Research and Service Design
Professional Project
The Humana Zoom Rooms project addressed the need for enhanced virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. It involved developing state-of-the-art Zoom Rooms to merge virtual and physical meeting spaces, aiming to improve engagement and elevate the overall meeting experience in a changing workplace environment.
Goals
Enhance Meeting Engagement: To foster a culture where team members are eager to utilize the new Zoom Rooms.
Optimize Use of Technology: To ensure the state-of-the-art technology in the Zoom Rooms is fully utilized and appreciated.
Elevate Meeting Experiences: To transform meetings from routine tasks into dynamic, collaborative, and productive experiences.
Objectives
Awareness and Education: Increase awareness among employees about the features and benefits of the Zoom Rooms. Develop and implement a training program to educate team members on how to effectively use the technology.
Feedback and Adaptation: Establish a feedback mechanism to gather employee insights on their experiences in the Zoom Rooms. Use this feedback to make iterative improvements to both the technology and the usage guidelines.
Incentivization: Create incentives for teams to use Zoom Rooms. This could include recognition for the most innovative use of the technology or rewards for teams demonstrating high engagement and productivity in these spaces.
Cultural Integration: Develop strategies to integrate the use of Zoom Rooms into the company's meeting culture, ensuring it aligns with and supports organizational values and work practices.
Measurement of Success: Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as usage frequency, meeting effectiveness, employee satisfaction, and technology utilization rates to measure the success of the Zoom Rooms initiative.
Problem
Amidst the COVID storm, Humana crafted state-of-the-art Zoom Rooms, bridging the gap between the virtual and the physical. The question pulsing at the heart of these innovations was:
How might we ignite the desire in our teams to step into these spaces, harness the power of this premium technology, and elevate the art of meetings?
Role and Responsibilities
Role:
As a Design Researcher, Service Designer, and Technologist on the Humana Zoom Rooms project, my role was to analyze user needs, design an integrated end-to-end meeting experience, and ensure seamless technology implementation, ultimately enhancing the virtual meeting experience for employees.
Responsibilities:
Plan & Lead interviews with internal employees and managers.
Facilitate my team’s understanding of technology
Facilitate Lego Serious Play workshop and Service Scenario Walkthroughs
Develop storyboards to help engineering team understand new touch-points
Outcomes
Meeting Challenges + Opportunities + Scenarios
Uncovered various challenges and opportunities with Humana team in a two-day workshop at Louisville headquarters and interviews with various employees.
These later laid the foundations for various hypotheses which were tested through Service Safaris and Lego Serious Play workshops.
End-to End Journey of Meetings
Mapped out the user's end-to-end journey, encompassing the different stages of meetings across diverse scenarios (in-person, hybrid, remote).
This journey map illuminated several areas where users encountered obstacles, pinpointing where additional touchpoints/aids were essential for facilitating smooth meeting experiences.
Ideal + Expected Scenarios
Defined Ideal and Expected scenarios through a day long Lego Serious Play workshop.
Users built lego models of ‘what an ideal meeting room should look like’ for them.
This also helped uncover what the various rooms within Humana offices were missing, that would help alleviate meeting experiences for employees.
PROVOtypes for Service Safaris in Scenarios
Created various low-fidelity touchpoint prototypes based on hypotheses to provocate and observe user behavior in various scenarios.
Users interacted with prototypes by adding notes about challenges and expectations.
Low-Fidelity Phygital Prototypes
Created low-fidelity phygital prototypes of Meeting Room Maps and Room Availability Displays, based on insights from research and workshops.
These prototypes were intended to show what was missing in the experience.
Storyboards
Designed storyboards to convey user’s feelings to the engineering team to help them understand and feel the struggles of the employees.
The storyboards were a part of the final deliverable to Humana, which included various touchpoints (that were missing from the current experience) needed throughout the meeting experience to alleviate the struggles of the employees.
Learnings and Challenges
Including the engineering team in Service Safari was a mistake.
