spudbud
Encouraging Potato Employees to Monitor Their Mental Health and Take Advantage of the Company’s Wellbeing Resources
Slack-Based Mobile App/Chatbot (Internal Tool)
Solo | 5 Weeks
Case Study
Potato (now AKQA Leap) is a digital product design agency with a strong focus on employee wellbeing. They were looking to implement a digital tool for internal use to actively monitor mental health amongst their workforce.
This was a solo project, so I was responsible for all stages of the research and design process.
Brief
Desk Research
ROOT of the Problem
As the brief was fairly open-ended, I began by conducting some desk research to broadly explore the topic of workplace mental health.
What problems COULD be addressed?
Stress
Depression and Anxiety
Workplace Bullying/Harassment
Workplace Dissatisfaction
Unhealthy Lifestyles/Work-Life Balance
Presenteeism (where an employee is unwell and remains in work but is less productive) and Absenteeism (where an employee takes excessive time off work)
These in particular can have financial impacts on the business as well as the employee
WHO’s list of workplace risks to mental health
Inadequate health and safety policies
Poor communication and management practices
Limited participation in decision-making or low control over one’s area of work
Low levels of support for employees
Inflexible working hours
Unclear tasks or organisational objectives
Resource Audit
CROP Inspection
I also audited Potato’s existing wellbeing resources to see what was working, what could be improved, and what could be added.
Offerings
Potato offered the following wellbeing-related benefits to their employees:
Support & Wellbeing Wiki Page
Anonymous Wellbeing Issue Form
The People Team (HR)
Contactable In-Person/via Slack
Employee Assistance Programme
NABS (Mental Health Charity)
Free Headspace Account
Office Osteopath
Running Club
Yoga and Pilates Classes
Observations/Impressions
Potato provided a generous set of wellbeing benefits, but access to this information was fragmented:
Onboarding covered only a portion of what was available
Many benefits surfaced informally, through colleagues or chance discovery
Resources were scattered across multiple links with no central hub
The Support & Wellbeing Wiki Page was not comprehensive and was difficult to locate
Market Research
HARVEST Report
To identify potential areas for opportunity and gain inspiration, I conducted some market research, looking at features of several existing mental health applications (list below not exhaustive).
Journey Meditation
Moodpath
WYSA
Lake: Coloring Books
Joyable
Woebot
Artificial Intelligence and Biometrics
Scanning the user’s tweets and other content for linguistic clues of mental illness
Monitoring lifestyle habits (with and without integrated wearables), e.g. screen time, movement and activity during the day, location, sleep patterns
Detection of non-verbal cues, such as facial expression, gestures and posture
Wellness Activities
Mindfulness and meditation
Live classes in the workplace (e.g. yoga)
Digital colouring books
Stress management programmes
Personalisation
Bespoke suggestions
Daily mood check-ins/monitoring using emojis
Tracking and visualising responses over time
Building a personalised toolkit based on responses to a questionnaire
Therapy Techniques
CBT exercises
Chatbot therapy
Human coaching
Online therapy with a licensed health professional
Survey
Google Forms
FIELD Work
To better understand the needs of employees, I conducted an anonymous office-wide Google Forms survey, receiving 20 total responses.
Key Topics/Questions
Wellbeing Activities
Digital Tools
Resource Awareness
Need for wellbeing support
Awareness and use of existing resources
Desired digital wellbeing resources (if any)
Desired in-office/live wellbeing activities (if any)
Digital tools currently used (if any)
Existing wellbeing hobbies/practices (if any)
Additional comments/thoughts on the topic
Synthesis
Survey
Sorting the SPUDS
Below are the key insights from my user survey.
Need for Wellbeing Support
No overt wellbeing or mental health issues directly stemming from work, but a general desire to engage in wellbeing activities
Acknowledgment that occasional moments of stress, anxiety, poor sleep, etc. are natural in any role
Awareness and Use of Existing Resources
Many participants were aware of the Support and Wellbeing Wiki, but only about a quarter were aware of and utilising most of the resources available, except the Office Osteopath service
When asked which resources they would like the company to offer, many participants listed resources that were already available, which they were unaware of
Digital Tools
Digital tools that participants already use included Calm, My Possible Self, WYSA, and Silver Cloud
Desirable/popular features included:
Stress and wellbeing management/personalised plans
Direct contact with mental health professionals
Anonymous contact with The People Team (HR)
Mindfulness/meditation
‘Peer-counselling’
Live Wellness Activities
Participants already engaged in some wellness activities such as exercise, mindfulness/meditation, journalling, and reading self-help books
They expressed a desire to see some of the following activities offered in-office:
Group walks/exercise (e.g. running club)
Mindfulness/Meditation
Mindful colouring
Additional Comments/Insights
Mental health apps are good for facilitating real-life wellness activities, but users do not want to be glued to their phones
Being able to track mood and get a studio-wide aggregate would be useful
How would data privacy be handled?
