Circle

Helping Coworkers in Large Offices Connect Over Lunch Break

Project Type

Independent Project

My Role

UX/UI Design

Project Duration

6 Weeks

Overview

Workplace Isolation Undermines Employee Well-Being and Collaboration

Isolation and loneliness have become an increasing challenge since remote working became popular during the pandemic. The physical separation of coworkers has led to the decline of friendships and connections at workplace, which adversely impact happiness and collaborations at work.

  • 63% of employees at enterprise-sized companies (1,000+ employees) said friends make work more enjoyable 

  • 23% of people under 25 said they’re lonely in their workplace, and wanted friendship with colleagues

  • 4X more popularity received for in-person team-bonding activities than for virtual ones


*Data from "The 2021 Workplace Friendship& Happiness Survey" by Wildgoose.

Companies also benefit from interpersonal relationships because they nurture communication and collaboration between employees.

Isolation and loneliness have become an increasing challenge since remote working became popular during the pandemic. The physical separation of coworkers has led to the decline of friendships and connections at workplace, which adversely impact happiness and collaborations at work.

  • 63% of employees at enterprise-sized companies (1,000+ employees) said friends make work more enjoyable 

  • 23% of people under 25 said they’re lonely in their workplace, and wanted friendship with colleagues

  • 4X more popularity received for in-person team-bonding activities than for virtual ones


*Data from "The 2021 Workplace Friendship& Happiness Survey" by Wildgoose.

Companies also benefit from interpersonal relationships because they nurture communication and collaboration between employees.

Isolation and loneliness have become an increasing challenge since remote working became popular during the pandemic. The physical separation of coworkers has led to the decline of friendships and connections at workplace, which adversely impact happiness and collaborations at work.

  • 63% of employees at enterprise-sized companies (1,000+ employees) said friends make work more enjoyable 

  • 23% of people under 25 said they’re lonely in their workplace, and wanted friendship with colleagues

  • 4X more popularity received for in-person team-bonding activities than for virtual ones


*Data from "The 2021 Workplace Friendship& Happiness Survey" by Wildgoose.

Companies also benefit from interpersonal relationships because they nurture communication and collaboration between employees.

Solution

The Circle app allows working professionals to take lunch time as a great opportunity to connect with their coworkers.

Post/join lunch activities in the feed

Match with a coworker one-on-one

Introduce yourself in the profile

Research

  1. Understanding the market

I started the market research by comparing three professional networking apps: Lunchclub, Bumble Bizz, and Meetup:

  • Lunchclub

    Lunchclub aims to help professionals make meaningful connections and foster professional growth through curated one-on-one meetings. The platform uses artificial intelligence to match individuals with similar interests, and facilitates virtual or in-person meetings weekly based on mutual availability. It also offers conversation prompts and discussion topics.

    Signature Feature: AI-powered one-on-one matching

    Pricing: Free

  • Bumble Bizz

    Bumble Bizz is a professional networking section of the dating app Bumble. Users create their professional profiles and swipe to connect with other people. It offers the option to filter connections based on industry and location. Bumble Bizz also provides a platform for mentorship through its Bumble Bizz Mentorship feature.

    Signature Feature: Women must make the first move when opposite sex members match

    Pricing: Freemium model

  • Meetup

    Meetup is a social network platform that hosts in-person and virtual events for people with similar interests. Users can browse and join groups based on categories and location, create and host online or in-person events, interact with group members and organizers.

    Signature Feature: group events for community building

    Pricing: Free membership for basic access to group participation; group organizers pay monthly subscription fees or event fees for enhanced features.

All three platforms are catering to a large population of consumers by providing opportunities for professional networking based on industry, interests, and location. However, they lack a localized feature for users to connect with their current professional social circles. This presents a market gap for a middle-sized platform specifically tailored for colleagues to bond within the same company. This platform could be integrated with the communication software used by companies to offer more seamless experience in the future.

  1. Understanding the user

Hypotheses

I started the user research with the following hypotheses:

1.

Bonding with colleagues results in better satisfaction at work

2.

Smaller groups foster relationships easier than large groups

3.

Remote or hybrid work schedule is not enough to keep employees engaged

4.

Companies care about employee well being and will pay for this product

User interviews

I interviewed five participants to learn about their professional social circles and their personal experience on building connections in a workplace.

Research insights

The responses helped me validate most of the hypotheses and provided further insights:

  1. Identifying the target user

  1. Visualizing the ideal user journeys

This storyboard illustrates the ideal path of how two coworkers in a large company can meet casually in person and get to know each other using the Circle app.

Ideation

  1. Defining and prioritizing features

Based on the research, I started listing out the potential features:

Features to be prioritized

Driven from research insights, features that enable users to meet each other for in-person activities are essential and prioritized.

Features to come later

These features provide users more advanced functions and help retain users.

  1. Visualizing the basic structure of the app

  1. Mapping out the critical user flows

Flow 1: share/react to a lunch activity

Flow 2: match with a coworker to have lunch together

Flow 3: receive a match request from a coworker

  1. Explore how matching works

Prototyping and testing

  1. Prototyping

I prototyped 3 flows to get feedback from users:

  • Initiate a match request and receive the approval

  • Receive and approve a match request

  • Give feedback for the match

PROTOTYPE FOR USABILITY TESTING

Initiate a match request and receive the approval

Receive a match request and approve it

Give feedback for the match after the meetup

  1. Usability testing

5 participants interacted with the initial Figma prototype to test the idea. Testing results are organized in the chart below:

I got some constructive feedback focus on these two topics:

  1. Users are not satisfied with the need to approve the match

    • “I don’t want to know who refused to connect with me.”

    • “I feel it should only show me the match when it’s mutual.”

  2. Users feel awkward to review and rate the match

    • “The questions make me feel weird and I don’t know what they are used for.”

    • “I don’t think that data is necessary for the user because I would only use the match to meet with that person once.”

Iteration and final design

Design revisions

Based on feedback from usability testing, I iterated the design with key changes on how users match with each other. The new design automatically matches users without the need for approval, giving users the freedom to pause for the current time period or access their match history to contact previous matches depending on their own schedule.

  • Revision 1: change the matching method to mutually automatic match without approval

  • Revision 2: users can choose to pause match for the current week if they are busy

  • Revision 3: user may get new matches periodically depending on their setting of match frequency

  • Revision 4: remove the review and rating for the match and meeting

  • Revision 5: add match history so users can view past matches or choose to contact later

  • Revision 6: users can set their match frequency or turn off the match feature

FINAL PROTOTYPE

Reflections

Given the 4-week time frame, I chose to focus on refining and iterating the key user flow - matching, which turned out to be more complex than I had initially imagined. The feedback I received from usability testing proved very helpful and encouraged me to explore further different ways people connect at workplaces. If provided with additional time and resources, I would conduct more comprehensive user research involving individuals of different seniorities working in corporate offices. I would also like to interview people in management at large companies to validate my assumption that businesses are willing to support the product idea.

Next

How to share the moment when physically apart?

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