By including the engineering team in the Service Safari, we erred. And we learned this the hard way:
The engineering team members were experts of technology. They knew how everything worked. The users didn’t.
This led to them prompting the user when they were stuck and hindered our observations as sometimes we couldn’t observe their actual struggles and workarounds.
We were later able to instruct them to strictly not prompt the users when in scenarios.
Conducting an in-person workshop during COVID was not easy.
We, as a team, were very well prepared for the workshop. But we underestimated the challenges from COVID:
On the day of the workshop, one of our team members tested positive for COVID.
The rest of the team was hence not allowed to enter the office buildings.
But we adapted and quickly got at-home tests and were later cleared to conduct the workshops.
Process
Qualitative Research
Goals
Understanding User Needs and Preferences: To gain deep insights into how employees feel about current meeting practices and what they expect or desire from virtual meeting spaces like Zoom Rooms.
Exploring User Experiences and Perceptions: To investigate employees' experiences with existing meeting technologies and their perceptions of the new Zoom Room setup, focusing on aspects like ease of use, comfort, and engagement.
Identifying Barriers and Opportunities: To uncover any challenges or barriers employees face in using virtual meeting technology and identify opportunities for improving the user experience in Zoom Rooms.
Evaluating the Impact of Physical and Digital Interfaces: To assess how the design and functionality of the Zoom Rooms' physical and digital interfaces affect user interaction and meeting effectiveness.
Capturing Feedback on Service Design: To gather qualitative feedback on the end-to-end service design of Zoom Rooms, from booking to post-meeting processes, to ensure a seamless and satisfying user journey.
Stakeholder Workshop
Engaged key stakeholders in interactive sessions to gather insights on organizational goals, expectations from Zoom Rooms, and perspectives on improving meeting experiences.
Outcome: Developed a comprehensive understanding of organizational objectives and stakeholder expectations, informing the design and implementation strategy for the Zoom Rooms.
Employee Interviews
Conducted one-on-one interviews with employees to delve into their personal experiences, preferences, and challenges with virtual meetings.
Outcome: Gained nuanced insights into employee needs and pain points, leading to user-centric modifications in the Zoom Room design and features.
Lego Serious Play Workshop with Employees
Facilitated a creative and hands-on workshop using Lego bricks, enabling employees to express their ideas and feelings about virtual meetings in a tangible, playful manner.
Outcome: Uncovered innovative ideas and emotional responses that might not emerge in traditional interviews, offering unique perspectives on enhancing the Zoom Room experience.
Service Safaris
Involved employees in real-life explorations of existing meeting environments and technologies, observing their interactions and gathering feedback in situ.
Outcome: Identified best practices and common issues in current meeting setups, providing practical insights for refining the Zoom Room experience.
Design
End-To-End Journey Map
Detailed visualization of the user's complete journey with Zoom Rooms, highlighting key interactions and touchpoints from room booking to post-meeting follow-ups, to identify opportunities for enhancing the user experience.
Digital Prototypes
Interactive models of the Zoom Rooms' digital interfaces, enabling testing and iteration of layout, usability, and features based on user feedback and technical requirements.
Storyboards
Visual narratives depicting typical scenarios of employee interaction with Zoom Rooms, used to communicate and refine the intended user experience and service flow.
Success Metrics:
User Satisfaction Scores
Measuring the satisfaction levels of employees with the overall Zoom Room experience, obtained through surveys and feedback forms.
Adoption Rate
Tracking the frequency and number of employees using Zoom Rooms compared to other meeting options, indicating the acceptance and preference for the new setup.
Error Rate in Room Booking and Usage
Monitoring the frequency of issues or errors encountered by users in booking and operating Zoom Rooms, with a goal of minimal error rates.
Impact
12,000 employees return to office and conduct meetings seamlessly, through new meeting guidelines.
Around 12,000 of Humana's employees returned to their Downtown Louisville offices, where updated meeting rooms awaited them. Source
Humana also sees the coming quandary of balancing efforts to get employees back into the office and allowing them to work from home — which many office workers have built their lives around for more than a year — as a key workforce issue. Source
Research and Service Design
Professional Project
The Humana Zoom Rooms project addressed the need for enhanced virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. It involved developing state-of-the-art Zoom Rooms to merge virtual and physical meeting spaces, aiming to improve engagement and elevate the overall meeting experience in a changing workplace environment.
