Research Phase 1

Interviewing Potential Stakeholders

To understand our stakeholders, one of the first research activities that the group conducted was informally interviewing a friend or family member about their general experience working from home. The goal of this activity was to establish a baseline knowledge of the common struggles and setbacks of working from home, as well as recognize any basic needs that these possible stakeholders had expressed. As a part of the interview process, each group member captured an image of the interviewee’s workspace to be used in a Photo Study. The interview consisted of an informal, guided discussion that attempted to address the following questions:

  1. What are the current aspects of our stakeholders’ WFH setup that they value the most and believe make their WFH experience positive?
  2. What are the current aspects of our stakeholders’ WFH setup that limit their productivity or negatively affect their WFH experience?
  3. What are some things that our stakeholders believe would help improve their WFH experience?

Below are the formal reports that each group member wrote up to document their interview.

Interview 1

Interview 2

Interview 3

Interview 4

Some of the images captured during this process can be found here:

 

After completing these interviews individually, the group met to discuss key findings and takeaways:

Doug

  • Interviewed roommate
  • Loses focus because he’s in his room
  • Likes a larger desk so he can spread out instead of drawers
  • Noises inside the house; people walking up the stairs, closing doors

Andrew

  • Interviewed Mike, school and research from home
  • Like working job from home, all stuff that’s entirely individually
  • Misses the in person interaction of being on campus in classes
  • Doesn’t feel he’s in the same mindset, says he feels more relaxed at home, can get more distracted
  • Works from bedroom, doesn’t have dedicated space he can do work from
  • Outside noise is distracting
  • Things he’d want to add: second monitor, bigger desk, wants a space to store notebooks/textbooks because using bookbag doesn’t seem like the best place, something to enclose him/deter him from getting up from his desk
  • Wants to be in an enclosed space while he works that makes it harder for him to get up from his chair while working
    • Finds that the ease in which he can get up from working and quickly be doing many other things is a distraction, he wants to be forced to stay sitting as his desk as you are when inside of a library

Anthony

  • Interviewed roommate
  • Has 2 monitors, keyboard, gaming pc
    • Needs space underneath desk
  • Easy to get distracted
    • Can hear noise from people talking, listening to music, noise from passer byers even with the windows closed

Jinglong

  • Interviewed 2 friends, living on campus last semester, now living in separate bedrooms
  • While on campus:
    • 2 people per room, 2 rooms per suite
    • Configuration was annoying, beds are close to the window, desk really close to bed.
    • If they’re using their computers, people walking outside can see their screen
    • Light from the monitor of the other person at night was annoying
    • Couldn’t use their stereo system in dorms, had to use earbuds, can now use stereo system

Kaitlyn

  • Interviewed UToledo student working from his parent’s house
    • Noise from other occupants/pets was a major annoyance
      • Parents talking, pets wanting attention, TV on high volume
    • Has an auxiliary workspace to the left of his desk that holds his calculator, beverage, additional papers, and a pencil holder
      • needs space to spread out
    • Also has a shelf at the back of his desk that holds his laptop and additional monitor, this frees up the main worksurface
    • Mentioned lighting was important
      • has a floor lamp, ceiling fan, and novelty lamp which provides near ambient light

General points:

  • All interviewed fellow students, doing school from home
  • Avoid distractions
    • Noise from roommates walking up the stairs, walking, talking, TV noise,
    • More relaxed in-home setting, can get up and do non-school related things
  • Screen privacy from passersby, working in a common space, and not wanting others to see your screen
  • Noise either people talking or vibrational (bass, cars revving, people walking around)
    • Get distracted by roommates/people coming in because they don’t know exactly what your schedule is
  • Having space to spread out, room to put random school/non-school stuff
    • Extra monitor
    • Having a place to store notebooks/textbooks/paper seems important

Formulation of Initial Stakeholders and Constraints

Using data from the initial research, we decided to construct the first draft of our stakeholders and constraints.

Identifying/Understanding Stakeholders

  • Anyone working in the same house/using the same space as someone else
    • Roommates, children, significant others
  • Companies who have employees working from home
    • Productivity may be affected by employees working from home
  • Professors with students doing school from home
    • Working from home could affect both the student and teacher performance
  • Anyone sharing an office space/cubicle with a coworker
    • The noise and activity of one desk mate can impinge on others productivity

Constraints

  • Market
    • Many people are working from home now so there are several competing companies
  • Physical
    • Must be compatible with pre-existing setups, 
    • Must be viable for a variety of user groups
  • Technological
    • Legacy issues with pre-existing workspaces
  • Cultural
    • Different work environments allow for different levels of distractions
  • Usage
    • The setups need to be of an appropriate size so that people could assemble themselves