Aura

4 hours

Advocating for mental health in the workplace.

Impact

Presented elevator pitch to UX Designers of Deloitte, Google, Airspace, and Interactions LLC.

Role

Brainstorming
Prototyping
UX Design
UI Design

Tools

Figma

Hand Sketching

Canva

Teammates

Sam Wong

Introduction

How might we make _______________________ more adaptable in a post-pandemic world?

Aura was created at Design Frontiers 2022, a designathon hosted by Design Co at UC San Diego. In the 4 hours we were allotted, we brainstormed several potential topics to address, but eventually focused on mental health. Our question of focus is below:

How might we make mental health support in the workplace more adaptable in a post-pandemic world?

Thus, Aura was envisioned, an application with the purpose of supporting individualized mental health needs in the workplace.

Design Process

Background

Reading through some articles on post-pandemic life economy, we noticed some key trends.

Job resignations were at a high.
There was an increase in companies enacting initiatives for employee wellness.
Pew Research Center study reveals that in general, Americans want more work-life balance and flexibility to work from home or choose hours.

Brainstorming

Human Values

Compassion
Optimism
Meaning
Community
Personal Growth

User Needs

Flexibility
Individualized
Non-intrusive
Voluntary
Private & Protected

Design Flow

Sketching & Ideation

Solution

Personalized mental health support
Quick wellness checks
Greater flexibility for time off

Since the pandemic, companies have been increasing initiatives to address employee wellness in the workplace. We noticed, however, that these initiatives mainly consisted of "wellness days". The time is free for an employee to spend however they wish, and oftentimes these days are specific days scheduled by the company. We sought to design a more personalized take on these "wellness days" through Aura, because mental health support is effective when it is individualized, and needs are different for every person.

Aura is opt-in and completely anonymous, where team leaders (typically employers) can create their team and add team members (typically employees). Team members will take a personalized quiz developed by mental health professionals and psychologists, and a unique aura is generated for the team member. Throughout the day, team members will receive a wellness check notification, which they can choose to fill out if they wish. Based on responses to these wellness checks, the brightness of the team member's aura will change. The team leader will be able to see the auras of their team members, but not the names associated with each aura. If a team member's aura has dimmed significantly, the team leader will receive a notification to send a wellness check-in to the team member. Pre-drafted messages are available to send with some personalized, enjoyable activities the team member can spend their wellness time doing.

In summary:

Team member takes personalized quiz, which generates their unique aura
Team members receive a few notifications throughout the day to fill out a wellness check.
Aura brightness changes based on wellness check responses.
If aura brightness dims, employers can see this on their screen.
If aura brightness dims significantly, employers are notified to send a wellness check-in to the team member with an option to take some time off for wellness, along with a personalized message and custom activity suggestion.

High Fidelity Prototype:

Team Leader Screens

Team Member Screens

Takeaways

Learned to rapidly generate and narrow down a wide range of ideas to a concrete focus under time pressure
Learned to intertwine human values with user needs
In the future, design with more consideration of the likely possibility that users will not use the app for its intended purposes