Conscious | Mitigating Fatigue for Shift Workers
Design Challenge: Interface design for a wellbeing product
Role: User Research & Product Design
Tools: Figma
Duration: 8 weeks
Introduction
In a team of two, we focused on tackling fatigue in shift workers, a common issue faced by those working shifts.
Following the double diamond approach, we split the project into four key phases:
Discover: We conducted both qualitative and quantitative research to explore the root causes of fatigue.
Define: We synthesised our insights and reframed the problem to focus on the most critical insights.
Develop: We brainstormed ideas, built prototypes, and iterated based on user feedback.
Deliver: We refined our solution into high-fidelity mockups and presented our final report.
Discover
Context
Shift workers in Australia often face extreme fatigue due to irregular, late, and extended working hours that disrupt natural sleep cycles and social routines. This disruption can lead to Shift Work Disorder, a condition characterised by insomnia, excessive sleepiness, and reduced alertness. Over time, these issues can result in serious health consequences including substance dependency, poor nutrition, and increased risks of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal issues, and cognitive decline (Pacheco et al., 2020).
Adequate sleep is crucial for maintaining reaction time, emotional regulation, and cognitive clarity. Without it, shift workers face a significantly higher risk of workplace accidents and injuries (Newsom et al., 2021).
Recognising the long-term impact fatigue has on the health and safety of shift workers, we set out to address this issue through a digital solution designed to promote healthier lifestyles and adapt to the unpredictable nature of shift work.
Research Goals
Understand when and why shift workers experience fatigue to identify factors we can reduce or prevent.
Understand the daily routines and challenges of shift workers
Identify current coping mechanisms and tools used.
Understand the emotional and social impact of fatigue.
Explore digital habits and technology access.
Identify opportunities for intervention through digital means.
Research Approach
To understand the relationship between shift workers and fatigue, we used a mixed-methods research strategy:
12 User Interviews – Uncovered personal stories, pain points, and behaviours.
2 Online Surveys – Gathered 158 responses to validate and quantify common experiences.
Online Ethnography – Observed conversations across 3 Facebook groups dedicated to shift workers.
In-Person Observations – Captured context and environmental factors in real time at 3 locations.
This approach helped us gather both qualitative depth and quantitative scale, ensuring our insights were grounded in real lived experiences.
Key Findings
Our research revealed three core themes that informed our problem framing and design direction.
1. Different people need differing amounts of recovery time.
Our research revealed that burnout and fatigue were experienced differently across demographics.
Younger participants often struggled more with the social impact of shift work, feeling isolated due to missed events and irregular hours, yet were generally comfortable with the length of individual shifts.
In contrast, older participants were more affected by the unpredictability and irregularity of rosters, which disrupted their routines and recovery cycles.
“On your days off you’re just recovering, you don’t actually have energy to go out and do something fun.” - Emma, 22.
“I have usually have 4 shifts a week, so I never experience regular sleep patterns.” - Molly, 51.
2. Fatigue is a health risk
Many participants shared how fatigue directly affected their performance, safety, and long-term health. From making simple mistakes to experiencing serious health issues like insomnia, migraines, and even autoimmune conditions, the physical and mental toll of shift work fatigue was clear.
“Very easy to make mistakes when you’re sleep deprived.” - Jackson, 35.
“I’ve developed migraines from fatigue.” - Molly, 51.
“When you’re a bit tired you’re not as aware… more likely to get injuries.” - Sam, 28.
3. There is a lack of communication around fatigue between employees and employers
Despite the severity of their fatigue, most shift workers chose not to disclose it to their employer. Fatigue was often viewed as a sign of weakness, and workers feared judgement or repercussions.
54% had left work early due to fatigue
Yet 66% had never told their employer they were fatigued
66% believed the employer was responsible for managing worker fatigue
Define
Framing the problem
Although rostering systems and communication processes were already in place, they weren’t addressing the core problem: fatigue caused by back-to-back shifts, irregular hours, and insufficient recovery time. Our research showed that most workers stayed silent about their fatigue, leaving management unaware of the scale or impact. It became clear that this wasn’t just a tooling problem—it was a power dynamic.
Rather than adding another scheduling tool, we proposed a platform that gives workers greater agency, allowing them to collaboratively build and manage their own rosters based on their personal recovery needs.