Goals
Enhance Meeting Engagement: To foster a culture where team members are eager to utilize the new Zoom Rooms.
Optimize Use of Technology: To ensure the state-of-the-art technology in the Zoom Rooms is fully utilized and appreciated.
Elevate Meeting Experiences: To transform meetings from routine tasks into dynamic, collaborative, and productive experiences.
Objectives
Awareness and Education: Increase awareness among employees about the features and benefits of the Zoom Rooms. Develop and implement a training program to educate team members on how to effectively use the technology.
Feedback and Adaptation: Establish a feedback mechanism to gather employee insights on their experiences in the Zoom Rooms. Use this feedback to make iterative improvements to both the technology and the usage guidelines.
Incentivization: Create incentives for teams to use Zoom Rooms. This could include recognition for the most innovative use of the technology or rewards for teams demonstrating high engagement and productivity in these spaces.
Cultural Integration: Develop strategies to integrate the use of Zoom Rooms into the company's meeting culture, ensuring it aligns with and supports organizational values and work practices.
Measurement of Success: Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as usage frequency, meeting effectiveness, employee satisfaction, and technology utilization rates to measure the success of the Zoom Rooms initiative.
Problem
Amidst the COVID storm, Humana crafted state-of-the-art Zoom Rooms, bridging the gap between the virtual and the physical. The question pulsing at the heart of these innovations was:
How might we ignite the desire in our teams to step into these spaces, harness the power of this premium technology, and elevate the art of meetings?
Role and Responsibilities
Role:
As a Design Researcher, Service Designer, and Technologist on the Humana Zoom Rooms project, my role was to analyze user needs, design an integrated end-to-end meeting experience, and ensure seamless technology implementation, ultimately enhancing the virtual meeting experience for employees.
Responsibilities:
Plan & Lead interviews with internal employees and managers.
Facilitate my team’s understanding of technology
Facilitate Lego Serious Play workshop and Service Scenario Walkthroughs
Develop storyboards to help engineering team understand new touch-points
Outcomes
Meeting Challenges + Opportunities + Scenarios
Uncovered various challenges and opportunities with Humana team in a two-day workshop at Louisville headquarters and interviews with various employees.
These later laid the foundations for various hypotheses which were tested through Service Safaris and Lego Serious Play workshops.
End-to End Journey of Meetings
Mapped out the user's end-to-end journey, encompassing the different stages of meetings across diverse scenarios (in-person, hybrid, remote).
This journey map illuminated several areas where users encountered obstacles, pinpointing where additional touchpoints/aids were essential for facilitating smooth meeting experiences.
Ideal + Expected Scenarios
Defined Ideal and Expected scenarios through a day long Lego Serious Play workshop.
Users built lego models of ‘what an ideal meeting room should look like’ for them.
This also helped uncover what the various rooms within Humana offices were missing, that would help alleviate meeting experiences for employees.
PROVOtypes for Service Safaris in Scenarios
Created various low-fidelity touchpoint prototypes based on hypotheses to provocate and observe user behavior in various scenarios.
Users interacted with prototypes by adding notes about challenges and expectations.
Low-Fidelity Phygital Prototypes
Created low-fidelity phygital prototypes of Meeting Room Maps and Room Availability Displays, based on insights from research and workshops.
These prototypes were intended to show what was missing in the experience.
Storyboards
Designed storyboards to convey user’s feelings to the engineering team to help them understand and feel the struggles of the employees.
The storyboards were a part of the final deliverable to Humana, which included various touchpoints (that were missing from the current experience) needed throughout the meeting experience to alleviate the struggles of the employees.
Learnings and Challenges
Including the engineering team in Service Safari was a mistake.
