Case study: A cozy work from home experience
“Creating the best experience out of your bedroom by redesigning on implementing the method of design thinking”
As the title says this article will tell you in detail about how I made a better experience for my users and how I picked the particular problem statement and started my UX case study journey.
First things first if your reading this case study I must thank you for being an early audience on my debut. I love my audience, since you are here You have the privilege of being the first one to comment on the things that you like and do not like about my case study. I’m open to constructive criticism as it will help me get better in my career.
💡 Eureka!
I was searching for a UX course and all of a sudden I got this course about UX mastery So I enrolled in a Boot camp conducted by Growth School in March and I was assigned my first ever project to work upon.
40 people started their journey along with me and we were divided into four groups.
Each member was given a particular topic to make a better experience in their house like living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and dining room. I was assigned Bedroom as my area of Study. I had to consider the remaining members of my group as my users and solve their problems in their bedroom to complete this Design thinking project🎨.
Since we were already assigned a part of a room there was no problem statement given to us and needed to put up the questions to find the problems of the user in their area of the house to which I was assigned to.
It was a little difficult in the beginning but as they say “To start is the main step towards success”.
After I started with the basics I got onto a clear path with the help of my intuition and started with the process.
🏊🏻♀️Design Thinking “Let us dive deep“
Mentor support was always there and they helped us throughout this project and clarified all the doubts that we had. At this stage ideas that win Were translated into design experiences. We were given an editable PDF where we had to write down all the things and pain points of the users so that we can come up with a solution for their problems. It provided us with a simple, inclusive, and reusable process using the basic principles of design thinking
🎨Process 1: Empathize
In this stage, it’s all about knowing the user and understanding their needs.
In this stage all of my understanding will be towards User’s Perspective! I need to connect with my users And understand their problems from their perspective
Here are some questions which I have prepared to ask my users keeping them open-ended so that they can give more elaborative answers👇🏻
1. How often do you Use your bedroom every day?
2.What will you do if you go to your bedroom in the daytime where is the window located in your bedroom?
3. what digital devices you have in your bedroom for example TV, music devices
4. Is there a cupboard, workstation and a bookshelf in your bedroom. where are they located?
5. In case you’re working from home you will be doing your WFH in your bedroom. If yes where is the workstation located near to the bed or near to the window
6.If you’re relaxing in your bedroom during the day how will you be relaxing yourself
7.Before you go to sleep do you have the habit of reading a book or using any digital devices
8.While entering your bedroom at night, Is your light and fan switch near to the door. While going to sleep How do you switch off the light
9.do you have a cup holder in your workstation
10. Is your cupboard is Well organized and easy for you to use like separate partitions for all your clothes, watches, etc and does your cupboard have a mirror for you to get ready to start the day
11. do you have a bookshelf near to your bed
12. Do you keep your devices near the bed or on the bed while you go to sleep
13 Do you have any more storage space in your bedroom. What is it?
✍🏻Insights Of My USERS
🎉Hurray!! Finally, I did my first user interview virtually this activity was fun filling…
🎨Process 2. Define
The shortlisting begins here, start to decide what you want to help them. This is the stage at which you would typically frame a problem statement based on what you have observed from the Empathise stage
Space Problem:
The user complains of the space in the bedroom and it can be organized properly and make some storage space to keep things and There is no space to add any place for workstations
Organizing issue:
there is no place to keep the things like mobile phones, laptops. The user has to keep the devices on the bed after using them before going to sleep
Electrical Refinement:
most of the users have electrical problems like there is not enough switchboard and have to use an extension cord to take current from the switchboard
the users have to switch off the lights bey getting up from the bed and there is only one switchboard in the room for the light switch
I believe that these three problems could be the problem statement that I need to solve
Space Problem, Organising issue, and electrical refinement
Why is it important for the users🤔
1.The user wants the bedroom to be more spacious and not so congested with the things
2.The user who didn’t have the space issue wants a Workstation but doesn’t want it to occupy space make it so congested
3.They need some storage to keep the things like books, plants and make the bedroom more pleasing
4.They don’t want to use an extension cord to connect the charging wires of the devices they use
5.They want the light to be on only on a particular space where they use the laptops for their WFH
🎨Process 3. Ideate
This is the stage where you come up with the ideal solution for the User by prioritizing the important problems. I did it by keeping the problems statement and writing down the solutions
1. A work station which can be wall-mounted and can be closed and open whenever it’s needed
2a switchboard within the workstation so that the devices can be charged
3. A small side table which I mounted within the bed and can be pulled out from the bed and pushed back whenever it is not used
4. A small garden in the window with a mounted self so that the dust can be a little bit reduced when the window is open
5. A dedicated switchboard can be used near the bed so that the light switch will be on the reach of the user whenever they are going to sleep
6. A book self which can be used as a chair for the dressing table so that the user can get an optional storage space
7. A self rack can be placed near on top of the bed wall so the user can use it as a photo self or as a bookshelf with them or keep their devices while going to sleep
8.A mirror can be placed on the door so the user can use as to get ready themself to start the day
It’s Time To Write Down The TOP THREE IDEAS!
1.Installing a wall-mounted foldable workstation:
Having a dedicated wall-mounted workstation so that the user does not need to do their WFH on the bed and making them uncomfortable
2. Side table which can be dragged out from the bed:
The users are having difficulty organizing their devices after using them while going to sleep. This side table can be used with not occupying much unwanted space
3. Separate Switchboard near the bed:
The user was having difficulty in switching off the light before going to sleep they have to get up from the bed and switch off the light while going to sleep
🎨Process 4: Prototype
This is the stage where the ideas which won will be transformed into design
How did I do it?
I shortlisted the three best ideas into one which most of my Users have problem with to do in their daily life and showed via prototype design as follow,
Workstation-Since the idea of making a workstation is to make it simpler and not so occupying the space I just came up with the idea of a wall-mounted workstation
2. 75% of my users stated that there is no space in the bedroom to keep a dedicated workstation. So I gave the option of wall mounted workstation
3. To solve the problem of no book self in the bedroom. I had provided a separate section to keep the books in the Workstation itself
4. Then to solve the problem of switchboard on the workstation I provided a separate switch socket so the user can charge their device and use them at the same time
🎨Process 5: Test
In this stage, i must test my ideas which are translated into designs and showcase them to my user s to get feedback and refine the product.
How I did it?
Conducted a group call with all my users and showcase my design and got feedback from them so that they will buy the design
User’s feedback:
User 1: User 1: the user was happy with the design but the user stated that he would like to have a compartment to keep the laptop inside the cabinet itself so that the user can keep the laptop inside the cabinet after he finished his work
Q: if I make a compartment separately to keep the laptop inside would you buy it
A: Yes. but the laptop should not be hanging outside the cabinet
User 2: the user was happy with the design but the user stated that she would like to have a compartment to keep the laptop inside the cabinet itself the user suggested having a slide-open compartment so that the user can open up the laptop compartment whenever she needs the laptop
Q: if I make a compartment separately to keep the laptop inside would you buy it
A: Yes. but the laptop compartment should not exceed the actual size of the cabinet like in breath
👉User 3 And 4 Were Not Available
As per the feedbacks which I got from the users I Redesign my prototype and showed them again until they are satisfied
The Redesign Prototype:
💡My Learnings:
This exercise was very exciting and fun filling. In the beginning, I was kind of lost about where to start and where to focus, with the help of my mentor I finally started to travel on the right path. everything I learned from this exercise was a totally new experience and now I think I had taken a step forward towards my user experience career. “Users are the center of everything in UX Design”. I'm still learning. like my mentor always used to say “Student for Life”
