5/3 Mass Affluent Digital Strategy

A fun and engaging intranet app through which employees can voice their concerns using micro blogs, and employers can analyze issues using interactive data visualizations.
 
 

My Role
I was the Lead Visual Designer, and I also participated in the end-to-end user centered design process, starting from user research and personas, through hi-fi prototyping and usability testing.

Methods

Personas
Scenarios
Rapid Sketching
Interactive Prototyping
Usability Testing

Twine is a microblogging concept system for employees in organizations. The system analyzes employee microblogs to extrapolate employee-related issues and conveys them to the HR professionals through interactive visualizations. I collaborated with a team of 4 other students to research and design a prototype system as a proof of concept. In-depth information about our research and design process are recorded on the project website.


Design Challenge

The challenge was to design a fun and engaging interface through which employees could voice their concerns and employers could act upon them. Necessary features for sociability and social interaction were designed.


Research and Design Methods

We researched traditional HR methods and evaluated the constraints and goals of an HR department. By observing how traditional systems work, we visualized our microblogging system to meet the needs of enterprises. We examined various ways feedback is collected and how employee needs are met.

We looked at the technological mechanisms by which data could be accumulated and examined questions of privacy, unprofessional or anonymous conduct.


Key UI Features

  • An easy-to-use, unobtrusive desktop widget for employees for submitting anonymous microblogs
  • A Twitter-like interface for employers to browse through microblogs
  • Red and green color-coded flags that distinguish the nature of a microblog
  • A unique "Watch this Whiner" feature that helps in observing all concerns expressed by an employee
  • Interactive visualizations for employers to decipher actionable information out of blogs


Results

The concept was presented to fellow students and Prof Alan McCord, who were instantly convinced by our concept. The project feedback constituted qualitative comments such as: "The HR Dashboard gives an at-a-glance overview of various organizational details. I like the dashboard concept … very creative …" — Professor Alan McCormick, University of Michigan