Seren

Seren

Project: Slack Integration Design, Industry Design Project

Role: UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer

Team: Samantha Khou, Nate Healy, Kai Kang

Tools: Figma, Adobe Photoshop

Duration: 4 weeks

Problem

As workplace environments have evolved, more employees are finding themselves in remote and hybrid roles. This change has made it more difficult to preserve relationships and the opportunity for innovation.

Solution

Seren aims to solve this problem by connecting remote co-workers with instant and tailored water cooler calls based on shared interests.

Project Objective

To better understand potential users and how we can improve their experience with the onboarding process.

Understanding the User

One of Seren’s main goals with this project was to gain a better understanding of their users and what would motivate them to accept and engage in a Seren call. The target user group that we focused on were Gen Z software engineers that are working remotely or on a hybrid schedule. We conducted user interviews with 2 different groups of participants.

What would motivate a remote worker to accept a virtual watercooler call?

How are Gen Z software engineers handling remote work?

Onboarding Review

Seren’s other main goal was to improve the onboarding experience so it’s intuitive and easy to use. First, we performed a design audit to find areas of improvement based on UX best practices. Then, we planned and conducted usability tests, looking for any pain points that users may experience during the onboarding process.

Onboarding Design Recommendations

Based on our findings, we designed mockups to demonstrate our recommendations: 

Reflection

Collaboration is key

This project was truly a team effort. For 4 weeks, I had the opportunity to collaborate with 2 fellow UX Designers, Nate and Kai. As a team, we met with the Founder and Product Manager of Seren on a weekly basis, where we shared our research findings, explained our design decisions, and asked for their feedback. Working alongside other designers and stakeholders across 4 different time zones was an invaluable experience and I learned so much within such a short time. 

“Designing for Anyone is like Packing for a Trip to Anywhere

During this project, I also learned the importance of identifying and focusing on a specific group of users. Even if your product may be used by a large and varied audience, it’s important to narrow your focus when conducting user research. In Seren’s case, we focused on Gen Z software engineers that are working fully remotely or on a hybrid schedule. This allowed us to better understand how they are handling remote/hybrid work and how we can design Seren to meet their needs.