Spacemonk is a tech startup that has built a mobile first, secure platform for collaboration of the entire workforce of desk and frontline workers.
The team had already documented a lot of research on the subject and on ways of working for diskless workers. Thanks to that and an existing beta product, I was able to jump straight into uncovering insights using journey maps and empathy maps. What stood out to me was that users were skeptical about using a mobile application to manage their work. Most of the blue collar industries were dominated by paper-based management techniques, and the shift to a digital platform was both daunting and confusing.
Working with the founders, I defined the renewed direction of the product. I worked on creating personas, user stories and identifying design constraints. Being a startup, team capacities were limited, and so we defined detailed user stories for every sprint.
The new insights uncovered earlier helped me to envision a more friendly product that would trigger engagement. I was inspired by the principles of Game Design to create intuitive environments within the application.
As I jumped into designing the product, I used task flows to help me focus on usability. Using the inspiration from Game Design, I ideated moments of achievement and encouragement throughout the product. I ran workshops with the team to validate my concepts and do a feasibility audit of the ideas. Improving based on the critique, I created wireframes and prototypes. The developers and I collaborated more closely at this point to start building rules in the backend.
We decided to move straight into development and delivery, and use analytics to test the product. The goal was to ship fast and improve future iterations based on user feedback on the live product.
The UI for Spacemonk was minimal with moments of colour. I supported the engineering team to realise the front-end development with regular review sessions. I was unable to work with the team through to launch.
The final product delivered a new way for desk and frontline workers to collaborate more meaningfully everyday.