Cloudspace

An idea management system for startups with a focus on building team synergy. Cloudspace was designed to consider human factor principles to create an enjoyable and intuitive design. Cloudspace is customisable, structured, and community centred.

My Role

UX Researcher, UI designer and Visual Branding.

Duration

Mar - May 2021
10 weeks

Course

Human Factors IACT 375
Professor Ascanio Di Paliano

Team

Addie Benson (UI design Lead)

Jeremie Rivera Doi (Interaction design Lead)

Erin Mills (Product Designer)

Project Brief

From this list of 10 psychological needs, pick one to guide the project problem space. Autonomy, self-esteem, competence, self-actualisation, relatedness, pleasure-stimulation, physical thriving, money-luxury, security or popularity-influence.

The Essence of Enjoyable Experiences: The Human Needs

What Is Satisfying About Satisfying Events? Testing 10 Candidate Psychological Needs

Problem Space

Lack of balance between competence and confidence has impacted those transitioning jobs.

Topic of Interest

We want to equip people transitioning into a job with the skills of adaptability and creative competency, to better integrate into a new team or new working environment.

Target audience

Growing startup teams or teams with an entrepreneurial spirit

Secondary Research

We want to learn about the confidence bias in a team to create an open culture of creative competency in a new work environment.

Confidence

A person's mindset and behaviour in the workplace. Humility and work ethic are key.

Competence

The ability to apply knowledge and perform skills to complete a set of tasks.

Confidence vs Competence

Finding the balance between perceived competence and emotional confidence.

How do we gain confidence in our work?

Mindset & Behaviour

Sharing knowledge

Encourages more active sharing from others
Important for the good of the collective

Open communication

Solidifies company culture
Helps build a sense of belonging

How do we achieve competency?

Skillset & Application

A conducive environment and team support

Finding the right fit for the team is key to growing engagement

Engagement

The basis for building sentiments of confidence and competence in the team

I feel engaged with my work when...

For team members

my work challenges me.
it offers opportunities for growth.
it strengthens my network and reputation in the market.

For stakeholders

there is higher satisfaction, lower intention to quit, and commitment.
there is a stronger predictor of task performance.

High engagement leads to...

Increased productivity, creativity, innovation, competency, motivation, confidence, support and willingness to take risks.

Energy and Engagement balanced with confidence and competence

Primary Research

We conducted both user and expert interviews and identified some key characteristics teams need to be successful.

Fruitful interview questions

What are key components startups need early on to lay the ground of their goals?
What are shared values that are essential to the success of a team?
What is the culture around giving and receiving feedback on skills/competencies?
How do you cultivate an open and honest culture among team members?
How do you build loyalty and commitment within a team?

Interview insights

From affinitising the data points we got from both primary and secondary research methods, we created this framework of what makes successful teams.

Safety & belonging

Growth and Nurturing

People seek belonging in team environments
More value is placed in how individual team members think than hard skills, which can always be learned.
There must be an understanding of individuals’ capabilities, personal goals, and personal needs

Trust

Sharing knowledge

Psychological safety leads to clear and open communication
A collective no-bad-ideas mindset is important to shift focus from early prejudice to valuing the process and teammates’ thoughts

Honesty & Open Communication

Communication and Culture

Coordination can be difficult if there isn’t clear communication
There must be vulnerability and honesty in giving and receiving feedback

Aligned values, goals, and mission

Team dynamic

Team synergy comes from shared passion and understanding
Alignment in mission, values, and goals creates a sense of mutual understanding and focused direction

The Problem

Hiring the wrong fit through a mismatch of perceived competency

The Opportunity space

The importance of open communication for establishing a startup’s vision and culture to create a sense of belonging

Competitive Analysis

Design questions going forward

How might we create a platform that cultivates and supports open communication and idea sharing?

How might we create a collaborative system that nurtures and inspires teams?

How might we create successful teams by connecting the members on a human level quicker?

Solution

A hub for startup teams that fosters open communication and idea sharing to align goals of the team. It should aid teams in keeping updated and on the same page to build connections and belonging.

Initial Concept

Cloudspace

Cloudspace is a collaborative tool that’s easily accessible to capture the ideas among the startup team and build strong ties.

Selling points

Less intimidated to share
Identify significant ideas to invest time implementing
Visually see how ideas grow
Put value in stray thoughts
Collaborate to build upon similar ideas within the team

Jay recently started working at startup called Ventive

He’s eager to share his knowledge and ideas with his teammates but feels a little nervous by their judgement

Jay uses Cloudspace while he’s working to jot down an idea

Irene sees Jay’s idea in Cloudspace and finds it to really align with the company’s goals and vision.

She upvotes the idea and leaves a comment validating Jay’s direction

Jay feels at ease knowing he can share his ideas and was able to contribute

Human Factor Considerations to meet

The book 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People. (Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D.) gave great insight to the Human Factor considerations for Cloudspace.

