KeyLime Interactive
How to create employee connections remotely?
Develop a tool that helps Key Lime Interactive employees stay connected
Overview​​
KeyLime Interactive has been exploring ways to improve remote employee connections while maintaining professionalism in the workforce.
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The goal of this case study is to create a platform for KeyLime Interactive employees to connect with each other seamlessly.
Role
UX Researcher/Designer
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Qualitative and Quantitative Data, Workshop, Journey Map, Mid-Fidelity, Usability Testing
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August 2023 - December 2023
Tools
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Miro
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Figma
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Canva
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Zoom
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Outlook
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Google Doc
Data tools
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Figma ​​
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Miro
Team
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5 UX Students
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1 Upper Class
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3 Lower Class
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1 Grad
Timeline
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Overall: 3 months ​​
Background
Overview​​
KeyLime Interactive (KLI) is a user experience and customer experience research, strategy, and design services agency. KLI is a completely remote company. Their mission is to create employee connection remotely.​​​​
I am half the design team working with KeyLime Interactive (KLI)
I am a researcher gaining hands-on experience as a UX researcher/designer with KLI partnered with Purdue UX. I support my team across every aspect of our project and am responsible for being a facilitator during sponsors’ meetings and class presentations.​
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I've grown tremendously in this year, some key achievements of which I have listed below:
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Conducted quantitative research. which helped our team identify more targeted user groups and enabled all other teams to gain a better understanding of the problem scope.
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Implemented design sketches. helping our team generate more design ideas that could lead to potential solutions for improving our workflow, while also allowing other teams to gain visibility into our upcoming sprints.
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Affinity Diagram. which helped our team focus on the specific problems we aimed to solve.
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Workshop. which helped our team collaborate with stakeholders and the company's CEO, allowed for better ideas in our design process.
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Mid-Fidelity Mockups. which helped our team visualize the page flow and layout.
The Process
Literature
Review
Social
Listening
Comparative
Analysis
Secondary
Research
Primary
Research
Interview
Affinity
Diagram
Prioritization
Matrix
Understanding the Problem
As KLI is a remote company, they communicated with us that since the pandemic, an array of tools to help remote teams complete their work has surfaced; however, the focus has largely been on productivity, rather than building community and making employees feel connected.
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I conducted a literature review, social listening research, and interviews with our primary users—KLI employees—to uncover any pain points they experienced in building connections among themselves and to identify which platforms would best facilitate that connection in a professional setting.
My research encompassed:
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Understand trends and statistics related to remote work
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Learn how other companies or solutions have approached connection in their context
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Gather insights on what people are saying online about their remote work experiences
Key Findings
I reviewed the literature, analyzed social media, and conducted interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the problem space. Below are the findings.
Literature Review
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60% say they feel less connected to their co-workers now.” (Pew Research Center).
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"Social presence” is crucial to support learning and to students’ sense of satisfaction with their learning experience.
Social Media
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Not everyone cares about forming connections at the workplace.
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"I Kinda miss seeing facial expression"
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Some employees find connection building events to feel forced.
Interview
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Timing clash is always an issue
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Wants immediate connect; informl
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Felt Isolated, but don't mind it
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Used to working in person at KeyLime and misses it sometimes
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Would be nice for KeyLime connect people without having to reach out to them
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Feels isolated a lot
Affinity Diagram
After collecting the data from the user interviews, I conducted affinity mapping with my teammates to synthesize the identified pain points. We grouped these problems under common themes and platform features.
My teammates and I used a Prioritization Matrix to create our "How Might We" statements, focusing on the right problem that needed to be solved.
Prioritization Matrix
A user prioritization matrix was created to gain a better understanding of the main issue with employee connection. 7 "How Might We" statements were generated after the Affinity Diagram exercise. My teammate then conducted Lime voting to select our top 3 "How Might We" statements, allowing us to focus on 3 key goals for developing an employee connection solution. This process not only helped prioritize and generate ideas but also helped us identify our main problem space.
The Final "How Might We"
1. How might we mirror in-person experience to the digital space?
1a. How might we take the effort away from the individual, and still organizally produce connections?
1b. How might we make new employees feel welcome in a remote environment?
Top Lime Votes
Identified Problem Space
Key Lime Interactive faces a challenge of employee isolation within their work environment, leading to a sense of disconnect among their workforce. It was learned that current attempts at connection feel forced and unorganic.
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After identifying the problem, the goal is to develop unique ideas for...​​
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1. How might we mirror in-person experience to the digital space?
. How might we mirror in-person experience to the digital space?
Workshop
A workshop was organized to collaborate with our stakeholders and the CEO of KeyLime Interactive to gain perspectives from company leadership and create space for idea generation. I conducted the workshop using the MAD, SAD, GLAD activity, S.C.A.M.P.E.R, and Crazy 6s techniques.
The Activities
We Found out
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Participants were aligned with feelings of missing meaningful interaction.
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Ideas generated were related to in-person experiences and interactions.
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Building upon existing KLI services like Google Workspaces was emphasized.
Wireframing the solution
Based on the above problems identified, my teammates and I worked towards addressing these pains by coming up with potential solutions through low-fidelity designs.
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A desktop platform
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Navigation on the left side
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6 buttons
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Main Office view
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Work area
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Game room
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hang out room
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meeting room
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do not disturb
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A bulletin board
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Design Solution
Usability testing sessions were conducted with our primary users to validate whether the new designs would solve their problems. I wrote a script that included a scenario asking the users to navigate the desktop using the prototype and then follow the expected process.
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During the session, I observed how they interacted with the prototype and engaged with the audience. The usability sessions revealed that the design was more seamless and facilitated a better connection between employees. The implementation of the bulletin board and ping features was well received and new to their platform.
Room Showcase
Features user icons indicating availability—green for available, yellow for busy, and red for do-not-disturb
Poking Messaging
Notify fellow co-workers that you’re interested in chatting
Bulletin Board Showcase
Allow users to craft posters and RSVP events
Notificiations
Notification will directly take them to Google Chats, Google Meets, or the bulletin board.
Developing the designs
My teammate and I created High-fidelity mockups in Figma, then imported a document showcasing how the design was developed to allow our sponsors to inspect the file and send it over to the engineers.
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I worked very closely with the back-end team to ensure that the design solution aligned with the research findings. I also conducted a UX review of each front-end implementation to ensure alignment with the design before pitching it to the sponsors.
Result and Takeaways
After the design creation, my teammate and I received positive feedback from our sponsors following our presentation of findings and solutions. Additionally, users expressed how effective these solutions would be for them.
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Some key takeaways from this project include:
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Workshop Preparation. Adequate preparation is important. Timing and practicing the workshop format are essential, as they help manage the stakeholders' time effectively.
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Prioritization Matrix. This tool is excellent for narrowing down the problem scope, especially in exploratory projects.
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Ongoing User Testing. User testing doesn't conclude after development. Design is an iterative process that requires continuous improvement based on feedback.
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Documenting the Process. Thorough documentation is vital. It helps engineers and sponsors understand the goals, the rationale behind decisions, the methods employed, and the results that influenced the design.