Wellbeing at Work—Emotional Impact on Workers Using a Worker Guidance System Designed for Positive User Experience

Abstract

Wellbeing at work can be achieved through different strategies; designing for a positive user experience (UX) is one way. However, the relationship between wellbeing and professionally used technology is rather unexplored, especially in work areas that are far from desktop work such as worker guidance systems (WGSs) used in assembly processes. In this paper, we first described a qualitative evaluation (using the valence method) of a prototype WGS designed for a positive UX. The evaluation showed that it elicited far more positive than negative feelings. Based on the results, we improved and redesigned the prototype. We then implemented it in a realistic setting and quantitatively compared it with an established WGS. It was shown that the prototype elicited more positive feelings than the established system, whereas there were no differences in the number of negative markers. Thus, one can assume that the improvement of UX in the redesigned system was due to the positive UX design concepts. However, there were no significant differences in the mood questionnaires. The paper showed that positive experiences at work can be achieved when the design of professional technology is focused on a positive UX. Long-term studies should further investigate whether these experiences lead to a generally elevated mood.

Relation between Experience Categories and Psychological Needs

“…Some needs, however, such as autonomy or stimulation, were only related to a few individual experiences. This can possibly be attributed to the fact that the concepts for positive experiences were developed only for 5 out of 17 experience categories when designing the WGS prototype [21]. This may also have restricted the diversity of the addressed needs.…”

“…The concepts were implemented in a limited interactive prototype using Figma (https://www.figma.com, accessed on 19 November 2020). The concepts and a detailed description of the methodological approach to the development of the prototype can be found in [21].…”

“…In the second study, we used an existing dataset of positive experiences that had been collected when participants evaluated a prototype of a worker guidance system [21]. Two raters assigned each of these experiences to an experience category [12] and to a psychological need.…”

“…Figure 2 shows the procedure of the valence method. In Study 2, the experiences collected when participants evaluated a prototype of a worker guidance system (WGS) used in assembly with the valence method were analysed [21,26]. WGS are cognitive assistance systems that provide employees with information about individual work steps; they are integrated into the work environment [27,28].…”