User-centred prototype to support wellbeing and isolation of software developers using smartwatches

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges to employees in every sector by forcing them to work remotely. Office working seems an unusual concept as everyone has had to readjust their lifestyles and working patterns to allow a working from home approach, alongside maintaining a work-life balance. This paper contributes with a prototype where working from home is re-imagined in a post-pandemic world. We explored the use of smartwatches to support the well-being of software developers. A human-centred design approach drives the prototype and evaluation. This paper relies on the User-Centred Design Framework. Data affinity analysis showed that isolation is a paramount problem for software developers working from home. Results show that all the participants involved in the study experienced the feeling of isolation while working from home, some being more extreme than others. While this solution focuses on a particular population, given that smartwatches have become more affordable and ubiquitous, this solution could benefit different types of office workers regardless of the type of work, socioeconomic status, or nationality. This paper investigates the use of smartwatches and virtual reality to support the wellbeing and isolation of people.