Research

Research Methods

Semi-Structured
Interviews

Comparative
Analysis

Participant Pool

We interviewed with 12 people, two of which work at Amazon, who are virtually onboarded during the pandemic, full-time employees, and located in US from diverse sizes of companies ranging from startup to enterprise.

Affinity Map

We created an affinity map with interview data we gathered from the interviews. The affinity map allowed us to learn about success moments and areas for improvement in Amazon onboarding process. In addition to this, we could understand what makes the onboarding experience rewarding and challenging.

Users' Pain Points

#1 Limited human elements

• New Amazonians feel isolated and not welcomed during the virtual onboarding process
• Building social connections with coworkers became very unnatural and difficult in the remote working environment.

#2 Issues within the onboarding system

• When there is an issue with IT setup, new hires could not get immediate help from the company
• New hires feel overwhelmed by scattered onboarding materials and onboarding requirements

Research Insights

1. The most salient theme that makes a great virtual onboarding experience: personalized welcome with organic human interactions and a helpful/friendly environment (=personal experience > streamlined the logistics).

2. Building strong connections with colleagues is crucial because new hires grow their affection and loyalty to the company through positive relationships with their managers and coworkers.

  This told us that the main areas of improvement were not centered around functionality but rather the human   connections and welcoming aspects of Amazon’s virtual onboarding process.

Ideation

Design Opportunity

Two specific recommendations were drawn from the user research.

#1 Feeling welcomed and supported during a virtual onboarding

#2 Creating organic, meaningful connections with coworkers

#3. Providing access to up-to-date/no overlapping information, and real-time help

Brainstorming

How to bring back the rituals and randomness of the physical world into a virtual space to induce organic social interactions?

The recommendations could be divided into two different categories: Social vs. Information. Before we decided which direction we would like to go, we had time to brainstorm potential solutions to understand each direction's opportunities and constraints. Our team decided to go with the social hub since our research data showed people wanted more human connections, and we could only access some of Amazon's onboarding materials from our end.

Design

Amazon World

Design Requirements

#1 Inclusive

Welcoming new hires with open arms by creating a sense of belonging and connectedness in a remote environment

#2 Engaging

Inducing active engagement by breaking the norm of conventional onboarding programs with a gamification approach with a game story and action items

#3 Accommodating

Providing proximity-based audio and video enablement which emulates the rituals and randomness of the physical world, such as small talk before/after events

Game Story/Information Architecture

Amazon World's First Prototype

#1 Gamification approach for Amazon World story

New hires may unlock different levels within Amazon World as they complete actions items in each level. Unlocking each level will grant access to different buildings users didn’t have before.

  Game story structure

#2 Personalized welcome and tutorial

Amazon World gives a personalized welcome with a friendly atmosphere. Also, a step-by-step tutorial provides early exposure of what to expect and anticipation throughout the onboarding process so that new hires will land in this world successfully and comfortably.

#3 Proximity-based audio and video enablement

Proximity-based audio and video enablement make more closely emulate the in-person experience.

#4 New hire orientation

New hires join the virtual orientation in Amazon World happening in Amazon HQ building. This will emulate the rituals and randomness of the physical world, such as small talk before/after events.

  New hire orientation user flow

#5 AMA Sessions for IT Setup

IT professionals will host the AMA session for new hires in the Amazon Warehouse. From there, new hires simply need to drop by the Amazon Warehouse to ask any IT-related questions and receive immediate help.

  IT hub user flow

Revised Design

#1 Orientation groups

From the usability testings, we learned that socializing can’t be the primary reason for people getting together. The new design of Amazon world provides a sense of purpose for people to get together by assigning new hires into an “Orientation group” that consists of other new hires of similar roles. With the orientation group, new hires have someone to talk to and ask basic questions from day 1, which solves the limited human elements issue from the interviews.

#2 Designated talking zones

We tried to emulate the in-person interactions as similar as possible by introducing proximity-based audio and video enablement, but we learned from the usability testings that it could sometimes be intimidating to meet with someone virtually without control.  As a result, we created designated talking zones for people to have control in and out of interactions with others. Video and audio will be turned on when users walk into the talking zone.

Presentation

Impact

Amazon World received positive feedback from stakeholders of Amazon Web Services and the Easy Onboarding team. For future iterations, we want to gauge the impact of AR/VR, branding opportunities, and accessibility to further develop the product.

“This is wonderful and a totally different perspective.” -Product manager at AWS

“I want to be a new hire AGAIN!” -IT Services Manager at AWS

Reflection

Lesson Learned

• Person-person interaction is more memorable than interactions with inanimate objects even in the workplace.
• User research is critical to identify the right areas for improvement.
• If what stakeholders' want and customers' needs collide, the designer should empathize with both sides to drive the optimal solution.

Future

An opportunity in this Amazon World experience would be to enable more shared activities to foster community building not just for the new hires but also for the entire Amazonians. Some ideas discussed were games, shared whiteboards, social bulletin boards, and more.

This platform could be successful as a stand-alone experience for onboarding; however, there would be distinct benefits to integrating with existing video conferencing platforms. In our discussions, we often imagined integrations as a future solution to generating user profiles and managing team meetings in Amazon World. In addition, this platform can be integrated further for VR/AR experiences.

We also would like to reflect on some existing areas for improvement and communities that this design may not serve well. Though we believe enabling text chat bridges some of the gaps for users with difficulty hearing, there is room to enable live captions to improve that experience further. Our design would be challenging for those with visual impairments and would require further thought into enabling different zoom levels and audio cues to serve accessibility.