VOUR
16 December 2022
Developed Project For Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
Student Design Awards 2022-23 in Brunel University London
Creating an experience for the remote workers to have
a proper virtual happy hour experience.
Problem Definition
Working from home order has been on a serious rise especially after covid. In particular, some companies have closed their offices and adopted a completely remote working order.
Team members that work remotely feel cut off from the organisation. When social distance is in effect due to a pandemic, we may feel particularly alone and cut off from everyone. Create, participate in, and promote enjoyable, non-work related virtual events (such as a virtual happy hour) to inspire those who feel alone. (Reyes, Luna, and Salas, 2020)
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants said that their happy hours were more engaging, allowing them to have more fun and enjoy them more. However, during the pandemic, several participants felt that they were not enjoying themselves during the virtual happy hours as much as they enjoyed happy hours prior to the pandemic. (Health Behav Policy Rev.TM 2021)
According to these excerpts from researches, the happy hour experience organized for remote workers is not sufficient. For this reason, employees can not benefit from the positive effects of Happy Hour activity.
Solution
Extensive primary and secondary research have been conducted. Analysis of the research outputs was made by using thematic analysis, one of the analysis methods. After this analysis, the important points that should be in the design were deduced and the components of the solution proposal were clarified.
By making morphological analysis, the most suitable components were selected among the solution proposals and the idea development stage started.
Solution Proposal
Creating an experience for the remote workers to have a proper virtual happy hour experience by using more data from the people in the same meeting. Besides adding some new components to emphasize some core points of real happy hour experience. For instance, having a proper virtual drinking experience together.
Components of Solution Proposal
Different Context
Different place to have a different experience than work
- Living room sofa
- Kitchen dining table
- Bedroom by standing
More Data
More data from people like their body language
- Drinking information
- Seeing people more by bigger screen
- Feeling the mood of people
- Better sound from them
Emphasizing Some Core Values of ''Happy Hour''
To amplify the happy hour mood
- Virtual Cheers
- Mimicing the happy hour contexts
- Having some dress codes by virtual filters
In a research on television viewing habits, 75% of viewers in the UK watch online platforms using television. This rate is proof that many people in the UK have a TV in their home. Based on this inference, I predicted that the product I developed could be integrated with the television screen. (Rahman, Arif, 2021)
Ideation Sketches
VOUR Product Parts
Vour
Virtual Happy Hour
Vour
How To Use - Interface
1
In this part colleagues can be seen.
2
Everyone in this event appears on this home screen for a certain amount of time. A certain time is defined for everyone in the game or activity played. The person whose turn it is appears on this screen, so that everyone has an equal social interaction.
3
Using a virtual background, contexts in real Happy hour experiences are referenced. In this way, users will see some of the nuances of the real happy hour experience in their virtual happy hour experience. Seeing a virtual image in the background is also important for privacy. The Vour camera placed above the TV so that it also records the user's body (since body language is an important communication component). This means that the camera captures a wide angle. Not every user may want to show the inside of their home, virtual backgrounds are an important component in this sense to protect user's privacy.
4
According to the inferences made from the research, happy hour experiences are made more enjoyable with dress-codes arranged according to different concepts. (Overproof, 2020) The similar effect can be achieved by changing the virtual background concepts according to the determined concept. For this reason, a section added in the interface where different virtual backgrounds can be changed.
5
When the correct answer is given according to the game played, a pop up will appear that says "Let's cheers together" to celebrate it "together". This will allow people to do the same action together and thus establish a closer relationship.
6
In this section, information about the action taken together is given. If this is a Trivia Night, we see the questions, the time given for the question and the scores of the users
Vour
Virtual Cheers
Vour's cup-mounted equipment includes a motion sensor, a vibration device, and a speaker. When the glass is raised for cheers, this is detected by the motion sensor.
When the cheers movement is detected, a "clink" sound is made simultaneously from the speaker part and the vibration device vibrates, making the user feel as if they are having a real cheers with someone.
This part is designed exactly to enable people who are far from each other to entertain from their homes with technology.
Activities: Trivia Night
After a question comes up in the Trivia Night activity, the person makes a comment about it. Then, with the surface opened in the interface, they sees the options prepared for the question, after that he or she makes the selection with the controls on the virtual cheers device on the drink glass, and it becomes clear whether the answer is correct. When the answer is true, it is seen as a score in the score section.
Activities: Karaoke Night
Another activity that brings people closer is Karaoke.
Vour product has all the equipment for a proper karaoke.
With a customized karaoke experience for the
virtualhappy hour experience, it is aimed that
people working in the same workplace
get closer by having a deeper experience.
In the Karaoke night application, an experience where all participants sing the songs they choose from the options by following the words at the bottom of the interface is designed. While the people are performing, the listening participants can choose the emoji that is close to what they feel from the emoji options on their screens and add them to the edge of the camera frame.
It is aimed to increase the interaction by allowing the listeners to express their thoughts and excitements simultaneously.
Music
Research has also revealed that music is a very important component of happy hour activity. For this reason, playlists that will be created by the people who will participate in the event are designed within the Vour application. In this way, people will also share about each other's musical taste. It can be collaborated with apps like Spotify to create playlists.
In addition, playlists added to support some specific activities that have been added ready-made within the application aim to gather users together under a concept name.