By including the engineering team in the Service Safari, we erred. And we learned this the hard way:
The engineering team members were experts of technology. They knew how everything worked. The users didn’t.
This led to them prompting the user when they were stuck and hindered our observations as sometimes we couldn’t observe their actual struggles and workarounds.
We were later able to instruct them to strictly not prompt the users when in scenarios.
Conducting an in-person workshop during COVID was not easy.
We, as a team, were very well prepared for the workshop. But we underestimated the challenges from COVID:
On the day of the workshop, one of our team members tested positive for COVID.
The rest of the team was hence not allowed to enter the office buildings.
But we adapted and quickly got at-home tests and were later cleared to conduct the workshops.
Process
Qualitative Research
Goals
Understanding User Needs and Preferences: To gain deep insights into how employees feel about current meeting practices and what they expect or desire from virtual meeting spaces like Zoom Rooms.
Exploring User Experiences and Perceptions: To investigate employees' experiences with existing meeting technologies and their perceptions of the new Zoom Room setup, focusing on aspects like ease of use, comfort, and engagement.
Identifying Barriers and Opportunities: To uncover any challenges or barriers employees face in using virtual meeting technology and identify opportunities for improving the user experience in Zoom Rooms.
Evaluating the Impact of Physical and Digital Interfaces: To assess how the design and functionality of the Zoom Rooms' physical and digital interfaces affect user interaction and meeting effectiveness.
Capturing Feedback on Service Design: To gather qualitative feedback on the end-to-end service design of Zoom Rooms, from booking to post-meeting processes, to ensure a seamless and satisfying user journey.
Stakeholder Workshop
Engaged key stakeholders in interactive sessions to gather insights on organizational goals, expectations from Zoom Rooms, and perspectives on improving meeting experiences.
Outcome: Developed a comprehensive understanding of organizational objectives and stakeholder expectations, informing the design and implementation strategy for the Zoom Rooms.
Employee Interviews
Conducted one-on-one interviews with employees to delve into their personal experiences, preferences, and challenges with virtual meetings.
Outcome: Gained nuanced insights into employee needs and pain points, leading to user-centric modifications in the Zoom Room design and features.
Lego Serious Play Workshop with Employees
Facilitated a creative and hands-on workshop using Lego bricks, enabling employees to express their ideas and feelings about virtual meetings in a tangible, playful manner.
Outcome: Uncovered innovative ideas and emotional responses that might not emerge in traditional interviews, offering unique perspectives on enhancing the Zoom Room experience.
Service Safaris
Involved employees in real-life explorations of existing meeting environments and technologies, observing their interactions and gathering feedback in situ.
Outcome: Identified best practices and common issues in current meeting setups, providing practical insights for refining the Zoom Room experience.
Design
End-To-End Journey Map
Detailed visualization of the user's complete journey with Zoom Rooms, highlighting key interactions and touchpoints from room booking to post-meeting follow-ups, to identify opportunities for enhancing the user experience.
Digital Prototypes
Interactive models of the Zoom Rooms' digital interfaces, enabling testing and iteration of layout, usability, and features based on user feedback and technical requirements.
Storyboards
Visual narratives depicting typical scenarios of employee interaction with Zoom Rooms, used to communicate and refine the intended user experience and service flow.
Success Metrics:
User Satisfaction Scores
Measuring the satisfaction levels of employees with the overall Zoom Room experience, obtained through surveys and feedback forms.
Adoption Rate
Tracking the frequency and number of employees using Zoom Rooms compared to other meeting options, indicating the acceptance and preference for the new setup.
Error Rate in Room Booking and Usage
Monitoring the frequency of issues or errors encountered by users in booking and operating Zoom Rooms, with a goal of minimal error rates.
Impact
12,000 employees return to office and conduct meetings seamlessly, through new meeting guidelines.
Around 12,000 of Humana's employees returned to their Downtown Louisville offices, where updated meeting rooms awaited them. Source
Humana also sees the coming quandary of balancing efforts to get employees back into the office and allowing them to work from home — which many office workers have built their lives around for more than a year — as a key workforce issue. Source
Research and Service Design
Professional Project
The Humana Zoom Rooms project addressed the need for enhanced virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. It involved developing state-of-the-art Zoom Rooms to merge virtual and physical meeting spaces, aiming to improve engagement and elevate the overall meeting experience in a changing workplace environment.
