User Experience Design | Gamification  | Design for Change

Design to help cope with

Social Anxiety





Workmate is an application to enable the designed onboarding process, the newsletter and mindfulness.


An interactive onboarding process is designed to help the new employees who have social anxiety without differentiating them.





Abstract

1 in 5 experiences mental health issues in India, of which social anxiety is one of the most common. People with Social anxiety experience significant nervousness and fear in social situations. Social anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental-health conditions, especially in young adults.

Existing solutions are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Meditation, Art Therapy, Journaling, Exercise and Improv.

As understood from group discussions, Spot-Light effect, fear of Public speaking and speaking to new people often is experienced. Anonymity helped them while interacting and Hobbies created a safe space for them.

Being comfortable with self is the aim to reduce any kind of social discomfort.

Focusing on Improv and journaling form the solutions and the target of young adults, further narrowing to the age group of 21 to 30, the context chosen is an office ecosystem.

The spontaneous, collaborative, supportive nature of improv exercises inevitably result in improved confidence, creativity, social & emotional skills like empathy and personal interaction, while journaling is aimed to encourage users to identify their personality, behavior and thinking pattern in social situations, the Self and Social Self.

As a solution a gamified onboarding platform and service is designed for new employees of the offices. The designed service is a treasure hunt for the tasks and involves improv for icebreaking sessions with the teammates and colleagues.

A wall of together is an installation depicting the people who experience social discomfort, the bar graph made with transparent tube and Badges. The installation creates an awareness and a realization that, ‘You are not alone in this.’

As understood from Service Blueprint, as orientation is a 2 - 3 days process, and the process also requires involving employees other than the newly joined. Hence, the engagement of the platform is to be extended. Newsletter of the happening in the office, stories from fellow colleagues, deep breathing exercise and hobby clubs

The visual language of the digital application that enables the above function reflects harmony and serenity.

Process

1 in 5 

experiences mental health issues in India, of which social anxiety is one of the most common. 

What is Social Anxiety?

Social anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental-health conditions, especially in young adults.


People with Social anxiety experience significant nervousness and fear in social situations.

It is issue caused by genetic factors, family environment, unhelpful thinking that develops from events and psychological vulnerability.

Introverts recharge and pleasant when they are alone, whereas,

Social anxiety is a fear of social interactions.

Anxiety levels are

Mild anxiety,

Moderate anxiety,

Severe anxiety

and Panic level anxiety.

Common social anxiety triggers include:

Common social anxiety triggers include:

Common social anxiety triggers include:

Interviews

"The therapies used to help people with social anxiety disorders are very focused and require therapist to lead them. "


Dr. Sushmita Roy

Psychology Professor

"Most who consult for Social Anxiety Disorder are in the age group of 13 - 30."

"Environment plays an important role in any kind of anxiety experienced by people.  "


Ms. Myra Morris

Counselor 

Group Discussions

Focus group of 9

(Test was done for Social Anxiety of over 50 participants, to find the participants using the predefined questions)

Inference from discussion:

Anonymity is easier - while communicating with new people

Spot-Light effect makes feel very cautious and uneasy

Public speaking even when, presenting in front of the team or the class is a task.

'Singing are my safe space.' (Hobbies)

Eating alone is mess or restaurant

'Design school let me be who I am, that helped with social anxiety.'

Being comfortable with self

Existing Solutions

Therapists required:

Guided by professionals:

Does not required guidance:

Journaling  

Journaling is aimed to encourage users to identify their personality, behavior and thinking pattern in social situations,

the Self and Social Self.

Journaling  

Improv 

Improv or Improvisation is an act of spontaneous creation derived individually or collaboratively from a single spark of inspiration. It forces to engage in high-energy interactions in person.


Communication | Awareness | Attention


The spontaneous, collaborative, supportive nature of improv inevitably results in improved confidence, creativity, social & emotional skills like empathy and personal interaction.

Improv 

Brief :  

Design to help cope with issues faced by mild social anxiety by the young adults using improv and journeling. 

Young Adults age group:

13 - 30 

Environments :

Newly joined employees >

(22 - 30 Age Group)

Re - Brief :  

Platform for gamified onboarding using improv and emotion of togetherness

for offices. 

