D E S I G N I N N O V A T I O N M E T H O D S
SmartGoalsoffice is a new way to get active in the office environment. Using SmartGoals, a mobile app and a scoreboard motivates office workers to take the stairs instead of the elevator.
SmartGoals is a gate which tracks whether someone has walked through, this is the activity tracker of the whole system. It gives visual feedback to the user by the means of blue or orange (depending on the team) LEDs on the gate when a person walks through the goals.
The scoreboard provides an overview of the benefits of taking the stairs. It is a screen located between the entrance of the stairs and the elevator to create awareness among the office workers. It shows what team of office workers is taking the most stairs and the time an office worker saves by taking the stairs.
If the office worker wishes to receive not only team data from the scoreboard, but also personalized feedback, it is possible to download the mobile app. The mobile app is linked to the SmartGoals gates and provides the user with an overview of their personal physical activity as well as of their teams. It shows the user the amount of stairs they have taken, the amount of time they have saved and how many stairs their team has taken. It also allows the user to set activity goals and get personalized feedback.
These three parts together motivate the office workers to be more physically active by taking the stairs. It creates awareness about the health and time benefits and creates a component of competition on the workfloor.
The social aspect of the design is key, when office workers notice the system and talk with colleagues about their physical activity and their stair or elevator use. They become more aware of the benefits of taking the stairs and thus physically more active if they take the stairs more often.
We validated this design with the decision makers, the faculty health responsibles and the sport centre physiotherapist and the end users, the office workers. They were both really enthusiastic. It turned out they really like the collaborative part of the service and that the time saving aspect provided new insights about the benefits of taking the stairs which did not think about.
The service is designed for the people responsible for the health of office work spaces and for employers who care for the health and productivity of their office workers. These customers are able to lease the service per week for as long as they prefer.
This concept was designed and researched during the course Design Innovation Methods. During this course, I learned more about the business side of developing a concept. We did a market analysis, made a business model and determined a business strategy for the concept.
