Digital collaboration
Design a digital solution that helps remote-working teams collaborate, communicate and engage with one another in a more meaningful way.
Commencium
A Cross-Platform Redefining Team Engagement and Belonging in Remote Work
A mobile and desktop app solution building meaningful connections in remote work environment by making people gather, share, connect in order to strengthen company culture and belonging.
01
Project Goals & Brief
Beyond productivity
The brief asked how digital experiences could support the human side of distributed work, creating space for the informal interactions that help teams feel connected.
TrustBelongingCreativityEveryday team interaction
02
Problem Statement
Remote workers lose the natural office interactions that build sustainable bonds and team visibility. They need low-pressure, spontaneous ways to socialize from onboarding through daily work and after-hours moments.
03
Design Process
A six-week process moved from research and synthesis through iterative interface design, usability testing and final prototyping.
Week 1
Desk Research
Week 2
Benchmark
Survey
Persona Generation
Week 3
Benchmark
Journey Map
Info Architecture
AI Wireframe Trial
Week 4
Info Architecture
Vibe Coding Wireframes
Week 5
Usability Test
UI Executing
Prototyping
Week 6
UI Executing
Prototyping
Case Preparation
04
Research Overview
Multiple research streams were combined to understand remote-work behavior, existing products and the moments where social connection breaks down.
Desk Research
- Literature Review
- Industry Benchmarking
- Workplace pattern mapping
Survey Overviews
- Conducted a survey with 28 participants.
- Google Forms was the tool used.
Interview Overviews
- Conducted semi-structured interviews with 5 Commencis designers from different projects.
Benchmark Insights
Low Regular Usage Rate
The rates of regular adoption and daily workflow usage by employees remain quite low.
Familiar Interfaces
Social media feeds (Blink, Workvivo) or game-like maps (Gather.town) are used to speed up adaptation.
Productivity Based
The majority of the benchmarks are not going beyond productivity, similar to Teams and Slack.
05
Research Insights
The findings pointed toward small, spontaneous and interest-led interactions rather than more crowded, formal meetings.
missed spontaneous water-cooler interactions the most.
preferred micro-gatherings of two or three people over crowded events.
struggled with losing informal touchpoints with other teams.
Interest-driven connection
Cold interactions fail. Common hobbies, topics and automated facilitation can make connection feel more organic.
Lack of adaptation
Without structured re-engagement, a divide can persist between original teams and new hires.
06
Ideation
Morphological exploration, Round Robin, persona work, journey mapping and edge-case definition translated the research into a coherent product direction.
07
Product Development
The concept expanded into connected mobile and desktop experiences for break rooms, events, communities and common-interest matching.
Break Rooms
Different break rooms like water cooler chats, coffee breaks etc. can be reachable.
Calendar
To check events, other meetings, break rooms etc.
Communities
Interest and project based groups, different communities can be seen here.
Matching
Common points based system matching people as friends.
Mobile App Trials
Desktop App Trials
08
Usability Testing & Improvements
Moderated Tests
We carried out our qualitative, moderated study using the “think-aloud” protocol, both online (via Teams) and face-to-face.
Structure
We carried out our qualitative, moderated study using the “think-aloud” protocol, both online (via Teams) and face-to-face.
Test of Key Feature
We carried out our qualitative, moderated study using the “think-aloud” protocol, both online (via Teams) and face-to-face.
Prioritization Matrix
09
UI Design System
A compact system brought the cross-platform experience together through shared color, typography and interface components.
10
Final Experience — Mobile App
The mobile experience brings everyday connection into four clear areas: Home, Hub, Games and Social.
01
Home
A pulse section welcomes users with news and onboarding, followed by the breakout zone where people get into rooms through Teams.
02
Hub
Hub is divided into two segments where feed shows company news and announcements. Sources part is enhanced with content shared by company and quick links.
03
Games
Games part enhances the break-time and created collaborations and interactions between people with leaderboards, and commonly created challenges etc.
04
Social
Social includes the company communities where people can meet, gather, arrange events together. Commencers ask part also creates a free environment where people can share randomly.
11
Desktop App & Vibe Coding
The desktop experience carries communities, quick chats and shared team moments into the workday. A Coffee Chat flow was then developed through vibe coding and prototyping.
Mobile App Prototype
Desktop App Prototype
13
AI Tools
We utilized multiple AI tools in this project. Finally, since we ran out of tokens on Codex, we vibe-coded the current version with the help of Antigravity and published it via Netlify.
Claude
Planning & presentation preparation
Codex
Vibe coding
Google Anti Gravity
Vibe coding
Gemini
Planning & UX writing
Stitch AI
Wireframe generation
UX Pilot
Wireframe generation
ChatGPT
UX Writing
Figma Agents
Usability testing & Animations