Improving the work-life balance for female nurses

activate

Supporting female nurses with their health and wellbeing

Introducing ‘activate’ a dedicated wellbeing app for nurses, focused on providing guilt-free self-care through a wide range of activities. Features an anonymous messaging chat for open discussions, along with a resourceful page offering wellbeing insights, games for relaxation, and more.

Activate's map for one of the activities

Screen showing points notification on the Activate app

The Problem

60%

of female nurses struggle to balance their personal lives after extended shifts, raising their risk of experiencing anxiety or depression.

178%

increase in female nurses leaving the NHS from 2011 - 2018 due to unable to cope with the intense pressure

76%

of 1.3 million healthcare workers were women. Nurses who are mothers are more vulnerable to mental health issues.

Initial Goal

The focus of this self-directed project will explore the impacts of an unhealthy work-life balance for women aged 25-45 with a family who are currently working as nurses so that I can design an appropriate solution that improves their daily lifestyle and wellbeing

Discover

I created some assumptions and questions to outline the focus of my research and understood that I need to clarify these opinions to

ensure I empathise with my user's pain points.

Initial Assumptions + Questions

There aren't any coping mechanisms that female nurses can use.
Nurses don't have time to work or effort for other duties after their shifts.
How helpful is the support provided to female nurses?
Female nurses use apps/products to help with their work-life balance
There's no difference in busy or flexible working days
It's important to connect with other nurses or busy working mums

Research Questions

1. What are the challenges mothers experience working as a full-time nurse?

2. What are the coping mechanisms nurses who are mothers use to handle their work-life balance?

3. What support is available to full-time nurses who are mothers?

Primary Research

Once I obtained approval for ethics, I used the snowball and convenience sampling techniques to recruit my participants. Using the

snowball sampling technique through a relative allowed me to conduct research with participants that would have been difficult to sample due to ethical reasons for the participants needing to work in healthcare.

4 female nurses:

Aged between 25 and 45
Has two or more children

1 life coach supporting women

working in healthcare

Research Methods

I used various creative methods with each of them, helping me gain diverse insights in different ways. For example, the fact + fiction activity clarified some of the assumptions, such as the importance of connecting with other nurses or mums, was categorised as a ‘must have’ factor according to the expert. Also utilised more interactive methods like participant observation and diary studies to discover their individual stories and real-time challenges.

Having an introverted and sensitive personality helped during this phase as I naturally became the observer and listener in most situations, enabling me to focus on more intricate factors like body language and hidden insights.

Screenshot of all the research methods I used for primary research

Define

Once the primary research was complete, I started using simple but effective analysis mapping techniques for each participant.

For the participants who did diary studies, I mapped out their journeys on a busy and flexible working day to acknowledge any

similarities or differences with an experience map. This helped me to understand their feelings throughout the timeframe of the journey

whilst spotting opportunities for innovation for the next stage.

For other methods like participation observation, I used behavioural and empathy maps to track their movements and understand their

feelings along with their actions to see if any frequent patterns were appearing between what they say, think, do or feel.

Experience map based on one of my participant's diary study

Overall Analysis

To conclude all the data I have obtained, I did affinity diagramming and variable analysis to identify the key insights that can be

used for innovation in the next stage. Using the findings from affinity diagramming, I conducted variable analysis to look for any

patterns where the participants were clustered together and tried to understand if their relationship made sense. I then selected the

variables with the most prominent patterns and converted them into insights. The two main insights were the feeling of guilt and

gender inequality for household chores.

I also detected a common link between them of lack of productivity. Due to them feeling guilty, they don’t function as well when

working or at home as they feel tired and unable to complete tasks which is the same with the household chores. They are expected

to do all the household work, which means they become unproductive for their tasks.

Guilt

Home Inequality

Image showing how my two insights are connected

Personas

Therefore, I created personas to represent both factors. First is Sophie, a nurse who constantly feels guilty because she cannot

manage her work and personal life and desires to spend time living in the moment with her family. However, some factors stop her from

achieving that, such as she struggles to let go of her negative emotions, which affect the people around her.

And next is Asha, a working mother and housewife who is expected to do all the work at home and gets no help from her partner

as she is pressurised to 'get on with it'. She needs a way for the tasks to be delegated amongst others.

Persona for Sophie (a nurse who constantly feels guilty)

Persona for Asha (working mother and housewife)

Iterative Design Process

The image below represents my iterative design process for the final eight weeks of the project. As the designer of the solution, I felt it

was vital to utilise an iterative cycle to refine and revise the product quickly, especially when it is crucial to identify the features and

functions more deeply.

I was once someone who often took the easy route, experiencing no hurdles or challenges. However, over the last year, I have grown

into welcoming challenges that enable me to make complex decisions, forcing me to become adaptable to change and leading towards

a more iterative mindset. I am grateful for this diversion and look forward to expanding on it in my career.

Image showing my iterative design process throughout the 2nd phase of the project

New Direction

After refining the previous insights with 'How might we' statements and conducting a co-designing workshop with the same four nurses

and some extreme users to understand what I meant by "productivity" and to gather the user's opinion, I discovered one of the main

significant desires they had was personal time.