Problem Statement
Shift workers need a flexible, recovery-aware rostering system that supports their wellbeing by adapting to their energy levels and giving them greater control over their schedules.
Persona’s
We developed two persona’s to help guide our design decisions during our prototyping phase.
👩⚕️ Emma, 24 – Emergency Room Nurse, Sydney
"I love helping people, but the exhaustion builds up. Sometimes I feel like I’m running on autopilot."
Goals:
Stay alert and focused during long night shifts
Avoid burnout and stay healthy
Have fun with her friends during off hours
Frustrations:
Difficulty falling asleep during the day
Lack of consistent meal and hydration habits
Feels isolated as her schedule often does not line up with her friends
Tech Habits:
Uses a Fitbit and a sleep tracker
Checks apps like Headspace and Calm
Reluctant to try new apps unless they’re very intuitive
👨🔧 Sam, 54 — Logistics Operator, Sydney
"I’m not lazy, I just can’t get into a rhythm. Every week throws something new at me."
Goals:
Wake up easily and feel energised in the morning
Find a balance between work, exercise, and rest
Avoid injuries and stay sharp on the job
Frustrations:
Suffers from migraines
Feels groggy at work, especially mid-week
Difficult to maintain a consistent sleep routine
Tech Habits:
Uses a smartphone
Doesn’t trust overly complex tech or paid subscriptions
Develop
Paper Prototype
We began with a paper prototype of a mobile app that intelligently rosters shift workers, tracks fatigue in real time, and supports flexible scheduling.
Users enter details like age, health, and job type, which feed into an algorithm designed to minimise collective fatigue.
The app supports two core actions:
Shift Swapping & Covering – Users can either trade shifts with a coworker or request coverage without requiring a trade.
Raising Issues – An anonymous feedback board allows users to post and vote on concerns. The system monitors this board and updates rostering logic based on recurring themes.
Shift Swapping & Covering
Additional features
Fatigue-Based Shift Locking: The system automatically locks shifts for users who have worked too many back-to-back (B2B) shifts, to help prevent burnout.
Fatigue Visibility: Each user’s fatigue level is visualised, so workers can make smarter decisions when requesting covers or swaps.
Raising Issues
Additional features
Upvote Limit: Users can upvote up to 4 issues at a time to help the system focus on the most important problems.
Duplicate Detection: When posting a new issue, the system suggests similar existing issues to avoid duplicates and keep the feedback board clean and efficient.
Think Aloud
To validate our paper prototype, we ran think-aloud sessions with three shift workers, asking them to navigate the app while sharing their thoughts in real time. This surfaced several key insights:
This helped us uncover several valuable insights:
Shift Swapping & Covering: Users liked these features but felt uncomfortable sending requests to a single coworker—it felt too personal and guilt-inducing. They preferred sending requests to multiple people to avoid singling anyone out.
Fatigue Score Visualisation: Some mistook the fatigue score for a progress bar, highlighting the need for clearer, more intuitive visuals.
Issue Board: The board and upvote system were well received, but most users missed the 4-vote limit and assumed managers—not the AI—were reviewing concerns, indicating a need for better onboarding and UI clarity.
Fatigue-Based Shift Locking: This feature was unanimously rejected as too rigid and unrealistic.
These findings guided our next design iteration and confirmed we were solving a real problem.
Wireflow
Based on insights from our think-aloud testing, we created a refined wireflow to map key user interactions and system logic. This wireflow allowed us to visualise user navigation through the app and identify opportunities for improvement based on early feedback.
Key updates included:
Shift Swapping & Covering: Users can now send requests to multiple coworkers at once, better reflecting real-world availability and reducing pressure on individuals.
Fatigue Score Visualisation: We introduced three clear fatigue levels with visual indicators, making it easier to understand coworker fatigue at a glance before sending requests.
Issue Board: Improved wording and UI made posting and upvoting concerns more intuitive.
Fatigue-Based Shift Locking: Removed based on widespread negative feedback.
These changes shaped our wireflow and laid the foundation for our high-fidelity, user-centered design.
Shift Swapping & Covering
Raising Issues
Think Aloud
After refining the prototype, we ran another think-aloud session with five participants to validate updated user flows and UI. Participants completed tasks while narrating their thoughts, helping us gauge clarity and usability.