Mental health considerations need to include company policy changes, such as incorporating flexible working
It is important to make employees feel comfortable opening up
Survey
Personas
MASH of Needs
To consolidate my findings and anchor my design decisions, I created the following persona to capture the needs of the average employee at Potato.
Lucy Wilson, 27 - Developer at Potato
Outside of work Lucy is a keen runner and usually runs every evening after work as a way of de-stressing. She is also a member of the studio’s running club. Although she loves her job, she is currently planning her wedding and is finding the stress of balancing wedding planning and work very overwhelming. As a result, she has started experiencing tension headaches and her sleep has been affected.
Lucy thinks…
“I don’t feel like going in tomorrow”
“I’m really slacking at work”
“I might have to push the wedding back”
“I need a break”
Lucy feels…
Stressed
Overwhelmed
Drained
Tired
Lucy says…
“I don’t feel well”
“I’m so stressed at the moment”
“I have a raging headache”
“I might have to cancel”
Lucy does…
Exercises
Takes time off (absenteeism)
Procrastinates (absenteeism)
Seeks medical advice
Problem Statement
GROUND Zero
Pulling everything together, I generated the following problem statement:
Lucy needs a low-effort way to keep her wellbeing in check and access mental health resources, so that she can handle stressful moments without them taking a toll on her health or performance at work.
LucidChart
Wireframes
Balsamiq
Figma
Ideation
User Flows
SPUD Sparks
Using the final persona and problem statement as a foundation, I defined a set of product features and visualised them through wireframes and flow diagrams.
I had iterative reviews with designers and engineers, refining the solutions to ensure technical feasibility and a coherent information architecture and user experience before progressing to high-fidelity prototypes.
Phase 1: Slack Integrated App/Bot (Not Native or Web)
Description:
The app is based in Slack in the form of a bot called ‘spudbud’ that sends messages, encouragements, check-ins, and reminders to users
Resources such as personalised plans, settings, and pinned resources are easily accessible
Justifications:
Potato already used Slack for most communications and survey respondents generally did not want to download a new app
Naturally set up for reminders and messaging
As the existing mental health resources were so scattered, Slack was a good place for them to be collated as all employees used it on a daily basis and was likely to increase usage
The interface was familiar to employees
Lots of dev and prototyping documentation is available
Accessible on both mobile and desktop
Phase 1: Initial Onboarding Questionnaire
Description:
Upon launching the app for the first time, users will be invited to fill out an initial questionnaire, asking them to indicate their general mood, as well as provide some background information regarding their mental health
They will then establish a personal wellbeing plan and set reminders
Users will subsequently be able to access their plan, settings, and pinned resources in the ‘About’ tab, e.g.
