An App For Making Government Workers Happier
The mission of Federal Occupational Health, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is to promote the health and well-being of federal employees. To achieve this goal, FOH turned to Brave UX, a boutique agency based in Washington, D.C. Like the FOH, the Brave UX team was well-versed in understanding complex data.
10 August 2016
| Lacey Glave
|
via
Fast Co.Design
The mission of Federal Occupational Health, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, is to promote the health and well-being of federal employees. No easy task.
FOH has tried many techniques in the past, from posters to stand-up desks to classes. But leaders there knew that to truly improve people’s lives, they needed a plan that would not just offer advice and guidelines but truly motivate them to change their behavior—to make them feel better, fitter, and just plain happy.
To achieve this goal, FOH turned to Brave UX, a boutique agency based in Washington, D.C. Like the FOH, the Brave UX team was well-versed in understanding complex data.
Together, they created Felix, a wellness app that does more than just churn out charts or count steps. Felix uses decades of research, data, and behavioral change models to help federal employees feel happier.
In its simplest terms, the goal was to improve the health and well-being of federal employees. Such an outcome would then lead to business benefits such as fewer sick days and less employee turnover.
But that goal was really about something else. All their initial research–-including flow maps and user interviews-–illuminated a major pattern: Unhealthy habits like smoking and overeating or daily concerns like stress, anxiety, and sleep were all just symptoms of more complex feelings.
The team needed to empower employees to improve the most subjective thing of all: their happiness.
FOH has tried many techniques in the past, from posters to stand-up desks to classes. But leaders there knew that to truly improve people’s lives, they needed a plan that would not just offer advice and guidelines but truly motivate them to change their behavior—to make them feel better, fitter, and just plain happy.
To achieve this goal, FOH turned to Brave UX, a boutique agency based in Washington, D.C. Like the FOH, the Brave UX team was well-versed in understanding complex data.
Together, they created Felix, a wellness app that does more than just churn out charts or count steps. Felix uses decades of research, data, and behavioral change models to help federal employees feel happier.
In its simplest terms, the goal was to improve the health and well-being of federal employees. Such an outcome would then lead to business benefits such as fewer sick days and less employee turnover.
But that goal was really about something else. All their initial research–-including flow maps and user interviews-–illuminated a major pattern: Unhealthy habits like smoking and overeating or daily concerns like stress, anxiety, and sleep were all just symptoms of more complex feelings.
The team needed to empower employees to improve the most subjective thing of all: their happiness.
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