Hello Maia, welcome to Care Cloud 2. Do you want me to play your routine set?

Hey Nura, could you play relaxing ambient sounds instead?

Happy to. Enjoy your break.

Thanks, Nura.

Hello Maia, welcome to Care Cloud 2. Do you want me to play your routine set?

Hey Nura, could you play relaxing ambient sounds instead?

Happy to. Enjoy your break.

Thanks, Nura.

Nura


My speculative capstone project for the Master of Human-Computer Interaction + Design harnesses AI assistant Nura to balance parents' remote work.

Recognizing burnout as a destabilizer in the workplace, our design helps parents ritualize their time and space to feel regrounded and reenergized.

Role

I defined Nura's conversational UI through Eleven Labs, established Nura's brand vernacular, and refined insight language to clarify design direction.

I defined Nura's conversational UI through Eleven Labs, established Nura's brand vernacular, and refined research insight language to clarify design direction.

Team

Roman Meza

Charlotte Wang

Manjiri Dehankar

Auzeen Rahgoshay

Project

University of Washington

Human-Computer Interaction

Master's Capstone Project

Advised by Google

Timeline

8 months

January — August 2024

Role

I defined Nura's conversational UI through Eleven Labs, established Nura's brand vernacular, and refined insight language to clarify design direction.

Team

Roman Meza

Charlotte Wang

Manjiri Dehankar

Auzeen Rahgoshay

Project

University of Washington

Human-Computer Interaction

Master's Capstone Project

Advised by Google

Timeline

8 months

January — August 2024

The team prototyped three user flows that encapsulate Nura's functionality and impact on parents' well-being.

Geofencing

The geofencing feature allows users to create virtual spaces for taking breaks during "Nura Time"—a system-suggested period when notifications are muted, giving users time to focus on their well-being. Utilizing iPhone's Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, geofencing measures objects remotely to create a 3D floor plan of the home using pulsed laser light.

Calendar Modulation

Homepage

We probed two primary questions to situate and respond to burnout experiences that we felt all too familiar with in a rigorous graduate program.

Primary Research — How does the environment of big tech firms influence experiences of burnout for mothers with children aged 6 - 12 who are balancing both work and maternal responsibilities?

Ideation — How might we support remote working parents in establishing healthy boundaries between work and personal life to prioritize their well-being?

Our impact: we raised design questions that test the ethical and aesthetic boundaries of conversational AI.

What privacy and permissions concerns should we consider when AI modulates time and space for us?
In the five concept evaluations that my team conducted on our final prototype, parents expected that their workstreams (e.g. Asana, Calendar, etc.) would integrate into Nura to optimize her capability in opening up moments of rest and reflection. This degree of data access and personalization calls for a broader concensus among ethicists and technologists around how companies cull information that might improve their bottom line, but actually jeopardizes human well-being.

More tactically, What is the logic flow for multi-modal interaction when users engage with an AI assistant? There is seemingly no limit to enumerating the sources where sensors can aggregate and input human patterns to anticipate users' needs. But what data ought we select and when should the specific modality intervene? How? Such broad questions require more nuanced exploration.

We rooted our understanding of burnout in accordance with the World Health Organization: a syndrome caused by consistent stress that manifests in three primary symptoms over time.

fatigue

cynicism

reduced

productivity

After a generative review of 40+ articles and academic papers, we initially honed primary research in on working mothers with children ages 6-12.

Working mothers often struggle with the competing roles they play at work and home, feeling the tug of family more acutely than working fathers.

Mothers of young school age children (6-12) experienced the steepest declines in employment rates in April 2020.

In one 2022 survey of 30,000 tech workers, 46% of women expressed a high risk of burnout compared to 38.2% of men.

Working mothers are 23% more likely to experience burnout than working fathers.

After preliminary research findings, we conducted interviews that lead to a strategic pivot.

The mothers we interviewed represented the subpopulation for whom burnout is the most acute, as they bear the brunt of childrearing in the face of social pressures to sublimate their personal ambitions and even their own well-being. However, because burnout is a universal affliction, our user base morphed to include all parents, not just mothers.


