01
FUTURE OF WORK
Serendipity in the hybrid workplace
This BMW project presents the why, where, and how of serendipity in interaction design by analyzing three areas that constitute my framework: human factors, human activities, and heuristics. It will deliver the interaction mechanisms required in designing a solution for employee experiences of serendipity in the hybrid workplace.
I've approached the project brief with an iterative and non-linear design thinking process. The outcome is a designed service that facilitates the permanence of routines that allow this specific way of doing things, bolstering personal attributes of curiosity and empathy including organizational values for creativity. This process leads to a by-product of the marriage between a serendipity mindset at the individual and collective level.
Introduction & Project Brief
The year 2020 has definitely been an interesting one for the history books. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed upon us altered our daily life almost overnight. The world has been trying to find ways to cope with the new normal. There have been psychological struggles of apathy, isolation, loss, despair, and uncertainty to name but a few. It is not an easy task for more established and hierarchical companies to make the transition. But digital transformation amongst many other much-needed changes in the workplace that we have long been talking about is finally here.
The project brief was to explore the interaction principles and mechanisms that empower people to work better in the future context. I've decided to focus on serendipity in the workplace. This topic invited me to ask the following questions:
1. When working remotely, how can we create happy coincidences that we see often in the physical offices?
2. How do we create digital space for serendipity and inspiration in between people?
3. How do we facilitate informal communication, casual conversation in the future?
4. How do we build cohesion and company culture in the digital space?
The new workplace is not just about the remote and digital office, it is mostly about the resilience of the workplace ecosystem, seeing that change is inevitable. Looking into the future of work amidst the COVID-19 situation, we are finding ourselves in a new dimension of the working environment, a whole new workplace ecosystem. This third space (at the intersection of a physical office and home office) which I will refer to as the hybrid workplace during this project. Although the hybrid workplace enjoys many of the positive attributes of both the physical and digital workplace, one component is still missing at the moment: physical social interaction, which is the moment where serendipity might spark.
Affordances for Serendipity
3.
Sensoriability
The quality of an object or environment of being perceived by the senses, and the richness of stimuli that are able to be sensed. The sub-affordance of exposure deals with the capacity of a given physical or digital environment to mediate and display contents in ways that can trigger our senses. Essentially it deals with how an environment triggers our senses to make serendipitous encounter happen.
1.
Diversifiability
Our brain is a muscle and like any other muscle in our body it needs exercise to be in a good shape. We need to exercise our brain to keep it sharp and active as much as possible. This can be achieved by simply being more aware of our surroundings (be it people, objects, nature etc.,) so as to continuously gather and process information. And hopefully along the way, draw unplanned connections which lead to serendipitous discoveries.
2.
Traversability
it covers four sub-affordances: accessibility, multi-reachability, explorability and slowability. In the framework, traversability deals with the quality or capacity of a physical or digital environment of being traversable. Simply put, traversability refers to level of ease an environment can traversed and explored. Basically, it is about the ability of an environment to slow you down and “make you smell the flowers”, making you to look closer into details. This is more about the person who is to experience serendipity to keep an unhurried attitude and taking it slow and encouraging exploration.
So far, I have discussed the affordances for serendipity in the environment as well as the personal attributes that support a fortuitous discovery. Next, I explicate the key moments that underpin serendipity. These key moments are what we refer to as the stages of a serendipity pattern. The first stage of the serendipity pattern is the moment you notice the trigger. When it comes to triggers, although they may be completely accidental and unexpected, we can plan for them. It is possible to design for the internal “eureka” moment that happens within us, all the while not needing any external stimuli.
The second stage is the so-called epiphany. This is the moment when the trigger is recognized, and the serendipitous discovery is brought to the forefront. The epiphany is the moment when a prepared mind and opportunity collide, to produce the spark leading to serendipity. Last but not least is the third stage. To be considered serendipity, the discovery has to mean something and have value for the person experiencing it. The value of serendipity takes three forms: serendipity as creativity, serendipity as experience, and serendipity as knowledge. The focus of this project is serendipity as creativity. Therefore I propose an interaction network to implement these stages into every level of the company.
Define Concept & Synthesising
The approach of this project was supported by the adaptation of the double diamond model by the British Design Council and consequentially follows to answer these focal questions:
When working remotely, how can we create happy coincidences that we see often in the physical offices? How do we create digital space for serendipity and inspiration in between people? How do we facilitate informal communication, casual conversation in the future? How do we build cohesion and company culture in the digital space?
Therefore, secondary research combined with a competitive review which included a 6-3-5 brainwriting method and qualitative interviews to constantly iterate and reflect on the project deliverables.
