Clockwork
Clockwork was a European research project whose the main goal was to support the self-care of middle-aged to older shift workers. The project sought to develop a technological solution that would promote healthy practices through the improvement of circadian rhythms.
The proposed solution consisted of a mobile application that enabled workers to visualize the data of their activities during the shift, and thus reflect on their current practice. Besides the application, there was a badge (Smart Badge) to collect activity data from the worker. Along with the project, a web platform was also developed to monitor the participants during the pilots.
User research
The design of the Clockwork system followed a user-centred design approach, in which shift workers were systematically involved. We interviewed 26 participants (13 orderlies, 9 nurses, 2 doctors, and 2 security officers) to investigate how shift workers avoided health issues and dealt with their shifts in practical terms. We conducted observation at the hospital to design a wearable that could be used to track physical activity during work activities of healthcare shift workers; and conducted a survey on the technology use by shift workers. Results showed that shift workers engaged in considerable work to manage their shifts and thus it was crucial to design a system that could support their self-care. Moreover, there are organisational changes that can benefit shift workers and thus Clockwork caters for the needs of occupational health technicians who would analyse and change workplace conditions for shift workers.
Co-criation
The initial project discussions raised some questions regarding how to visually represent sleep information. Two major alternatives came up from these discussions: 1) representing the aggregated hours of sleep; 2) representing the moments where each sleep period occurred. To helps better understand how to represent time we decided to conduct some co-creations sessions explore how participants represented time.
Interface design
Data visualization explorations
Monitoring platform
Design and implementation of a web platform for visualization of participants’ data during the pilots of the application. This would be the earliest prototype of what would later become Trial Monitor.