I did some secondary research to learn why female nurses are currently overlooking existing me time resources to help with their

wellbeing and found that public stigma was a recurring factor in the literature and other reliable sources.

1

'Despite nurses' existing knowledge of healthy behaviours...it does not always translate to self care'

2

68% of female nurses prioritise their patient's health and wellbeing before their own. Feel they need permission from others to be self-caring and self-compassionate

3

'Identified as being "heroes" throughout the COVID 19 pandemic making them feel like they shouldn't ask for help'

Refined Vision

There is an opportunity to design a product or service for female nurses who are also mothers who want guilt-free time and a safe space to openly communicate their struggles BUT live in fear of judgement from society making them reluctant to engage in mental health and well-being support.

Guilt-free

Self-love

Reassurance

Updated Persona

Based on the refined vision, I updated the persona to help me better empathise with my main user group and prioritize goals according to their needs.

Develop

To start of the next phase of the design process, I brainstormed some initial concepts that promote awareness of nurses' mental health

encouraging them to open up. However, I soon realised that the public awareness ideas began to dominate, and I needed to improve my

way of helping nurses. I went back and successfully pivoted it by introducing enjoyable strategies like gamification to assist nurses while

subtly engaging the public. I used an evaluation matrix to highlight the ideas that would best benefit users and integrate the public in

minimal yet meaningful way like advertisements promoting the product in the public domain.

Evaluation matrix containing some initial concepts for the solution

Com-B Model and Co Designing Insights

The results from completing behaviour change research with the COM-B model and a second co designing workshop with different

activities revealed to me that the preferred idea was having a gamified wellbeing app. The app will provide activities (e.g. challenges or

experiences) encouraging them to have guilt-free time personal time. This will allow them to take initiative and gain control over their

health and wellbeing.

Capability

The app must be fully option-based, driven by several factors such as allowing users to select activities aligned with their interests and goals personalizes the experience.

Opportunity

Offering one-to-one support with an anonymised messaging feature to talk with others about their struggles in a safe space.

Motivation

Incorporating point-based incentives through additional resources to enhance their knowledge for example could lead to increased interaction, encouraging engagement.

User Journey Map

I created a user journey map for one of the features to help me better understand the user's experiences with the app. I illustrated the journey map from Sophie's perspective detailing the steps she took to discover the app 'Activate' and figuring out it is the right solution to use in solving her pain points.

Competitive Analysis

Next, I conducted a competitive analysis, to evaluate my competitors' strengths and weaknesses in relation to my own idea. This process helped identify potential feature adjustments. I assessed 'Happify,' focusing on emotional well-being, and 'Lifeworks,' aiding employee well-being. The factors that were assessed are:

What the application does?
Strengths and weaknesses
Ease of use, functionality, compatibility and design
App store and Play store ratings

Happify

"Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and positive psychology based app... improving your overall sense of happiness and mental wellness.

Lifeworks

Providing organisations with employee assistance and wellness programs helping to improve their employees' wellbeing

Key takeaways

It is important to not put time limits on the activities to avoid unnecessary pressure.
Provide activities they will be familiar with, ensuring the purpose of the activities is clear.
Offer resources for extra user engagement and for the users to learn about well-being.

Deliver

Mood Board (Advert)

To get inspiration for the styling and layout of the advert, I created a mood board. This helped with visually communicating my ideas to inspire me for when I made the advert. One key takeaway from the inspiration was that it was really important to have a short but eye catching message to attract users.

Typography

Arial

Roboto

Open Sans

Tahoma

Content Inspiration

Advert inspiration for a specific subject

Colour

#CCE3FC

#95BADB

#1D5AA6

Design System for 'Activate'

Typography

Colour

#22CBC6

#767680

#FFFFFF

#000000

#D9D9D9

Icons

Mockup of Advert

Hand Sketch Wireframe

I drew some sketches to lay out my ideas for the app's features before spending some time on the digital version of the wireframe.

Digital Wireframe

activity in action screen digital wireframe

Game resource info screen digital wireframe

User matched info screen digital wireframe

User testing

Even after conducting behaviour change research and competitive analysis, I sought user feedback on the app's layout, design, and

functionality. I tested with four nurse participants, using two methods: comparing basic mockups for the advert and card sorting with low-fidelity app screens.

The card sorting aimed to assess the interaction of the screens. By also incorporating the think-aloud technique, I aimed to understand their thoughts and preferences. Both these methods helped validate the app's design and the users' perception of the flow and content. The key insights I received from the user testing are as follows:

1

Preference for a friendly yet outdoorsy campaign style over social media aesthetics, as the latter tends to be overlooked.

More welcoming language, as they feel tired of being 'needed’ all the time.

2

Simplification by minimizing the number of taps required for information access, particularly on the activity and messaging pages.

3

Incorporating likes on activities to showcase popular choices, thereby encouraging user engagement

Final Outcome

Due to personal time constraints, user testing of the updated prototype couldn't be conducted. Therefore, I assessed and refined decisions for both the advert and the app myself.

Advert

The advert was enhanced with a more engaging style, inspired by external sources such as adverts on the train. It’s placed in a billboard by the supermarket as that was one of the main spots my participants said they would be more likely to notice an advert.