Sketches & Wireframes for "Fluke"
Fluke is a service designed to unleash the joy of meeting like-minded employees. It’s about harnessing the strength in numbers for a social cause you care about. Using Fluke enables you to be the protagonist of your own story as you follow the breadcrumbs of content that fuels your imagination. Unlocking magical moments and sharing them with your growing circle of fluke seekers.
Choosing the perfect color combination for Fluke was a challenging task, especially when the visuals need to be sharp and have the right balance of sub-affordances (i.e., contrasts and pointers) to trigger serendipity moments and delightful user engagement. We settled on different hues being mixed and having varying values of the single color. A complementary palette is suitable for offsetting the aforementioned sub-affordances for serendipity establishing a sense of balance and a kind of “dream state”. The common 60-30-10 rule has been applied to determine the right proportions of the different hues.
Using the design of the star as the basis for the further creative processes of the service many visual attributes were subsequently included in the style guide for Fluke. For example, the triggers and affordances of serendipity. The illustration below shows the process of experiencing serendipity while leaving a lot of space for personal interpretation. The color strokes and contours created by the trailblazing star reflect the marbled and smoky backdrop of the Milky Way. The visualization depicts a type of dream state where we are open to the opportunities the universe has in store for us. It sets the tone for the core attributes of the Fluke explorer. Optimism, self-reflexivity, and a personal predisposition for growth, experimentation, and risk-taking. This prompts the personal factors of the serendipity pattern pre-stage (i.e., the prepared mindset): curiosity, mobility, and sensitivity.
Fluke should emulate the third space (i.e., the hybrid workplace) by creating a fictional world for the user (i.e., the employer) to inhabit. Affordances for serendipity can be built into the digital realm by offering fun, insightful and surprising interaction principles that nudge users to traverse, explore and engage all the senses in an immersive experience. A personalized avatar is a tool to interact with others to experience the value of serendipity. By looking at the design the user should get inspired by the diversity, imperfections, and explorability.
All the digital wireframes for Fluke have been created in Procreate and then developed further with Adobe InDesign. The Fluke style guide was applied in both design programs. This includes the following elements amongst others: the color scheme; the typography (Indie Flower and Quicksand); and the serendipity signifier of the star.
The visuals below show parts of the user journey. Due to privacy reasons and project realization the copious explanation is not provided here.
Fluke is a holistic and integrated service providing an entire eco-system approach to designing for serendipity. The hybrid workplace is sensed, explored, and traversed by Fluke seekers and doers across desktop and mobile applications as well as smartwatch integrations. Not to mention integration with the physical environment by means of digital signages at pop-up events and temporary workstations and pods. As well as a totally immersive sensory experience in HQ with massive multi-media interactive walls that truly makes one feel like you are looking up at the night sky. The scale of the digital wall in HQ ought to be so profound that it heightens opportunities for other sub-affordances of serendipity to be exploited (exposure, cross-contacts, and incompleteness).
Throughout the course of the project, I've used the following programs to brainstorm, ideate, sketch, tell stories and build digital wireframes that served as a final prototype and design outcome: Adobe Creative Suite, InVision, Procreate, Miro and Mindmeister, and Doodly. Sources used to share this article and research have been listed at the very end of the page.
02
SDG 13 Initiative
Employee engagement & wellbeing
The main goal of this project was to provide a fresh perspective in terms of employee engagement in CSR initiatives for Knorr-Bremse. More specifically employee engagement in SDG 13 initiatives. I've decided to tackle the project from an employee wellbeing perspective as it provides an apt lens to empathize with employees at the individual level. I've adopted a holistic behavioral approach to wellbeing, enquiring about the formal and informal practices that impact employee values and behavior with regards to employee wellbeing, engagement, and innovation.
Design thinking forms the foundation for the project approach and informs the research and design process. It consisted of an iterative process of explorative research, interviews with industry insiders, brainstorming, and opportunities to test and learn. The main design thinking method which provided an empathetic vantage point for the project was a virtual workshop with Knorr-Bremse employees.
Introduction & Project Brief
Knorr-Bremse acknowledges that they are facing increasing corporate responsibility expectations due to mounting public interest, pressure from clients to be more sustainable, international legislation, climate change, and scarcity of resources (KB Group, 2020). Knorr-Bremse further highlights the strategic imperative of a solid corporate social responsibility (CSR) vision in order to attract and retain employees as the younger generation want more than a salary from their job. Therefore, employee satisfaction and employer branding are essential. The business case for integrating sustainability into Knorr-Bremse’s CSR framework is clear. Knorr-Bremse regards SDGs as an opportunity and a duty.