Emotional factors

A sense of connection

Enjoyment in interactions

Social factors

Aid open communication

Bonding activities

Motivational factors

Quick and easy

Control over processes

Decision making

Informed and confident

Customisable

Group considerations

Equal voice

User Testing

Low Fidelity Iteration Goals

Test if users find value in the concept
Is the organisation of information logical
Does the different touch points have the desired human factor effect

Interview questions

Would this be useful to you and your team?
Was it easy to navigate?
How would you describe this? Is there any product that you use like this?
Is the Info spread out into manageable chunks at a time?
Would it be useful for bonding?
What could make this better?

Landing page

Team Boards | Your Space | Team Care

Feedback

Prioritising the team as a unit is a unique feature.
Clear to navigate.
Friendly looking.
Consider incorporating board info with team members and roles in startup

Board view

Grid layout | Idea cards | Tags, Up Votes & Notes

Feedback

Love upvote idea, show on all views
Consider what goes on the card. Amount of copy per idea, dates, tags, who worked on it
Suggestion: Word cloud to reflect frequency of keywords

Strength view

White board layout | High & Low Strength Rating

Feedback

Suggestion for only board owners to create and manage tags. (Check out Notion’s tagging and views for information)

Chat feature

Meta data | Comments | Hidden Tags

Feedback

Include notifications of activity to a card, messages, or edits
Worried about less organisation on board. “How are we going to keep people focused on productive things?”
Suggestion to have chat function only for ideas with above a number of upvotes. Unlocking tiers.

Energy check

5pt Likert Scale Survey | Daily Team Check In

Feedback

People won’t want their managers to know their energy level
Make team care status only available to their boss/manager to “understand how to help them”
Keep it anonymous at team level

Energy cloud

Visual Cloud Chart | Trends of Team Energy Levels

Feedback

Has more life and community than Trello (a team to-do list), adds the human element

Idea management

Multiple views aids different thinking processes.
Idea system needs narrowing down for specific purpose

Team space

Team care is useful, valuable & unique
Add team bonding activities
Edging toward a social media function

Overview

Team care is useful, valuable and unique
Multiple views aid different thinking and visualisation processes
Idea systems needs narrowing down and revisit how it adds value

User Testing

High Fidelity Iteration Goals

Testing the updated organisation of information
Checking for usability of the navigation
Testing the desired human factor effects

Moderated User Test

We observed the user freely click around on the prototype with some guiding context and supporting questions.

Interview questions

Would you prefer if you would manually choose to pin boards to your navigation bar? Or would you like the boards you are already part of to be on there?
Would knowing the energy level of your team on a weekly or daily average be more helpful?
Would it be motivating to use frequently?
Would it be useful for bonding & speed up the process with people that don’t know each other too well? Why or why not?

Board cluster

Grid layout | Idea cards | Tags, Up Votes & Notes

Feedback

Likes the colour coded tags
Clusters need visual difference from idea cards

Feedback

Consider incorporating board info with team members and roles in startup

Team space

Energy Cloud overview | Weekly highlights | Team bonding activities

Feedback

Keep the energy cloud on weekly cloud
Consolidate the confirmed and suggestions columns for events into a single column to simplify
Labelling needs to be more defined

Energy Cloud

Visual cloud chart | Trends of energy levels of team

Feedback

Would prefer to see the weekly cloud instead of daily for more meaningful insight on energy trends

Energy chart

Feedback

Fully label axes to increase cloud readability
Add a heading to the section to make it clear what the cloud represents

Key Features, Functions and Tasks

Feature

Function

Task

Grid View

Display semi-structured idea organization

Place & move ideas

Structured List

Display structured idea organization

Filter or scan through ideas quickly

Word Cloud

Showcase frequency of word concepts

Discuss prominent ideas

Energy Check

Gain visual insight on team energy level

Gauge planning based on collective energy

Grid View

Promote open sharing and bonding

Share personal highlights and interact with others

Plan Events

Promote team bonding

Suggest and vote on activities

Site map of Cloudspace

Cloudspace builds team synergy through open sharing of ideas and empathy-building bonding activities.

Cloudspace provides differing organizational views of a team’s ideas to account for diverse thinking processes.

Cloudspace delivers an open, anonymous space for teammates to express their energy levels to drive meetings with empathy.

Teammates can share the highlights of their week to foster a sense of community and bonding.

Concept

Cloudspace is an idea mangement system for Startups with a focus on building team synergy.

Cloudspace SUS Score

An evaluation tool used to measure the usability of a product

Pass

Average

Cloudspace Beta

Perfect

100

Note: To view prototype in a separate tab, click the white tab below. Full prototype also linked at the bottom of page.

*View prototype on desktop*

Human Factor Final Evaluation

The book 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People. (Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D.) gave great insight to the Human Factor considerations for Cloudspace.

Emotional factors

Memorable touch points using an emotional hook and personal anecdotes

Visual language consistent with core emotions and motif

Clean UI with soothing colour scheme to build initial trust with users

Social factors

Fosters strong ties with direct communication channels

Supports planning synchronous activities for strong connections

Motivational factors

Fast and easy access to information

Digestible at a glance

Control over processes through anonymous voting and self-made tags

Decision making