Forte
9 Weeks
Women in the workplace need to feel empowered and require a supportive space to enhance their performance in the workplace. This initiative aims to create a platform that encourages women to overcome societal backlash and excel in their careers.
OVERVIEW
ROLE
Project Lead | UX Researcher | UI/UX Design Lead | Visual Designer
TOOLS
Figma | Adobe XD | Miro | Adobe Photoshop
TASKS
Quantitative and Qualitative Research | Concept Development | Usability Testing
COLLABORATORS
Tianqi Hu | Jacob Chu
Design Process
Phase 1 | Discover
Finding Problem Space
92% women faced problems with toxic masculinity during meetings and while collaborating on projects in their workplace.
75% of young working women feel that they are unable to voice their concerns regarding unfavorable working conditions to higher management.
“How might we make young professional women feel valued while voicing their ideas in their workplace culture during internal business team meetings while interacting with their male colleagues?”
Problem Statement
In-depth conversational style interviews helped us identify various problems and needs of the target user group as well as identify the primary problem area.
Methods used include questions to spur reflection, investigative questions, empathic questions and techniques the 5 Whys.
This helped us narrow down our target audience and identify the specificity and scope within our need statement. We also were able to understand the various issues women were dealing with, how they deal with and where they deal with these issues.
User Interview
Analyzing the data that collected during the interviews, helped in identifying patterns within the interviews. They were thus grouped accordingly. We identified and bucketed the common information and statements from the interviewees that we found into various categories like “Bias in the Workplace”, “Male Dominance”, “Fear of Society”, etc.
Affinity Mapping
Information Buckets
Changing Mindset
Male Dominance
Bias at Home
Prejudice
Backward Customs
Rights are Compromised
Bias in the Workplace
Fear of Society
Toxic Males
Misogyny
Safety Concern
Backward Thinking
Encouragement at Home
Bias in School
Toxic Females
Harassment
Victimizing
No Support
Male Dominance
Women frequently find themselves being compared to their masculine counterparts while taking up physicals chores. Their opinions are undervalued as compared to the men in the workplace.
Victimizing
Women feel that they are always made a target when they speak out about their issues in the workplace. They are not given the adequate support or justice when they talk about their problems in the workplace.
Toxic Females
Women feel discouraged and belittled by other women on voicing opinions in the workplace. Most often, they feel that their opinions are not taken into consideration during meetings and other activities.
Fear of Society
Women are unable to speak up due to their fear of societal judgement. They do not effectively express their difficulty in regards to harassment, abuse, bias or any other issues that they face in the workplace.
Empathy Map
Phase 2 | Define
Women in their early 20s, in the workplace need a feeling of respect among their colleagues because they need to express their opinions about difficulties while interacting with their colleagues in the workplace culture during meetings with ease and without judgement.
Need Statement
The Insight mapping was guided by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It involved a strategic approach to understand and address user motivations and desires. Aligning insights with Maslow's psychological framework helped us create a comprehensive map that reflects the diverse layers of our users needs.
Insight Mapping
Women in their early careers who face difficulties performing their duties efficiently in the workplace.
Target User
Phase 3 | Develop
Ideation methods like SCAMPER was used to brainstorm various concepts based on the user needs we were required to fulfill.
Brainstorming
Understanding the Workplace
Constructive Criticism
Counseling
Education
Better Communication
Guidance
Peer Evaluation
Meeting Talking Points
Connect With Other Women
Company Updates
Maternal Leave
Feedback
Opportunity Finding
Express Concern
Achieve Goals
Motivational Tips
Prejudice
Feel Valued
Reduce Manterruption
Anonymous Complaints
Voice Opinions
Workplace Conversation
Communicate Ideas
No Support
Self Help
Confidence
Workplace Engagement
Work Life Balance
Workplace Norms
Self Development
Information Architecture
The paper prototyping method was used for initial testing of the app with target users. This helped us identify various refinements to improve the user experience. The major tasks of the application were identified and a task list was created. Prospective users were requested to use the app as they would on a regular mobile phone. The tasks identified included adding new goals, searching for goals, viewing their achievements and history.
Paper Prototyping
Paper Prototyping Insights
01
Initial goals lacked specificity in addressing the challenges faced.
02
Include diverse methods to address various user problems.
03
The users wanted to add multiples goals to their list at a time.
04
The users were confused by the sequence of adding the goals.
05
The users wanted to view list of goals they had already selected.
Medium fidelity wireframes that were created after the initial paper prototyping that was carried out. These wireframes capture the initial layouts and hierarchies that were further optimized in the high fidelity wireframes after another round of usability testing.
Wireframes
Forte provides working women with a safe space to overcome their issues and gain the confidence to boost performance in the workplace. It’s a learning platform that encourages women to come out of their shell and combat backlash from society in the workplace.
Solution
Phase 4 | Deliver
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To design effective solutions, it is crucial to identify core needs as per Maslow's hierarchy through observing and interviewing target users.
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This method involves substituting, combining, adapting, modifying , putting to another use, eliminating and rearranging, to generate innovative ideas.
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It’s important to conduct usability test at each stage in the solutioning process, from paper prototyping to uncover cognitive issues early on.
Learning Outcome
Kirigami
Web Development | HTML | CSS
Warp
UI/UX Design | Lean Canvas Model