Goals
Enhance Meeting Engagement: To foster a culture where team members are eager to utilize the new Zoom Rooms.
Optimize Use of Technology: To ensure the state-of-the-art technology in the Zoom Rooms is fully utilized and appreciated.
Elevate Meeting Experiences: To transform meetings from routine tasks into dynamic, collaborative, and productive experiences.
Objectives
Awareness and Education: Increase awareness among employees about the features and benefits of the Zoom Rooms. Develop and implement a training program to educate team members on how to effectively use the technology.
Feedback and Adaptation: Establish a feedback mechanism to gather employee insights on their experiences in the Zoom Rooms. Use this feedback to make iterative improvements to both the technology and the usage guidelines.
Incentivization: Create incentives for teams to use Zoom Rooms. This could include recognition for the most innovative use of the technology or rewards for teams demonstrating high engagement and productivity in these spaces.
Cultural Integration: Develop strategies to integrate the use of Zoom Rooms into the company's meeting culture, ensuring it aligns with and supports organizational values and work practices.
Measurement of Success: Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as usage frequency, meeting effectiveness, employee satisfaction, and technology utilization rates to measure the success of the Zoom Rooms initiative.
Problem
Amidst the COVID storm, Humana crafted state-of-the-art Zoom Rooms, bridging the gap between the virtual and the physical. The question pulsing at the heart of these innovations was:
How might we ignite the desire in our teams to step into these spaces, harness the power of this premium technology, and elevate the art of meetings?
Role and Responsibilities
Role:
As a Design Researcher, Service Designer, and Technologist on the Humana Zoom Rooms project, my role was to analyze user needs, design an integrated end-to-end meeting experience, and ensure seamless technology implementation, ultimately enhancing the virtual meeting experience for employees.
Responsibilities:
Plan & Lead interviews with internal employees and managers.
Facilitate my team’s understanding of technology
Facilitate Lego Serious Play workshop and Service Scenario Walkthroughs
Develop storyboards to help engineering team understand new touch-points
Outcomes
Meeting Challenges + Opportunities + Scenarios
Uncovered various challenges and opportunities with Humana team in a two-day workshop at Louisville headquarters and interviews with various employees.
These later laid the foundations for various hypotheses which were tested through Service Safaris and Lego Serious Play workshops.
End-to End Journey of Meetings
Mapped out the user's end-to-end journey, encompassing the different stages of meetings across diverse scenarios (in-person, hybrid, remote).
This journey map illuminated several areas where users encountered obstacles, pinpointing where additional touchpoints/aids were essential for facilitating smooth meeting experiences.
Ideal + Expected Scenarios
Defined Ideal and Expected scenarios through a day long Lego Serious Play workshop.
Users built lego models of ‘what an ideal meeting room should look like’ for them.
This also helped uncover what the various rooms within Humana offices were missing, that would help alleviate meeting experiences for employees.
PROVOtypes for Service Safaris in Scenarios
Created various low-fidelity touchpoint prototypes based on hypotheses to provocate and observe user behavior in various scenarios.
Users interacted with prototypes by adding notes about challenges and expectations.
Low-Fidelity Phygital Prototypes
Created low-fidelity phygital prototypes of Meeting Room Maps and Room Availability Displays, based on insights from research and workshops.
These prototypes were intended to show what was missing in the experience.
Storyboards
Designed storyboards to convey user’s feelings to the engineering team to help them understand and feel the struggles of the employees.
The storyboards were a part of the final deliverable to Humana, which included various touchpoints (that were missing from the current experience) needed throughout the meeting experience to alleviate the struggles of the employees.
Learnings and Challenges
Including the engineering team in Service Safari was a mistake.
