In my time as a designer for enterprise platforms, HR approached us with an ambitious project.

Employee recognition had been an ongoing issue in the workplace. (HR heard about it plenty in exit interviews). I was to lead the UX/UI design in the multi-department project team tasked with finding a solution. 

Disclaimer: All views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the respective company.

My role

I was in charge of all major UX deliverables such as end-to-end user flows and a working prototype on Adobe XD. 

As the sole designer, I was effectively the representative of every employee. I would regularly walk-through my designs with stakeholders and the team. I worked with the UX Architect in developing the information architecture, as well as the Tech Lead in managing what was possible within the confines.

As the dev work progressed, I created a design fidelity assurance document for our third-party developers to ensure the actual product remained faithful to the design vision.

RESPONSIBILITIES /

Timeline & OUTPUT /

TEAM /

On the environment

Empathize

In order to empathize with the users, I had to define my understanding of the environment. The team had conducted numerous nation-wide surveys & user interviews I could use as a research foundation for understanding employee thought processes around work ethic and recognition.

2018

We did have a program for giving kudos points to co-workers, but it was web-based. And in this fast-moving telco, web-based might as well be called "useless." 

In fact, it was found that 62% of employees prefer to do work on mobile devices, and so it was fitting that our new recognition platform take the form of a mobile app.

Employees didn't care for the current recognition program, and neither did their supervisors. Employees just didn't see any value in a point-giving platform.

Telecom culture

Company culture isn't something that's manufactured in an executive meeting room. In our case it wasn't the average of employee personalities either. It was the edge cases—a trend set by a group I'd like to call the pace-makers. 

Interestingly enough, these traits were also the most common "cons" for ex-employees on just about every job-seeking platform out there.

The culture was always very cutthroat and competitive. BUT, we found a way to use that to our advantage (more on that later). 

Recognition factors

Defining the factors involved in employee recognition helped me understand why employees needed to be appreciated in the first place. Recognizing that their motivations were more emotional than material would be crucial in informing my design decisions.

01/ Physical factors

02/ Emotional factors

Defining the problem

Problem statement

Employees are in a highly-competitive environment, often working with totally different people for every project. Their managers and colleagues only see the finished product, not how well they fulfilled their role nor the amount of hard work they put in.

Design challenges

Inclusive design

I was designing for all 30,000 employees, accounting for anyone between the ages of 20-60. A fresh graduate, all the way to a legal senior citizen.

Make it "fun"

Work-related apps were plentiful for the average employee. Getting noticed would require a unique approach. The solution would have to engage a wide variety of people with different occupations, interests, and values.

It's not about me

I was in a unique position of designing for a user-base that included myself. Which is awesome. I just had to keep in mind that my feelings about work do not necessarily reflect anyone else's.

User stories & POV

The team decided that a point-giving system would not be enough to sustain interest, and so we focused on value-adding functionalities that aligned with our project goals.

We would be delivering the app in phases, with each outcome informing the next. Phase 1 focused on the foundation of the app. Give & receive. The next phase would require the structure established over time with phase 1.

Phase 2 would be introducing a "Team view" for people managers, as well as a company-wide leaderboard. This was where we planned to deliver meaningful changes to the way recognition was perceived throughout the company.

A simplified version of the Demand Stories/User stories (DSUS) document. Turning points into a currency would be vital for incentivizing use of the app.

Flow with the go

Weekly alignments with the project team educated me on the needs of the business. This gave me a starting point to quickly generate user flows and organize information on the app. 

Being able to map out future phases helped me ensure screen designs were scalable. 

Designing solutions

Start with goals

This was one of my favorite projects to design. Foremost, because its meaning was so straightforward. Give and receive. Something so pure and fundamental (and you can’t spell fundamental without FUN).  

üRock's first phase had 3 primary screens that corresponded to the 3 primary user goals:

Empty states — instead of blank sections with blurbs, I opted to design something a little less boring.

FIRST RELEASE

The MVP was released and the team rejoiced. We read comment after comment on the speed, usability, and visual charm of the app on Workplace.

Our adoption rate goal for the first month was 12-15%. The actual was 18%. However, an overwhelming amount of comments were users sending screenshots of their profile page. Because what is the point of doing a good job if no one else knows? 

Enter phase 2

What does it mean to be a rockstar? Rockstars exude confidence & share their talents, but most of all they are recognized for it.

We have an app for an employee to give and earn points, as well as a way to gain rewards. What now? At this stage, it was just a point-giving app. It still wasn't solving the bigger issue of recognition beyond their project teams.

We had to think back to what made our company ethic unique. What drives us to come to work and give it our all? What is the method by which the physical and emotional recognition factors mentioned above are obtained?

Competition. (Told you we’d be coming back to this).

In an intense and rapid work environment like this, you can bet everyone loves a little fair and friendly competition.

Leaderboard

The next phase would include a company-wide leaderboard with the option to see who the top people in your Group are. This would be updated every week.

Team view for managers

People managers would have a dashboard for the accumulated feedback of their direct reports. This is to keep track of their team's progress, possibly even a way to open up a conversation when they see a drastic change in stats.

Commendations are the total number of times a direct report was lauded by a co-worker. Similarly to the profile page, there are statistics on which key values the team exemplified over a certain time period. Managers can also view their direct report's profile pages for more in-depth feedback.

These features would allow managers to more accurately make adjustments not only based on their direct report's output, but also their attitude and commitment within their individual project teams.