Saniya Sethi
Improving the work-life balance for female nurses
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 being 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.
The solution
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.
Please note: Video prototype screens will differ from final screens
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. I understood that I needed to clarify these opinions to ensure I empathised with my users' pain points.
Initial Assumptions + Questions
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There aren't any coping mechanisms that female nurses can use.
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Nurses don't have time to work or effort for other duties after their shifts.
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How helpful is the support provided to female nurses?
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Female nurses use apps/products to help with their work-life balance
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There's no difference between busy and flexible working days
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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 ethics approval, 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 who would have been difficult to sample due to ethical reasons, as the participants needed to work in healthcare.
4 female nurses:
Aged between 25 and 45
Has two or more children
1 life coach:
Actively supports 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, which was categorised as a ‘must have’ factor according to the life coach. 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.​
Define
Once the primary research was complete, I used 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 understand their feelings throughout the journey's timeframe while spotting opportunities for innovation for the next stage.
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​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 appeared between what they say, think, do, or feel.
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 in which 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 regarding household chores.
I also detected a common link between them: a lack of productivity. Due to feeling guilty, they don’t function as well when working or at home; they feel tired and unable to complete tasks, which is the same with household chores. They are expected to do all the household work, so they become unproductive.
Guilt
Home Inequality
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 her struggles to let go of her negative emotions, which affect the people around her.​
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.
Iterative Design Process
The image below represents my iterative design process for the final eight weeks of the project. After understanding what the research data means for me as the designer, I decided to use an iterative cycle to refine and revise the product quickly, especially when it is crucial to identify the features and functions more deeply.
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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, leading towards a more iterative mindset. I am grateful for this diversion and look forward to expanding on it in my career. ​
New Direction
After refining the previous insights with 'How might we' statements and conducting a co-design workshop with the same four nurses and some extreme users to understand what I meant by "productivity" and to gather the users' opinions, I discovered that one of the main significant desires they had was personal time.
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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 patients' 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 communicate their struggles openly, 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 prioritise goals according to their needs.
Develop
To start 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 a minimal yet meaningful way, like advertisements promoting the product in the public domain.​
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 a gamified wellbeing app. The app will provide activities (e.g., challenges or experiences) encouraging users to have guilt-free personal time. This will allow users 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, to personalise 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 users' experiences with the app. I illustrated the journey map from Sophie's perspective, detailing the steps she took to discover the app 'Activate' and determine that it was 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 assessed were:
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What does the application do?
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Strengths and weaknesses
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Ease of use, functionality, compatibility and design
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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
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It is important not to put time limits on the activities to avoid unnecessary pressure.
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Provide activities they will be familiar with, ensuring the purpose of the activities is clear.
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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 me visually communicate my ideas and inspired me 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
Colours
#CCE3FC
#95BADB
#1D5AA6
Mockup of Advert
Hand Sketch Wireframe
Now that I had gathered sufficient evidence, it was time to draw some sketches. This gave me an opportunity to lay out my ideas for the app's features before working on the digital version of the wireframe.
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.
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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.
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More welcoming language, as they feel tired of being 'needed’ all the time.
2
Simplification by minimising 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, based on data and insights from previous stages, 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 on 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.
Design System for 'Activate'
Typography
Heading
Body
Colours
​#FFFFFF
​#DADADA
#22CBC6
​#4D4D4D
#FF6B81
#000000
Icons
Outlined
Filled
App
Future Roadmap
Vision
Male and female demographics
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Other demanding occupations
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Personalised advice based on their profession
Society
Publicising the challenges as campaigns
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Newsletter promoting users' stories/progress
Limitations
Risk
Impact
Personal Reflection
Good
Sought assistance when needed
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Developed on my UI design skills
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Successfully used a design thinking model​
Bad
Tunnel vision mindset
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Lost track of time management
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Unable to regain a timely schedule​
Improve
Look at the bigger picture​
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Embrace project management tools​​