Out Of Office Spaces
Overview
Out Of Office Spaces is a membership platform that helps next generation of remote/ hybrid working professionals connect to productive workspaces based on their working needs.
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UI/UX Design, User Research, Storyboarding, Branding, User Testing, Wire Framing, User Journey, Business Models, Pricing Strategies
Contents
Website
Softwares Used
Figma
Photoshop
After effects
Pen & Paper
Timeline
6 Months ( April 2020 - June 2020)
Status Of Project
Awards & Publications
https://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-degree/7342/mba-coronavirus-startups
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https://www.businessbecause.com/news/entrepreneurs/7371/mba-startup-insead-work-from-home
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Start Up - London
WHY : This Start up was created solely out of the problems that me and my business partners faced while from working from home during onset of COVID-19. We were so troubled, as we lacked appropriate space to work from home, its was hard to concentrate, motivate and stay focused with our families, siblings and roommates working from home that we had to create something better not only for us but for others who faced similar problems and thus we embarked on the journey from April 2020 to find a solution for the better.
Meet Our Founders
I collaborated with 5 business students from INSEAD to develop this venture.
ME
74% of CFOs plan to reduce their office space because employees have adapted to remote/ hybrid working.
Spotify, Facebook, Microsoft, Google announced long-term remote/hybrid working plans
Companies understand employees don’t feel safe to commute to work and more comfortable working from home which has shown improvement in their productivity
Thus they have to balance that with the need to provide meeting place where workers can collaborate and work efficiently from anywhere anytime.
Trend
Changing Work Life Habits
Work from home is here to stay !!!
Market Research
50%
find it difficult stay motivated and focussed
76%
Have no separate home office
64%
work from kitchen, dining room and sofa
38%
have difficulties maintaining work life balance
Problem
Most of the people like working from home, however it comes with some challenges
Lack of appropriate working place at home
Hard to maintain work life balance
Hard to stay motivated and focussed
Reduced personal connection with co-workers
Getting easily distracted at home with house work and kids and thus hard to concentrate
Harder to collaborate with people remotely
User Research
Surveys and Interviews highlighted 3 major problems.
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Surveys were held with 256 people and Interviews were conducted among 60+ individuals with Gen-Z and millennials who had had varying work from home experiences and we got some amazing insights that we hadn’t thought of before.
User Interview
What do users think?
Lives with 6 people in a 3BHK apartment in a Texas
“ When i work from home, I find it hard to meet high profile clients at a place other than office. My office is also 30min drive from my home so have to travel a lot which I am not comfortable with. Also it is hard to maintain privacy of confidential information while working from co-working spaces and its very loud."
Insights :
Lack of appropriate space to meet high profile client frequently close to her and impress them.
Not comfortable going to co-working space as it involves exchange confidential information and too noisy.
Lives with two other roommates in a 3Bed apartment in LA in a Metro city
“I cant focus well at home since I feel lazy and slow and cant relax in the office. I don’t like co- working spaces since they are very distracting, i prefer to work from calm, silent places with a nice experience.
Also I miss meeting my colleagues, friends in office and work together."
Insights :
People prefer to have a more unique, relaxing and calming experience to be productive.
Users miss the social connection with colleagues
Lives with her husband in a 2Bed apartment in SF
“I cant focus well at home since I feel lazy and slow and cant relax in the office. I don’t like co- working spaces since they are very distracting, i prefer to work from calm, silent places with a nice experience.
Also I miss meeting my colleagues, friends in office and work together."
Insights :
It’s very hard for people to find appropriate workspace to work from or meet clients and get the required tools especially when they are traveling.
Users often feel disturbed by their children, family especially during imp meetings
Financial Investor
Drake Dong
Product Design Intern
Loani Jackson
Project Manger
Vidhya Thakkar
Insights - Solution
Talking and interviewing with the users helped us understand the key problems they faced and their needs. Based on that we were able to synthesize them into key insights which drove our unique solution.
Lack of appropriate space to meet high profile client frequently close to her and impress them.
It’s very hard for people to find appropriate workspace to work from or meet clients and get the required tools especially when they are traveling.
Connecting remote professionals to with vacant infrastructures like hotels and cafes close to them that provide all the required tools, softwares and appropriate work setting to work efficiently
Users often feel disturbed by their children, family especially during imp meetings
People prefer to have a more unique, relaxing and calming experience to be productive.
Users prefer to have a quiet, unique and calming experience while working, meeting clients which not only improves their image standing but also helps them to concentrate, be productive and work efficiently
Lack of appropriate space to meet high profile client frequently close to her and impress them.
Not comfortable going to co-working space as it involves exchange confidential information and too noisy.
Users often travel to meet clients and make business transactions. However current spaces like cafes and co- working spaces are very loud and expensive. Also it is hard to exchange and work on any confidential projects in a public setting.
Solution
Out of office spaces is the next generation of remote/ hybrid working connecting professionals to productive workspaces based on their occupation, working style and working needs.
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We consider ourselves as the "Uber of workspaces" where in we connect professionals to the areas and workspaces that are underutilized such as hotels, restaurants, cafes, music studios, professional kitchens and real estate.
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Through our membership platform professionals can thus easily find workspaces based on facilities offered, services they need, tools offered, workspace infrastructure and location based on their working needs.
We aim to become the platform to find workspaces on the go.....
