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InSync is an AI-powered, reimagined platform of your online management.

Productivity

0-1

Enterprise

InSync involved heavy research to inspire design process. As a team, we wanted the integration of AI to be subtle yet helpful. We also learned how to scope down the focus when the problem seems too broad.

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Role

UX design, UX research

Timeline

8 weeks

with

2 designers, 1 researcher/PM

tools

Figma, Figjam

Problem

In post-COVID, remote work for managers is not as efficient as we thought.

People who work and manage remotely at least 1 day every week are still struggling with being productive.

Core experience

An AI-powered platform for smart online management in remote work.

InSync is a smart all-in-one platform that leverages AI automation to support managers in achieving higher productivity.

01 Milestone & team automation

With AI assistance, managers can quickly create a project with basic information, milestones and compatible team members.

02 Effortless group meeting & project set up

With just a few clicks, managers can easily set up recurring group meetings and corresponding project tag/chat/folder.

03 Smart task generation & management

Managers can create a task by filling in necessary details, and AI can generate sub-tasks for the task, facilitating a quick update to the whole team.

User research

Are managers productive?
What makes them struggle in their current remote work experience?

We are targeting people who manage and work remotely at least one day every week. To dive deeper into their experiences and challenges, our team used triangulation for our research through literature review, survey, and user interviews.

10

academic
research papers

66

survey
responses

5

semi-structured
interviews

Quick Numbers from Target Users

Based on the methods above, some numbers quickly emerged for us to form an initial understanding of the problem space.

How productive are remote workers?

Near 50% of the survey respondents self-reported overall remote work productivity around 2-3 on a 5-point Likert scale.

Near 50% of the survey respondents self-reported remote work productivity around 2-3 on a 5-point Likert scale.

How productive are remote workers?

What means being productive?

85% of the respondents linked productivity to completing or staying focused on tasks.

85% of the respondents linked productivity to completing or staying focused on tasks.

What means being productive?

Qualitative Data Synthesis

We then collected and organized qualitative notes from secondary research, survey responses, and interview notes. Next, we analyzed the data by grouping them into themes and sub-themes for existing remote work productivity challenges.

key insights

Managers want to allocate time on more important tasks.

🔁 📑

Tedious and repetitive task management

Managers reported the inefficient task management process, e.g. creating similar tasks across projects, finding common meeting time for teams, etc.

🤔 ⏯️

Insecure on team alignment and project status

Lack of control over team management and project status

Insecure on team alignment and project status

Managers expressed frustration due to reduced control over teams, making it difficult to align goals and workflows, and evaluate contributions fairly.

design question

How might we optimize the workflow of managers
to increase their remote work productivity?

How might we optimize the workflow of managers to increase their remote work productivity?

ideation

Reconceive the remote day journey.

Let's brainstorm!

Based on the insights and design question above, our team came up with 20+ quick ideas and sketches.

How did we narrow down ideas?

After concept testing via talks with potential users and considering time constraints, we picked the most promising idea — an AI-powered platform that helps increase online management productivity.

Building Scenarios

With the big idea and some sketches, we developed the user flow via a storyboard that narrates the interaction using our envisioned product.

With the big idea and some sketches, we developed user flow via a storyboard that narrates the interaction using our envisioned product.

design solution

InSync: Design for a boost to your not-so-productive remote management day.

01 All-in-one Platform

Remote work has increased the number of applications people use at the same time, taking them longer to switch between applications or find information they need. Therefore, InSync integrates necessary apps and allow users to manage notifications and task together.

02 Magic for Project Package Creation

To ease the pain during the process of repetitive task management, we have incorporated magic like AI to enhance user productivity. Here are the four features of the first flow to create a project package.

03 Dashboard to smartly manage project workflow and sync task status

Once the project is created, manager can leverage AI to create workflow and assign relevant tasks and sub-tasks to team members. Meanwhile, ICs can check their tasks and other members' tasks to stay aligned on a broader scope.

Evaluation

We made some changes after a round of usability testing.

01 More Visualization

Users prefer more visuals over texts when scheduling meetings.

02 Avoid confusion via details

We learned that simple details can make big differences when it comes to visual communication.

impact

InSync can help managers be more productive during remote work.

I conducted a second round of usability test, and here is the result:

83%

of the users saying InSync would make their task management more smooth.

66.7%

of the users are feeling more confident to be more productive using InSync.

"I appreciate how the design can help me create tasks quickly and intuitively."

"It feels like a starting point of a comprehensive remote management platform…you can find small features that tailor to your needs."

impact

InSync can help managers be more productive during remote work.

I conducted a second round of usability test, and here is the result:

reflection

What have I learned? What is next?

01 Address Interaction in Other Parts of the Story

In a much earlier stage, our team also thought about weaving individual contributors into our story. If we have more time, we would like to address features that can mitigate pain points from both managers and ICs, such as decreasing frictions in communication delay during remote work.

02 Competitive Analysis

If have time, our team should conduct more research on what features existing products have in the marke - what worked well / not well in real pratice and why.

03 Design for Accessibility

As a next step, we can consider making the interfaces more accessible by following the WCAG standard.

01 Address Interaction in Other Parts of the Story

02 Competitive Analysis

If have time, our team should conduct more research on what features existing products have in the market - what worked well / not well in real practice and why.

03 Design for Accessibility

As a next step, we can consider making the interfaces more accessible by following the WCAG standard.

01 Address Interaction in Other Parts of the Story

02 Competitive Analysis

If have time, our team should conduct more research on what features existing products have in the market - what worked well / not well in real practice and why.