Shift Swapping & Covering: Users appreciated the option to send requests to multiple coworkers, but often wanted to notify everyone, highlighting the need for a quicker “Select All” function.
Swap Requests: The new icon made the difference between swap and cover requests clear, improving understanding and control.
Issue Board: All users still assumed issues were sent to a manager, not the system. We identified a need to clarify that feedback informs automated rostering decisions.
Usability: Navigation was smooth, but tasks required too many clicks. Streamlining interactions became a top priority for the high-fidelity prototype.
This round confirmed our direction was sound, while pointing out important areas for refinement.
Fatigue Score Visualisation
Participants found our new design more confusing than the previous one. By creating a high-fidelity visualisation of the old design, we improved understanding and realized that line weight and color were key factors in differentiating it from a progress bar to an energy bar.
Deliver
High Fidelity Prototype
In our high-fidelity prototype, we focused on creating an interface that feels reliable, approachable and easy to use, especially for shift workers who may be short on time, fatigued or non-technical.
Our UI choices prioritised accessibility, particularly for tired or older shift workers, by following key principles:
AA contrast standards for readability
Minimalist design with few options per page
Limited iconography
Large buttons
Bold colours
Style Guide
We created a lightweight style guide, just enough to align the team on a common theme without limiting creativity or adding complexity. With only a week remaining, it was important that it didn’t take long to produce or implement.
Onboarding Prototype
Onboarding Form
When signing up for the Conscious app, users complete a short form with key personal details—such as sleep habits, age, gender, and external commitments. This data helps the system estimate individual recovery needs and tailor shift recommendations accordingly.
With more time, we would have expanded our research to better understand how demographic and lifestyle factors influence ideal shift durations and recovery windows. This would allow us to refine our algorithm and ensure our recommendations are grounded in evidence-based insights.
Swap / Cover Page
When users open the Conscious app, they see all incoming and outgoing shift requests in one view.
To improve clarity, we added filters; All, Swaps, Covers, and Sent, allowing users to quickly narrow down request types. Based on user feedback, we improved our arrow icons to clearly differentiate between swaps/covers and incoming/outgoing requests, reinforcing consistency through iconography.
We also introduced a simple color-coding system inspired by the Beem app:
Purple = resolved
White = pending
This system helps users instantly understand the status of each request, reducing cognitive load and improving ease of use.
Accept Request Prototype
Calendar
Inspired by Apple Calendar and Microsoft Teams, the Conscious Calendar gives users a clear, intuitive overview of their roster, with their own shifts visually highlighted for quick reference.
Users can:
Tap their shift to request a swap or cover
Tap a coworker’s shift to propose a swap
Use ‘+ Add Request’ to create a new request from scratch
We also simplified the fatigue level icons to create a cleaner, more modern interface that aligns with the app’s visual language and improves overall clarity.
Cover & Swap Requests
Users can easily toggle between creating a cover or swap request using clear, accessible buttons. When sending a cover request, we’ve included a “Select all” option to make the process feel less personal or targeted, improving the user experience. To help users make smarter, more considerate decisions, we display each coworker’s energy level, increasing the likelihood of accepted requests. For swap requests, available shifts are sorted by fatigue level, showing coworkers with the most energy first, making it easier to choose someone likely to accept the swap.
Send Request Prototype
Issue Board
Our main focus for the Issue Board was to improve clarity To clarify that feedback goes to the system’s AI—not a human manager—we added a sparkle icon (a common AI cue) and a clear message: “AI adjusts the roster based on upvoted issues”.
We also made the vote limit more transparent by displaying the remaining votes in the top left corner, which updates in real time as users vote.
To reduce friction, as users type a new issue, similar existing issues auto-surface, making it easier to upvote rather than create duplicates. This process and encourages more collaborative participation.
Upvote Prototype
Future Steps and Considerations
We developed a strong concept for a rostering system centered on fatigue awareness. If given more time, I would have deepened our exploration of how fatigue-based automation could work technically, beyond assuming AI would handle the logic. It would’ve been exciting to investigate alternative approaches, potential models, and the types of data needed to make this truly functional.
Additionally, we could have prototyped the app more holistically, with a fully integrated click-through flow and a clearer onboarding experience.
Finally, designing the manager-facing side, where managers could set constraints, guide the AI, or override decisions, would have helped round out the concept into a more complete, end-to-end solution.