This strategic pivot proved prescient for our research: by interviewing the population most prone to burnout, we primed the final design with juicy information that enriched Nura's user journey.

A parent is reading a book within a geofenced care cloud generated by Nura. Two notifications appear greyed out with the text, "While on Do Not Disturb, indicating that notifications are blocked until the care cloud ends or the parent leaves the area.

While on Do Not Disturb

now

While on Do Not Disturb

now

A parent is reading a book within a geofenced care cloud generated by Nura. Two notifications appear greyed out with the text, "While on Do Not Disturb, indicating that notifications are blocked until the care cloud ends or the parent leaves the area.

While on Do Not Disturb

now

While on Do Not Disturb

now

A parent is reading a book within a geofenced care cloud generated by Nura. Two notifications appear greyed out with the text, "While on Do Not Disturb, indicating that notifications are blocked until the care cloud ends or the parent leaves the area.

While on Do Not Disturb

now

While on Do Not Disturb

now

Semi-structured interviews uncovered the root causes of burnout before, during, and after its occurrence, enabling us to sift findings down to three actionable insights.

Pictured: A parent taking a break from work. As they peruse a book, one of Nura's Care Clouds shields them from distracting work notifications, protecting their peace of mind.

0

Screener responses

0

Semi-structured interviews

0

Key insights

Insight 01

Misalignment with the team on project priorities, tasks, and schedules disrupts participants’ productivity and workflow.

Insight 02

Participants need help identifying proactive ways to respond to repetitive workplace stressors in real-time that lead to burnout.

Insight 03

Personal rituals can create mental boundaries to support mothers' holistic wellbeing.

Insight 04

Ensuring employment stability alleviates mothers' concerns when reboarding post-maternity leave.

Insight 05

Encouraging participants to detach from work creates better separation between their personal lives and hybrid work.

Insight 01

Misalignment with the team on project priorities, tasks, and schedules disrupts participants’ productivity and workflow.

Insight 02

Participants need help identifying proactive ways to respond to repetitive workplace stressors in real-time that lead to burnout.

Insight 03

Personal rituals can create mental boundaries to support mothers' holistic wellbeing.

Insight 04

Ensuring employment stability alleviates mothers' concerns when reboarding post-maternity leave.

Insight 05

Encouraging participants to detach from work creates better separation between their personal lives and hybrid work.

How would we iterate?

My team would conduct concept and usability testing to determine if people want and can use Nura. We would probe the technical constraints behind networked geofencing and leveraging LiDAR technology to solidify its feasibility. Lastly, we would research and test ways to make Nura a more effective and functional administrator between her work as a caregiver and personal assistant.

Pictured: Charlotte and I contemplating Nura's design direction while sipping cold brews at Victrola Coffee. June 2024.

Two team members discuss with their laptops at a coffee shop.
Two team members discuss with their laptops at a coffee shop.

Roman Meza
Product Designer

Roman Meza
Product Designer

hello@romanmeza.co
New York

hello@romanmeza.co
New York

The team prototyped three user flows that encapsulate Nura's functionality and impact on parents' well-being.

01 • Geofencing

The geofencing feature allows users to create virtual spaces for taking breaks during "Nura Time"—a system-suggested period when notifications are muted, giving users time to focus on their well-being. Utilizing iPhone's Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, geofencing measures objects remotely to create a 3D floor plan of the home using pulsed laser light.

02 • Calendar Modulation

03 • Homepage

The team prototyped three user flows that encapsulate Nura's functionality and impact on parents' well-being.

01 • Geofencing

The geofencing feature allows users to create virtual spaces for taking breaks during "Nura Time"—a system-suggested period when notifications are muted, giving users time to focus on their well-being. Utilizing iPhone's Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, geofencing measures objects remotely to create a 3D floor plan of the home using pulsed laser light.

02 • Calendar Modulation

03 • Homepage