By committing themselves to five of the 17 SDGs they intend to play an active role in solving the global challenges of our time. Knorr-Bremse has framed the opportunity as follows “from corporate values to Sustainable Development Goals –from attitude to action.” SDG 12 was the focus in 2019. SDG 13 is the focus for 2020. The following questions formed the basis for the project brief:
How to motivate employees to adopt a sustainability mindset?
How to empower employees to engage with SDGs at work?
How to motivate employees to take initiative, collaborate and innovate?
How to incentivize employees to act sustainably, in terms of SDG 13, at work and at home?
What workplace practices can employees easily adopt, in terms of SDG 13, and how do employees want to be rewarded?
Define Concept & Ideation
1. Personalization Feature
Create a platform or join an existing sustainability network such as SDGs in action where individuals can create their own sustainability challenge and others are free to join. Individuals have the flexibility in setting the type of activity, duration, rules of engagement, filtered by location, closed challenge or open to the public, etc. Ongoing feedback from line managers regarding the everyday sustainability decisions and actions taken by individuals or teams in their department stresses the organizational commitment to SDGs. Recognition is highly personalized from senior leadership.
Employees are supported by personalized virtual consultations for life coaching, trauma counseling, doctor appointments, nutrition, and financial advice, etc. The storytelling of sustainability success and lessons learned is displayed in the office to personalize Knorr-Bremse’s sustainability journey. Provide personalized nudges in a mobile or desktop application regarding ongoing sustainability or wellness progress.
2. Intuitive Feature
Communication is designed to decentralize control and break-down hierarchical barriers. A two-way feedback system allows employees on the ground to submit their sustainability ideas when they think of them and it goes directly into a pool reviewed by the CSR committee. This can be achieved via a mobile application and includes the ability to attach photos for digital submission. For the tech-savvy employees, there is quick response (QR) codes placed throughout the premises on posters and flyers for details on SDG campaigns.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) can also be used on the premise to send push notifications to employees.
This can be done to signal to employees the pertinent issue on the sustainability agenda when the employee is in the vicinity where the issue is visible. The push notification can also provide a link for employees to upload their ideas seamlessly. However, this should be used sparingly and strategically as it can easily be construed as intrusive. Make employee engagement as easy as possible. Spend adequate time piloting different initiatives and harness the insights gleaned from close collaboration to remove pain points and add ‘wow’ moments along with the employee experience.
Empathize.
Consequential, milestones show the imperative of the status quo analysis.
In the next step, it is essential to build milestones that mark the further proceeding in the project and the required information given during interaction with Knorr-Bremse (E.g. meetings, workshops). What has been done due to the internal integration of sustainable processes and employee engagement towards CSR initiatives? Lastly, the requirements are set to know which departments, interviews, or contact members are lacking to support Team A during the project with relevant data.
After the project brief, the brainstorming, and a discussion within the members of the project team, the reflection phase produced the final research question: “How can employee wellbeing programs be leveraged to drive employee engagement in terms of SDGs in the workplace?”. A workshop and interaction with the KB employees was set up and supposed to provide us with their existing sensibility and knowledge about sustainability.
In order to gain as many personal insights and deep knowledge of employee well-being, a playful and connected strategy has been set up. Therefore, a design thinking tool, called MURAL helped to guide them creatively through the workshop and receive the insights needed to continue with the project. The employees involved in this project and workshop were guided and broke into MURAL with the instruction sheet beforehand.
How can the workshop outcomes be conducive to fueling an organizational culture of sustainability?
Traditionally, incentives and recognition have focused on extrinsic motivation – tangible awards, cash, and more. While this extrinsic approach is relevant, behavioral economics proposes that an exclusive focus on the extrinsic misses the bigger picture of human motivation. Therefore, it is important to consider the nature of human behavior which is inherently irrational. Standard economics and, in fact, our default assumption, is that we are rational, when in fact we are not. Both standard and behavioral economics are interested in the same questions and topics. The choices people make, the effects on incentives, and the role of information. However, behavioral economists start by figuring out how people actually behave.
