of 9
(Test was done for Social Anxiety of over 50 participants, to find the participants using the predefined questions)
Inference from discussion:
Anonymity is easier - while communicating with new people
Spot-Light effect makes feel very cautious and uneasy
Public speaking even when, presenting in front of the team or the class is a task.
'Singing are my safe space.' (Hobbies)
Eating alone is mess or restaurant
'Design school let me be who I am, that helped with social anxiety.'
Being comfortable with self
Existing Solutions
Therapists required:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Art Therapy
Guided by professionals:
Meditation
Exercise - indoor / outdoor
Deep breathing sessions
Does not required guidance:
Journaling
Improv
Journaling
Journaling is aimed to encourage users to identify their personality, behavior and thinking pattern in social situations,
the Self and Social Self.
Journaling
Empathy
Self - reflection
Real me vs Social Me
Improv
Improv or Improvisation is an act of spontaneous creation derived individually or collaboratively from a single spark of inspiration. It forces to engage in high-energy interactions in person.
Communication | Awareness | Attention
The spontaneous, collaborative, supportive nature of improv inevitably results in improved confidence, creativity, social & emotional skills like empathy and personal interaction.
Improv
Social Skills
Spontaneous
Reactions
Expression
Communicate
Brief :
Design to help cope with issues faced by mild social anxiety by the young adults using improv and journeling.
Young Adults age group:
13 - 30
Environments :
Offices >
College
Schools
Newly joined employees >
(22 - 30 Age Group)
Anxiety of new experiences
Time taken to get comfortable in office
Help people with social anxiety, without letting them know, or be differentiated.
Re - Brief :
Platform for gamified onboarding using improv and emotion of togetherness
for offices.
Persona :
Primary :
New employee : fresher or mid-senior
Secondary :
Human resource team
Supplemental :
Managers
Customer :
Management team of Companies
Served :
Other colleagues
Negative :
Family and friends
Primary Persona :
Riya Pillai | Age 24 | Interior Designer
Comparative Audit
work management
Various Onboarding tips and solutions are brought to the platform
Integrated with Gmail, dropbox, Slack, etc
Formal platform
No interaction with office or offline space
cloud computing, productivity and collaboration
Collaboration and communication platform - posts, polls, comments, likes etc
Bringing google ecosystem together
No specific onboarding process
No interaction with office or offline space
Instant messaging program
Early access, before joining date
Planning, team discusssions, updates, join multiple groups at a time
No interaction with office or offline space
Stakeholder Interviews
"Right onborading processes make the employee welcomed and increase the productivity. "
Ms. Anushree Sharma
HR Fabindia
"An interactive onboarding is not only important for the new employee, but also for the whole team. It is essential to maintain the dynamics of the team and keep the energy up! "
Ms. Ria Subramanyam
HR IIT Hyderabad
Ideation
Solution 1 - Data visualization with inverted bar graph
Installation depicting the number of people who experience social discomfort, by using Inverted bar graph, made with transparent tube and with Badges.
Keywords :
Awareness
Acceptance
Social Comfort
An awareness is created and a realization that,
‘You are not alone in this.’
Wall of Togetherness
Questions are put for each bar in the graph.
These are indirect questions on social anxiety.
They, who experience the given situations, pick up one badge of their choice from the tube.
Wall of Togetherness
Hence, the empty tubes indicate the people who experience the similar discomfort.
Attach the badge to the bag or desk, reflecting their discomfort.
Solution 2 - Gamified onboarding of new employees
The onboarding process is a treasure hunt!
The QR code for the tasks are placed at various locations in the office,
after completing one task, they are directed to the other.
According to the journaling method of coping with Social Anxiety,
to achieve self awareness, it is important to understand the
self and the social self.
The service designed for onboarding new employees, to help cope with social anxiety and other engagements of the service using an application.
Keywords :
Inclusive
Comfort
Empathy
Reflection
Acceptance of self
Primary Persona :
Newly joined employees entry level / mid-senior
Secondary Persona :
HR, Teammates, Guides, Other colleagues.
Mode of work : Offline
Service Map
Improv Exercise 1
Yes, and..
The ‘Yes’ refers to acceptance – when a player offers an idea, it must be accepted by all other players.
The ‘And’ refers to enhancement – other players must not only accept each new idea, but must add something to it as well, and by doing so further build.
This activity in the context of office onboarding is designed to break the ice between the members of the team and the new employee.
All individuals in the team write a brief about themselves
The briefs are randomly shuffled,
are anonymous,
and are start points of the yes, and exercise.
Others in the team improvise on the briefs one by one.
The new employee sees the interpretation of their brief done by another person and will become comfortable with self.
Improv Exercise 2
Fortunately,
unfortunately..
This activity reflects agreement and imagination.
To meet people from other departments :
1 - with similar personality trait
1 - with different personality trait
1 - new - not mentioned
Conversation starters like :
Where are they from
Zodiac Sign
Favorite Food
Favorite Drink
Wall of Togetherness
Example of the exercise:
Player 1 : Fortunately, I got a surprise letter in the mail today!
Player 2 : Unfortunately, the letter was an overdue bill.
Player 1 : Fortunately, I had just gotten paid that day.
Player 2 : Unfortunately, your hot water heater stopped working, and you had to spend your paycheck to get a new one.
Service Blueprint
As understood from Service Blueprint,
As orientation is a 2 - 3 days process,
and the process also requires involving employees other than the newly joined,
the engagement of the platform has to be extended. Hence,
Newsletter
Posts -
Highlights from office news are posted here. Employees may comment and like.
Stories -
Employees put office related stories. Only interaction to like others stories.
Mindfulness
Deep Breathe -
Exercise to help deep breathe.
Clubs -
Online clubs and information regarding the same can be subscribed.
An application to enable the designed onboarding process, the newsletter and mindfulness.
Customer :
Companies and
decision making management
Users :
Employees - old & new,
Human Resource team
Home page
Profile page before Orientation
Profile page after Orientation
Task Location
Task Introduction
Availability of team
First brief mentioned
Improv Recorded
Flash - Timed task
Fortunately, Unfortunately
To talk to a random person
Project Guide : Prof. Prasad Omkar, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
Project Duration : 2 months
Google Sites
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