HubLoc Experience
SERVICE DESIGN | SYSTEM DESIGN | RESEARCH & ANALYSIS | FACILITATION | CO-CREATION | UI/UX DESIGN | GRAPHIC DESIGN
Stakeholders:
Remote working hubs
Rural communities in Ireland
Remote working employees
Industry:
Public Service
Duration:
3 months
Tools used:
Miro, Adobe XD, Zoom, Photoshop, After Effects, Keynote & Sketching
Mentored by:
Sinem Lacin, Design Lead, Fjord
What is the solution?
A design solution that supports co-working hubs and communities in rural Ireland by building trust & confidence among remote workers about moving to a new town and working remotely.
Purpose of the Project:
The following project was undertaken as a Thesis/Major Project for Master's Degree in Service Design at NCAD, Dublin.
To recover from the pandemic and have a sustainable future, Rural Growth and Economical Development are extremely important ingredients. Building a sustainable experience of remote working in rural areas will not only provide towards this goal but also become a strong pillar for rural re-population and reverse the trend of young people leaving to the cities.
This project became an opportunity to understand:
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the shift in the remote work model caused post pandemic
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to provide an innovative approach to encourage more people to relocate to Irish villages, build businesses and increase rural the economic growth.
My Role in the Project:
The entire project was initiated, conceptualised and executed by me using service/system design processes and include:
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Primary & Secondary research + Interviews with Stakeholders
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Data Analysis + Deriving Insights & Problem statements
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Facilitating Co-creation workshops + Ideation of concepts
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Developing, testing and refining prototypes
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Presentation and pitching of concepts and solution
What is the need?
Rural de-population has become a huge concern in Ireland. For decades, people have been migrating from rural areas of Ireland to the cities in search of better work and lifestyle.
This has been detrimental to the economic growth of the villages causing further migration to cities. In order to break this cycle and revive the rural population, the government of Ireland has been trying various initiatives for many years.
THE APPROACH:
Research process:
The first two weeks involved planning the research phase and understanding the market needs of remote working in Ireland. During this phase, websites of 6 co-working spaces located in Dublin were analysed and other regions of Ireland to collect data points. This initial data built an understanding of the various business plans and services provided by the hubs which helped immensely while preparing the interview format.
Interview Schedule (Blurred for confidentiality reasons)
Service Safaris
I also conducted 3 service safaris of remote working hubs in Dublin City and analysed into Experience map. Simultaneously, 16 online interviews were conducted with remote workers in Dublin and India. This was followed by 2 interviews with Dingle Hub.
After the interviews with Dingle hub, ethnographic research was conducted by visiting the town of Dingle where 2 more interviews were undertaken with two of the hub's clients and data points were collected.
All the data points collected from service safaris, the interviews and ethnographic research were gathered on Participant boards as shown on the right.
These data points were further analysed and grouped using Affinity Mapping technique to derive Themes which were synthesised into Insights and Design Challenges as shown below.
Insights from Research:
7 insights were finalised from the research out of which 3 insights were selected and refined into design challenges as shown:
1.
There are concerns regarding the longevity of hubs causing remote workers who are relying
on the hub infrastructure for work to move to a new town.
2.
A tolerant progressive community environment that can welcome repatriates & newcomers alike.
3.
Two kinds of user groups have
been found:
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Those who already have roots in the rural areas.
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Those who are on the verge to make the move.
Design Challenges:
1.
How might we create a progressive environment in rural communities for potential remote workers so that they can move to the Irish towns feeling confident about their safety and acceptance?
2.
How might we promote the reliability of the services provided by the remote working hubs so that more people feel reassured to use the hubs in rural regions of Ireland?
Concept Phase:
A co-creation workshop was facilitated where the problem statements were presented to the participants and several ideas were brainstormed. Using affinity mapping, the ideas generated were converted into concept groups. The ones highlighted below were the concepts taken forward into development phase.
THE OUTCOME: HUBLOC PLATFORM
The design solution comprises of 4 touchpoints:
A Stakeholder Map was created to structure the user groups and further refined to the final stakeholders for the design solution to focus on.
From research, it was observed that the hubs interacted with the communities and remote workers albeit separately. This caused a gap in communication between the communities and the remote workers, leading to remote workers not being able to integrate with the townsfolk, effectively creating exclusion.
HubLoc Service explores this area of opportunity between the three stakeholders by becoming a platform of engagement for all three of them thus bridging that gap.
Area of opportunity
Moreover, using Mindset Segmentation technique (behavioural archetypes) each stakeholder group was analysed and segmented based on their mindsets & preferences.
DISCLAIMER:
The name 'Dingle Hub' has been used just for prototyping purposes. The hub is in no way affiliated towards the project apart from providing timely inputs.