The current insights of the workshop and research into companies show that many of them have entered a purpose-driven era and are now thinking much more deeply about how they create value. It mirrors the importance of approaching the issue of employee engagement from the same vantage point. People are emotional, irrational, and social beings. So, being sustainable relates to all areas of the mentioned aspects before. It is about making sustainable investments for its clients and continues through the support of their employees’ wellbeing. Therefore, it results automatically, that workplace wellbeing initiatives are demonstrating positive business returns. However, higher productivity and increased firm performance are by-products. Improving the bottom line performance is rarely the reason companies begin to take a proper look at the wellbeing of their employees. A lot of businesses introduce wellbeing initiatives because they want to do the right thing for their employees and contribute to supporting happier lives. Additionally, they understand that having a strong and positive culture, assisted through good wellbeing, is a significant factor in the business of success. All in one, employee wellbeing is about protecting your human capital, your most valuable asset. Any organization that ensures its employees flourish and thrive, will always be ahead of the curve. Conclusion by the project team - The recommendation is to create an employee wellbeing and sustainability engagement program tailored to reflect Knorr-Bremse’s CSR strategy with targeted campaigns, recognition, behavioral incentives, and challenges.
Ideation & Prototype
The following principles synthesize the core focus by the project team. First, the knowledge about the importance of personalization for customers and their validation in the daily life routine. The same goes for personalizing the wellbeing initiatives and how a company engages with its employees. Whether the engagement program is driven via an app or another medium or channel, the principle of it being intuitive and easy to use still applies. Well-being and sustainability engagement practices need to be part of everyday life.
The following mood board above represents the envisioned solution through shapes and colors.
The Metaphor.
The metaphor captures the personality of the project brief. It encapsulates ‘the feeling’ of the solution in a way that makes it relatable for everyone. The metaphor can then be translated into key attributes which guide the design thinking process in the ideation and prototype phase. The project team used the metaphor of fractals. A fractal is an infinitely complex pattern of self-similarity repeated across several scales. A fractal tells the story of the process that is created. In terms of employee engagement and organizational culture, a fractal allows us to visually perceive what we cannot put into words. Organizational culture as a fractal is a subtle yet powerful way to connect and collaborate as one. It overcomes the dominant pathogenic vantage point of individuals perceived as separate and detached. A fractal organization celebrates individual diversity as it adds to the dynamism of the overall system but creates pattern integrity through shared purpose and values. Individuals see themselves as a smaller part of the organization at large. Organizations as fractals create dynamic solutions through self-repetition at the smallest scale in an ongoing feedback loop. The smallest scale is the nexus between individual employee relationships. Organizations that devote themselves to participatory decision making, functional resource allocation, employee flexibility in implementation, shared ideation and effective flow of information mirrors nature in its resilience, adaptation, and innovation. As a solution to employee engagement through a behavioral lens, it involves repetition, adaptation, shared experience, and competitive energy. Employees that are empowered to recognize their behavior patterns are better able to replicate the desired outcome and apply the routine to various applications. These simple individual patterns recurring over time give rise to the organizational pattern. The solution as a fractal is characterized by its iteration, interconnectedness, self-reflection, commitment to detail and feedback as well as a continuous process of improvement and expansion.
The logo creation above should describe every aspect of the project and the client’s needs, the single values – personalization, intuitive, inspiring, social, and timely are represented in the five colors grey, blue, green, orange, and red. There is a dynamic within the logo to connect all the colors, shapes, and elements with each other, just as easily, like the sustainable mindset should be adopted. The geographic, modern forms are playful to demonstrate the empowerment and diversity of the interacting parts (in this case the employees).
It literally seems like the single elements are moving and matching to every other part of the logo while reflecting the overlapping areas. This should clearly symbolize integration, continuous development, and the adaption of all influencing factors given by the environment. From this follows, that the logo gives attitude and direction for continuous improvement and the power of repetition within the prototype will make an enormous impact on the recognition value.
Wireframes for the digital engagement platform "Wellbe".
The wireframes are a tangible embodiment of the recommendations which are centered around the core design principles of an intuitive, personalized, social, timely, and inspiring employee experience. The employee experience is designed around intrinsic motivation with the mobile application supporting wellness and sustainability engagement by providing interactivity, continuous learning, a clear sense of path and direction as well as inspiring competence. Simple meditation techniques can increase self-awareness as well as improve job strain and perceptions of social support. Wellbeing challenges provide the optimal learning experience for employees to become more self-reflective about their decisions and actions. Once employees learn the fundamental principles underpinning any habit formation the same tactic can be applied to make their sustainability actions long-lasting. Well-being practices also empower employees to bring their ‘whole selves to work’.
"WellBe" Teaser
03
Christmas Campaign
Online & offline displays
Bohemian Dressing FW 19/20
Inspired by the culture of Nordic folklore and traditional craftsmanship. The nostalgic mood world can be traced back to romantic silhouettes. Warm autumnal shades of red and amber have been combined with offish tones. This combination gets its full effect through the use of high-quality materials such as lace, silk, and crochet elements.