Persona :  

Primary :

New employee : fresher or mid-senior


Secondary : 

Human resource team


Supplemental :

Managers


Customer : 

Management team of Companies


Served : 

Other colleagues


Negative : 

Family and friends 

Primary Persona :  

Riya Pillai | Age 24 | Interior Designer 

Comparative Audit

work management 

Various Onboarding tips and solutions are brought to the platform

Integrated with Gmail, dropbox, Slack, etc

Formal platform

No interaction with office or offline space

cloud computing, productivity and collaboration 

Collaboration and communication platform - posts, polls, comments, likes etc

Bringing google ecosystem together

No specific onboarding process

No interaction with office or offline space

Instant messaging program 

Early access, before joining date

Planning, team discusssions, updates, join multiple groups at a time

No interaction with office or offline space

Stakeholder Interviews

"Right onborading processes make the employee welcomed and increase the productivity. "


Ms. Anushree Sharma

HR Fabindia

"An interactive onboarding is not only important for the new employee, but also for the whole team. It is essential to maintain the dynamics of the team and keep the energy up! "



Ms. Ria Subramanyam

HR IIT Hyderabad





Ideation 





Solution 1 - Data visualization with inverted bar graph

Installation  depicting the number of people who experience social discomfort, by using Inverted bar graph, made with transparent tube and with Badges. 

Keywords :

An awareness is created and a realization that,


‘You are not alone in this.’ 

Wall of Togetherness

Questions are put for each bar in the graph.


These are indirect questions on social anxiety.


They, who experience the given situations, pick up one badge of their choice from the tube. 

Wall of Togetherness 

Hence, the empty tubes indicate the people who experience the similar discomfort.


Attach the badge to the bag or desk, reflecting their discomfort.

Solution 2 - Gamified onboarding of new employees

The onboarding process is a treasure hunt!


The QR code for the tasks are placed at various locations in the office,

after completing one task, they are directed to the other.


According to the journaling method of coping with Social Anxiety,

to achieve self awareness, it is important to understand the

self and the social self. 


The service designed for onboarding new employees, to help cope with social anxiety and other engagements of the service using an application. 

Keywords :

Primary Persona :

Newly joined employees entry level / mid-senior


Secondary Persona :

HR, Teammates, Guides, Other colleagues.


Mode of work : Offline 

Service Map


Improv Exercise 1

Yes, and.. 

The ‘Yes’ refers to acceptance – when a player offers an idea, it must be accepted by all other players.


The ‘And’ refers to enhancement – other players must not only accept each new idea, but must add something to it as well, and by doing so further build.

This activity in the context of office onboarding is designed to break the ice between the members of the team and the new employee. 

All individuals in the team write a brief about themselves 

The briefs are randomly shuffled,

are anonymous,

and are start points of the yes, and exercise.

Others in the team improvise on the briefs one by one.

The new employee sees the interpretation of their brief done by another person and will become comfortable with self.

Improv Exercise 2

Fortunately,

unfortunately..

This activity reflects agreement and imagination. 

To meet people from other departments :

1 - with similar personality trait

1 - with different personality trait

1 - new - not mentioned 

Conversation starters like :

Where are they from

Zodiac Sign

Favorite Food

Favorite Drink 

Wall of Togetherness 

Example of the exercise:

Player 1 : Fortunately, I got a surprise letter in the mail today!


Player 2 : Unfortunately, the letter was an overdue bill.


Player 1 : Fortunately, I had just gotten paid that day.


Player 2 : Unfortunately, your hot water heater stopped working, and you had to spend your paycheck to get a new one. 

Service Blueprint



As understood from Service Blueprint,


As orientation is a 2 - 3 days process,

and the process also requires involving employees other than the newly joined,


the engagement of the platform has to be extended. Hence, 

Newsletter

Posts -

Highlights from office news are posted here. Employees may comment and like.


Stories -

Employees put office related stories. Only interaction to like others stories. 

Mindfulness 

Deep Breathe - 

Exercise to help deep breathe. 


Clubs - 

Online clubs and information regarding the same can be subscribed.

An application to enable the designed onboarding process, the newsletter and mindfulness.

Customer :

decision making management

Users : 

Home page

Profile page before Orientation

Profile page after Orientation

Task Location

Task Introduction

Availability of team

First brief mentioned

Improv Recorded

Flash - Timed task

Fortunately, Unfortunately

To talk to a random person


Project Guide : Prof. Prasad Omkar, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

Project Duration : 2 months