Touchpoint 1: HubLoc Digital Platform (Website+Mobile App)
HubLoc website is the awareness touchpoint of the service. It helps the users to understand the potential of becoming part of the service by registering in the app by providing a quick overview of the service.
The HubLoc mobile app takes the experience further by:
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providing customised recommendations to the users through a preference-based questionnaire.
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gauges the preferences shared through questionaire and matches them with the right hub and right community.
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displays the best recommendations of hubs and towns to the user.
The User Experience of the Mobile App:
Afterwards, the app continues to provide assistance by providing:
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information about each hub, contact details, hotdesk booking options, the amenities provided, job opportunities at the hub, user reviews, average living expenses, activities, housing options, photo gallery and reviews, etc.
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similar information for the rural towns and communities
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a 3D illustrated map of the hubs' workspace and hotdesks available.
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extra assistance like ‘Find a home’, bike rentals, car rentals, etc., and the hub will redirect them to reliable sources for help.
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The users can also select what hubs they would like to connect within the HubCircle feature based on their subscription plan.
Wireframes:
Touchpoint 2: Community buddy
The community buddy system helps provide the remote workers with trustworthy assistance when they need it. It will not only help to integrate the remote workers into the community even before they arrive, but also creates awareness within the community that they will be welcoming a new member to their town.
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A one-day workshop at the respective hubs for volunteers will be arranged along with orientation kits to understand how best to provide assistance to the newcomers into town.
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Touchpoint 3: Welcome Kit
The kit is a physical touchpoint in the journey of the stakeholders and is gifted to the newcomers in the hubs as a gesture of warm welcome. This builds interest towards local merchandise, creating revenue opportunities.
It contains:
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Guidebook of the town that has information regarding restaurants, cafes, niche clubs, activities, queer-friendly spaces, etc.
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Welcome cards, desk ornaments, notebooks, pens and other goodies produced locally.
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Vouchers and coupons.
The Welcome and Buddy orientation kits are ordered in large scale and assembled by the local businesses, thus building job opportunities and income prospects in the town.
Touchpoint 4: Subscription Plans
Shared here is a template for subscription plan that can be customised according to the hub’s business plans. It includes different features provided by the hubs:
HUBCIRCLE: The feature creates a network of
partnered hubs under HubLoc.
The remote workers are able to use other hubs within their HubCircle according to their subscribed plan which further helps build trust and good relationship between all stakeholders.
HUBFEST: It is a festival that would be arranged once in 2 years in different parts of Ireland.
This festival would not only host hubs from all over the country but also provide a platform for local artists to
showcase their talent.
CONFERENCE ROOMS AND PRIVATE PODS: These amenities are subject to subscription plans.
Trials and short term plans have restricted access
while long term plans enjoy unlimited access to the
rooms.
PROTOTYPE TESTING:
Feedback from Testing:
Remote Working Hubs:
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Focus more on the service being self-sustainable as dependability on Government funding is risky.
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There are a number of different hub networks
(Connected Hubs) emerging and it would be great if this idea could dovetail with all.
Remote Workers:
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The community buddy system was found as a brilliant idea with the suggestion of including a hub buddy.
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The user group is very narrow in scope and thus caters to a niche group of people.
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It might become difficult to implement when employees will be asked to return to office spaces.
Communities:
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It can add a system with set criteria to find suitable people for Community buddy feature.
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It would be useful if there was also an easy way for new co-working hubs to become a
part of this platform.
Opportunities:
From the feedback, we also derived opportunities for growth in the solution:
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- Involve the right experts to develop the solution further : UI/UX designers, developers, strategists,
psychologists, community leaders, stakeholders, etc. - Scaling up the user demographic by including families, more hubs, corporate companies, etc.
- Developing a plan of action for when employers/companies do not encourage remote working.
- Measuring the feasibility of integrating HubLoc with new platforms and those already existing/available.
Service Design Blueprint:
The blueprint shared here discusses not just details of the service, but also how HubLoc can create advocates for the service, rewards system and exit strategy.
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(However, since the blueprint is quite long, an unclear image has been shared. If needed to be seen in detail, please contact the designer and she can share the document separately.)
Testimonials:
“Really great ideas there, it's obvious you've put a lot of thought and work into it. I really like lots of elements you mentioned, including the welcome kit, the community buddy idea, map/VR view of the workspaces. Love the thinking to include local artists, restaurants, etc. in the welcome kit and the buddy having a list of local happenings and events, etc to give the new person an intro to the community."
-- Maggie Breen, Dingle Hub
“The community buddy system is a brilliant idea. Also including a hub buddy would help.”
-- Aaron D'Souza, Software Engineer
“Finding a home in a safe neighbourhood is very important & having a buddy to advise is useful”
-- Nupur Gokhale, Business Strategist
“I am blown away. All steps needed to make a move like that have been thought of. Very organic. HubCircle is a fantastic idea”
-- Sinead Bennett, Community Member