Hotels
Music & Photography Studios
Getaway Homes & Apartments
Office
Shared Professional Kitchens
We have currently partnered with hotels in London
Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis helped up discover the companies out there in the market and the services that they are offering in the sector. It also helped discover the areas that they were successful and areas that are to be avoided.
With them help of positioning matrix we were able to understand their offerings, their strengths and weakness and areas of untapped opportunities.
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Analyzing them during the onset of the project helped us brainstorm differentiated market acquisition strategies, product offerings and services using the blue ocean strategy .
Our Mission
Our mission is to enable professionals to get the right yet best infrastructure and equipments to work anywhere at anytime from all our partnered locations.
Usability Testing and A/B Testing
I divided the usability into three phases ....
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User Testing 1
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User testing 2
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A/B Testing
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User Testing 1
I not only got some key insights regarding how people were using the app and the system but also what kind of features they were looking for in the system
User Testing 2
I got some key insights regarding user actions, behavior and minor interactions, while using the app. I also learnt when and how the buttons should be placed for easy user flow, how type sizes spacing and positioning matters in certain areas.
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Usability > Visual Design
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A/B Testing
I learnt about usability in context with visual design and positioning of certain UI elements of how that impacted users ease of use.
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User Persona Overview
Jack's Current User Journey
Goal of the App
To be able to find 5 star hotels to meet a high profile client in LA.
Able to book a mini meet room on the date he is traveling to LA
Able to Book the room based on Decor experience
Able to control in room equipments and facilities via the app
USER FLOW 01
Booking a 5 star hotel to meet high profile clients based on decor
Jack would like to impress his clients and so wishes to book a hotel room with a nice luxury decor
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Features:
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Quick on boarding and Personalized suggestion based on needs.
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View suggestions provided by colleagues.
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Booking workspace options based on decor.
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During interview people often complained that they had a hard time finding a fancy appropriate space yet quiet place to meet clients within their budget and impress them. They often had to meet in noisy cafes due to which it was hard for them to connect with their clients.
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Also they often would ask their friends, family or colleagues for suggestions for good places to meet. Thus these features were launched
USER FLOW 02
Impressing clients with having access to in room controls
Jack would like to impress his clients and so chooses a nice aroma and music to have a luxury ambiance before they arrive.
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Through the interviews we realized that hotels were very skeptical of providing keys and certain amenities to so many individuals per a day with the afraid of them getting lost or stolen.
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On the other hand users preferred and appreciated the contactless technology of operating the workspaces via their phone they just seem concerned about downloading separate hotel app to operate and use the amenities.
So we designed this feature to eliminate the aspect of downloading separate hotel app to utilize the functionality of operating room controls.
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Emma's Current User Journey
Goal of the App
To be able to find desired restaurant workspace based on location and facilities like childcare, zoom equipped room etc
Able to directly navigate to the restaurant via the app
​Able to scan and checkin directly with digital membership card
Able to see the time spent in the workspace and if any friends around
USER FLOW 03
Emma would like to book a nice themed restaurant close to her which has child care facilities.
Since Emma has a to attend an important meeting it is hard for her carry all the required equipments to deliver a seamless presentation. So she can easily book a solo workspace with all the equipment she needs and at the same time take care of her son.
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Features:
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Easily find workspaces close to you.
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Find pre-equipped rooms based on your working needs.
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Quick selection of facilities
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Direct directions to the workspace.
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From our research we realized that people selected workspaces based on their need at that time of the day. However, people mostly preferred to find workspaces close to them so that they can easily manage their work and home life. They also gave more preference to workspaces that provided personalized amenities and equipment set up facilities based on their working needs to help them save time and get started right away to avoid them the hassle of figuring out themselves which created a extra level of user experience for them.
USER FLOW 04
Emma would like to have the experience of seamless check in and meet her colleagues and develop social connections out of office.
Users can easily check to see if the place is available and simply drive down and check in then and there and even find colleagues around them to socialize with.
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Features:
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Seamless Check-in by scanning membership card at card kiosk at the entrance
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Digital Membership Card
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Connect and find colleagues at the workspace to enhance social connection
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These features were mostly born while connecting with users and putting ourselves in their shoes. Most of them were concerned about the waiting time and the check in process especially at cafes and restaurants.
They also often complained about forgetting or loosing their membership card and now the hygiene issues in the post COVID era.
Also people wished to meet their colleagues outside of office or hold meeting close to their place instead of going all the way to the office which was several miles away.
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More over they could easily find workspaces while working remotely and have an office like place away from office without the burden of a high monthly subscription.
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Lets Talk Business !!!
Business Model Canvas
Our Initial Offering
Subsidized Membership / per month + Pay as you go model
Branding
Design Principle
Grounded
Clean
Luxurious
Professional
Inspiration
Primary Logo
Out of Office Spaces wants to invoke the emotion of making its customers to feel Luxurious, Energetic and Calm while working in their workspaces.
These colors can be used in member- ship cards, posters, banners, business cards etc.
Color Pallete
Pattern
Pattern was inspired from co-working plan layout ( above image) , that showing variety of spaces. Through this pattern, I wanted to show variety of spaces we offer
Membership Card
OoOS aims to issue digital membership card to its customers based on the plan they selected.
Customer can simply show the card on arrival and receive their room key from the concierge.
UI Style Guide
Design System
Master Grid
Application
Typography
Typeface
Type scale
Color
Main Colors
Text Colors
Map Colors
Color Application
Adaptive UI Elements
Filter Options
Buttons
Non Selected
Selected
Header Options
Adaptive Elements
Icons
Information Architecture
