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If you're looking for the current final product, head over here. The following is a deep analysis of the process behind the product.

The seed that started it all

I came up with the idea for Nomad as a long-time remote worker myself. Often overwhelmed with the sheer amount of tools I use everyday just for productivity and work-flows, not to mention personal well-being (fitness, meditation, mindfulness, community etc), I wondered if others had experienced similar. After some initial research I realized there was a gap in the market that ties together the professional and personal, a hub for digital workers to manage their days not just effectively, but mindfully.

And so I set about creating a product that addresses this critical void by offering users a holistic approach to balancing their personal and professional lives. It caters to their aspirations for autonomy, community, and overall well-being, ensuring they achieve greater harmony in both aspects of their lives.

A Post-Covid problem?

The pandemic underscored that many digital workers no longer rely on physical offices. As companies swiftly adapted to distanced frameworks, workers discovered they could maintain productivity while enjoying the freedom of movement.

Whether by choice or circumstance, digital nomads seek community and supportive structures, akin to what centralized physical spaces typically offer.

By choice, or chance

It became apparent that in order to achieve balance in professional and personal spheres, digital nomads needed to adopt a proactive approach, as opposed to a passive one more prevalent working within a physical shared community.

Let's hear it from the digital workers

While mobility freedom brought many benefits to nomads, it also revealed a downside: the challenge of maintaining a sense of community connection. We recognized the potential impact on individuals, with depression, anxiety, and isolation prevalent among these workers. Now, it's time to delve into their personal experiences.

The risks outweigh the negatives

Despite 76% of survey participants reporting feelings of isolation, and 29% of user interview participants expressing anxiety, the majority from both groups indicated a preference for remote work.

Additionally, 72% of user interview participants emphasized the significance of structured social interaction, even though they sometimes struggled to facilitate it.

Support navigating the hidden risks

Research indicated that the intrinsic risk of isolation is often overshadowed by the benefits, meaning many nomads don't realize until its too late the need to adopt means to safeguard their professional and personal well-being.

Channeling a persona

It was time to zero in on a key demographic: self-employed digital nomads seeking assistance in managing both their professional and personal lives.

This segment recognizes the need for support but is constrained by time and overwhelmed by the plethora of tools they already employ. They yearn for simplicity and structure in a non-intrusive manner.

Introducing Freelancer Fiona!

A little lonely, distracted and stressed, Fiona doesn't regret her choice to move away from the safety net of her 9-5, but she sure could use a litttttle extra support where it matters most: achieving more balance and investing in a community of like-minded people.

I knew the problem(s)...

It was time to start ideating possible solutions that balanced the need for productivity and personal wellbeing, empowering digital nomads to prosper.

Ideation rounds were many

One approach I adopted was Crazy 8s, but I also did SCAMPER and bodystorming techniques.

Lots of ideas, but where to start?

The focus on phase one of this project was to arrive at a tested MVP prototype. Hence, I needed the product itself to be lean. Prioritization was key!

Freelancer Fiona navigates Nomad

The main goal for Fiona was to log into the tool, log her wellbeing, log into her virtual office for a morning standup and then find a cafe to work from that day.

Of course, the app has much more to offer such as a full wellbeing dashboard to explore mood fluctuations directly tied to her professional activities to synthesize deep learnings, and the capacity to manage entire workflows from the one user interface. But this phase, again, was about creating a MVP, so I had to keep it simple (easier said than done)

Time to start prototyping!

Armed with deep insight and a vision for how to meet this design challenge, I set about prototyping.

Iterative rounds of testing were performed throughout the process to validate decisions with real-life future users.

Learnings + Next Steps

The next steps are to build out more user flows and integrate all the features I believe will make this app efficient in actual use by digital nomads. I have learnt so much throughout the process and gained valuable insights from testing and will continue to refine the product to meet the needs of its future users!

Final Product?

Check out the final product here >