Anonymous People Team Form
Support & Wellbeing Wiki Link
List of Wellbeing-Related Clubs/Talks/Activities
External Resources
Justifications:
Good way to start training the bot
Helps to tailor the user experience
Phase 1: Observations and Recommendations
Description:
In response to the user’s answers, the app will provide daily, weekly and general suggestions, as well as additional online resources
These recommendations will mostly be centered around encouraging the use of existing Potato resources
For example, employees already have free access to Headspace, so specific Headspace exercises may be suggested
Users may also be encouraged to join certain clubs within the company or attend relevant company-sponsored wellbeing events, such as NABS talks
Justifications:
Encourages use of company-sponsored resources, while also tracking which are more popular, and which may be obsolete
Promotes continuous maintenance of wellbeing, increasing employee health and satisfaction, as well as improving performance and efficiency
Phase 1: Plan Customisation
Description:
After their plan has been presented to them, users can delete, edit and add activities, as well as set a schedule and reminders
Justifications:
Ensures that recommendations are useful
Encourages adherence
Chatbot format allows for easily scheduling and notifications
Phase 1: Check-Ins and People Team Report
Description:
Users will be sent a message via the Slack interface inviting them to fill out a weekly check-in
Once again, they will be invited to indicate how they are feeling, after which they will receive advice based on whether or not their mood has improved since last time
They can also update their information, change their plan and settings, and view a chart of their mood history
Justifications:
Bot format allows for check-in notifications
Keeps the bot up-to-date with regard to the user’s needs
Allows the bot to collate the data anonymously and send a regular report to the People team so that any necessary changes can be made to the work environment
Phase 2: Paired People Team Dashboard
Description:
This would allow easy access to the responses sent via the anonymous People Team Form as well as the data collected from the mood reports and check-ins
Justification:
Streamlines workflows for the People Team, rather than receiving reports via email
Phase 2: Schedule Organisation
Description:
An AI-powered schedule organiser to help users to balance work, breaks, and wellbeing activities
Justifications:
Relieves stress
Helps with time management
Phase 3: Direct Contact with Mental Health Professionals
Description:
The ability to connect with a mental health professional directly through the app for ad hoc therapy sessions
Justifications:
Highly requested in the survey, but requires a lot more resource and logistics; would likely be treated as a proper ‘benefit’
Always the best option in the case of serious issues
High-Fidelity
Figma
MASH to Masterpiece
Below is my final high-fidelity prototype, showing the MVP flow I ultimately used for company-wide concept validation before handoff.
Flow: Slack > Onboarding Questionnaire > Observations and Recommendations > Make Edits > Check Out Collated List of Resources > Check-In > View Mood History
Regarding visual design, being named 'Potato' at the time, the company had very distinct branding, including custom potato-themed avatars called 'spuddies' for various uses.
In addition to designing a brand new mental health 'spuddy', I made use of 'spuddies' throughout high-fidelity the design in place of traditional emoticons to represent the user's present mood.
App Walkthrough
Mental Health ‘Spuddy’
Usability Testing
TASTE Test
To validate my proposal, I ran remote usability testing and concept validation sessions with five employees. The key insights are summarised below.
Overall Navigation and Experience
Users were generally able to navigate the experience successfully, especially given the familiar Slack interface and simulated notifications guiding them directly to relevant check-ins
Questionnaire and Recommendations
Most participants felt that the questionnaire was the right length
Some suggested make the questions a little more open-ended
Some participants felt that the recommendations should be presented at once so that the user did not have to click through them, and others felt that multiple options should be given and not just a top three
Check-Ins
The ‘Mood History’ feature was very popular, and it was therefor suggested that it should be visible immediately with the progress report
It was also suggested that the wording could be more emotionally driven
Pinned Resources
The general consensus was that the resources should be in the ‘Home’ tab, rather than the ‘About’ tab of Slack as it is not obvious that there is important information in About, and participants almost missed them
High-Fidelity
Figma
Fully BAKED
Below are some of the edits I made in response to the key insights from usability testing.
As well as my high-fidelity prototype, I handed over my research, user flows, a style guide, and handoff notes, including recommendations such as having a permanent designer flesh out the conversational flow using BotSociety.
Revision #1: “The Resources Are Difficult To Find”
I moved the resources to the app’s ‘Home’ tab and simplified the ‘About’ section
Revision #2: “Streamline Recommendations”
I put all of the recommendations onto a single page, with the ability to add, delete, and edit right away
To reduce clutter, I removed the links from the initial recommendations page and put them into the ‘View Plan’ page
Revision #3: “Mood History Should Be More Visible”
I moved the most recent mood history information to the ‘Observations & Recommendations’ page, with the option to view the full report
I also put the additional links/settings options into categories to reduce visual clutter
Reflection
BUSHELS of Impact
The most impactful outcomes of my proposal are:
Highlighting and encouraging the use of existing company resources by recommending the most relevant option based on needs and interests, as well as providing customised reminders to ensure compliance
Streamlining the list of existing company resources and pinning them in a highly visible location
Encouraging employees to actively monitor and maintain their general wellbeing via a tool they already use daily, increasing general employee mood and boosting productivity
Automating feedback for the People Team to enable active changes to company culture and benefits
Reflection
LEFTOVERS
A whole new product is not always the answer; augmentation of an existing solution can often be highly valuable
Users value choice and autonomy, even within the context of personalised recommendations
Digital products provide a lot of value as facilitators of offline services and experiences