By including the engineering team in the Service Safari, we erred. And we learned this the hard way:
The engineering team members were experts of technology. They knew how everything worked. The users didn’t.
This led to them prompting the user when they were stuck and hindered our observations as sometimes we couldn’t observe their actual struggles and workarounds.
We were later able to instruct them to strictly not prompt the users when in scenarios.
Conducting an in-person workshop during COVID was not easy.
We, as a team, were very well prepared for the workshop. But we underestimated the challenges from COVID:
On the day of the workshop, one of our team members tested positive for COVID.
The rest of the team was hence not allowed to enter the office buildings.
But we adapted and quickly got at-home tests and were later cleared to conduct the workshops.
Process
Qualitative Research
Goals
Understanding User Needs and Preferences: To gain deep insights into how employees feel about current meeting practices and what they expect or desire from virtual meeting spaces like Zoom Rooms.
Exploring User Experiences and Perceptions: To investigate employees' experiences with existing meeting technologies and their perceptions of the new Zoom Room setup, focusing on aspects like ease of use, comfort, and engagement.
Identifying Barriers and Opportunities: To uncover any challenges or barriers employees face in using virtual meeting technology and identify opportunities for improving the user experience in Zoom Rooms.
Evaluating the Impact of Physical and Digital Interfaces: To assess how the design and functionality of the Zoom Rooms' physical and digital interfaces affect user interaction and meeting effectiveness.
Capturing Feedback on Service Design: To gather qualitative feedback on the end-to-end service design of Zoom Rooms, from booking to post-meeting processes, to ensure a seamless and satisfying user journey.
Stakeholder Workshop
Engaged key stakeholders in interactive sessions to gather insights on organizational goals, expectations from Zoom Rooms, and perspectives on improving meeting experiences.
Outcome: Developed a comprehensive understanding of organizational objectives and stakeholder expectations, informing the design and implementation strategy for the Zoom Rooms.
Employee Interviews
Conducted one-on-one interviews with employees to delve into their personal experiences, preferences, and challenges with virtual meetings.
Outcome: Gained nuanced insights into employee needs and pain points, leading to user-centric modifications in the Zoom Room design and features.
Lego Serious Play Workshop with Employees
Facilitated a creative and hands-on workshop using Lego bricks, enabling employees to express their ideas and feelings about virtual meetings in a tangible, playful manner.
Outcome: Uncovered innovative ideas and emotional responses that might not emerge in traditional interviews, offering unique perspectives on enhancing the Zoom Room experience.
Service Safaris
Involved employees in real-life explorations of existing meeting environments and technologies, observing their interactions and gathering feedback in situ.
Outcome: Identified best practices and common issues in current meeting setups, providing practical insights for refining the Zoom Room experience.
Design
End-To-End Journey Map
Detailed visualization of the user's complete journey with Zoom Rooms, highlighting key interactions and touchpoints from room booking to post-meeting follow-ups, to identify opportunities for enhancing the user experience.
Digital Prototypes
Interactive models of the Zoom Rooms' digital interfaces, enabling testing and iteration of layout, usability, and features based on user feedback and technical requirements.
Storyboards
Visual narratives depicting typical scenarios of employee interaction with Zoom Rooms, used to communicate and refine the intended user experience and service flow.
Success Metrics:
User Satisfaction Scores
Measuring the satisfaction levels of employees with the overall Zoom Room experience, obtained through surveys and feedback forms.
Adoption Rate
Tracking the frequency and number of employees using Zoom Rooms compared to other meeting options, indicating the acceptance and preference for the new setup.
Error Rate in Room Booking and Usage
Monitoring the frequency of issues or errors encountered by users in booking and operating Zoom Rooms, with a goal of minimal error rates.
Impact
12,000 employees return to office and conduct meetings seamlessly, through new meeting guidelines.
Around 12,000 of Humana's employees returned to their Downtown Louisville offices, where updated meeting rooms awaited them. Source
Humana also sees the coming quandary of balancing efforts to get employees back into the office and allowing them to work from home — which many office workers have built their lives around for more than a year — as a key workforce issue. Source
