Project Overview
The pandemic shook up our work routines and showed us a whole new world of flexibility. Nowadays, more and more people are embracing the digital nomad lifestyle, working remotely while exploring the world. We call ourselves 'Digital Nomads.'
Challenges:
Personally, I love the freedom and independence that comes with working and traveling wherever I want. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I've had my fair share of ups and downs, feeling all over the place and sometimes a bit lonely. One of the biggest struggles is finding the perfect workspace that suits my preferences. This got me thinking:
• Are other digital nomads going through the same thing?
• What other challenges do my fellow digital nomads face?
• Are there better ways to handle these situations?
• Can we have one awesome app that does it all without needing a zillion other apps?
Process
Empathy
Define
Ideation
Prototype
Test
Including Whiteboard Research and interview to know more about the user and problems.
We analyze user needs and requirements to establish a clear direction for design.
Generate and explore various creative ideas to address user needs and design challenges.
Transform ideas into tangible and interactive representations.
Validate and refine our design solutions by gathering user feedback.
Whiteboard Research
Before diving into the project, we delved into researching the digital nomad lifestyle and identified some early assumptions about their day-to-day challenges.
• Work/life balance is hard to maintain
• Dependent on Wi-Fi / (facilities)
• Difficult to find suitable locations to travel
• Community and Deeper Friendships Can Be Hard to Build
• Hard to have a consistent routine
• A Mobile Lifestyle Affects Productivity
• Cultural Differences Can Be a Shock
We categorized them into three main groups.
Based on our initial observations, we thought that the major challenges revolve around finding suitable work locations and achieving a healthy work-life balance.
User Interview
To validate our assumptions and gain deeper insights, we conducted five user interviews. Our interview questions were carefully crafted to explore basic information, job-to-be-done and influencing factors, pain points, and hypothesis validation.
We aimed to understand their experiences, work preferences, frustrations, interactions with other nomads, and methods of staying connected with friends and family.
Define
Some questions:
1. So maybe just for starters, can you tell me a bit about what you do for a living?
2. Why do you want to become a digital nomad?What factors in the environment can influence your daily routine and actions?
3. Where do you usually like to work?
4. How do you find these places?
5. What frustrates you as a digital nomad?
Interestingly, our interviews revealed unexpected results.
The two major challenges faced by digital nomads were
1. The need for customized working spaces
2. The struggle with loneliness.
With this valuable information in hand, we decided to narrow our research focus to address these specific areas.
Based on our findings, we posed the following question:
Persona
We created two user personas based on Emotional/Social Needs and Location & Facility user requirements. They helped us prioritize features, identify design opportunities, and guide usability testing and evaluation.
Competitive Analysis
To gain further inspiration for our app's design, we conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis to understand the existing market landscape. It helped us identify opportunities and distinguish our solution from existing products.
Brainstorming
In the ideation phase, we engaged in a productive brainstorming session to generate a multitude of features and ideas. However, recognizing the need for prioritization, we employed the MoSCoW analysis and impact urgency matrix technique to synthesize and prioritize the most crucial elements.
Storyboard
Eventually, we crafted three distinct story flows that encompassed the key features we designed. These story flows allowed us to visualize the user journey and interactions within the app. With the story flows as our guide, we proceeded to create an interactive prototype that brought our vision to life.
Wireframe
And voila!
We proudly present the final product of our efforts — an app that empowers digital nomads by providing them with customizable working spaces, fostering engagement and connections through local events and meetups, and addressing their specific needs.
