2025

ATTUNE

AI Healthcare

Product Design

Interaction Design

Service Design

2024

(TIMELINE)

15 weeks

Attune is an AI-powered wellbeing system for hospitality workers that detects moments of stress and helps employees, peers, and managers respond without turning support into surveillance.

(TEAM)

Yue LiAB

(MYROLE)

I led the employee-facing product experience, including the mobile app, wearable interactions, visual system, and end-to-end flows. I also co-led worker interviews and co-creation sessions, translating research into design principles, prototypes, and testable service moments.

INTRODUCTION

Problem

Service workers experience ongoing stress during shifts. But limited trust and fragmented communication mean stress stays unaddressed in the moments that matter most.

The Result is a culture where struggling in silence is just part of the job, and businesses absorb the cost in turnover and performance.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

Findings

Trust is the real barrier

Trust is the real barrier

Workers rely on informal support because official channels feel unsafe. Managers are part of the system, and power dynamics make asking for help risky.

Informal support system exists. Formal channels feel unsafe, managers aren't trained to respond empathetically, and power dynamics make asking
for help feel risky.

AI is welcome, but only on workers' terms

AI is welcome, but only on workers' terms

AI can help only if workers control what gets shared the system must nudge support, not monitor productivity

The Gap is that there's no shared visibility between workers, managers, and systems, so stress that's felt in the moment never translates into a coordinated response.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

Oppurtunity

How might we help hospitality workers
get support in stressful moments while preserving privacy, agency, and trust?

Solution

A multi-touchpoint system that surfaces worker stress in real time, creating shared visibility and enabling coordinated, privacy-first interventions across employees and managers.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

Before shift - Get in the zone

This often-overlooked moment in the employee experience combines a grounding exercise with operational updates to help employees prepare for their shift.

worker checks in, completes breathwork, sees operational context, and prepares emotionally and mentally

During shift - Detect and regulate

wearable notices stress changes and offers grounding

wearable notices stress changes and offers grounding

timely cues in moments of stress with visual
and haptic guidance

During peak stress - Ask for support safely

coworker/manager gets a role-aware nudge
without exposing private data

coworker/manager gets a role-aware nudge
without exposing private data

prompts coworkers to provide brief coverage for their peers during periods of heightened stress.

After shift - Reflect and recover

worker closes the day with check-ins and recovery suggestions

worker closes the day with check-ins and recovery suggestions

contextual prompts make the interaction varied and personal.

Over period of time - Understand patterns

dashboard visualizes employee stress impacts their work over time. AI-powered insights surface patterns and suggest small changes that support healthier, more sustainable work lives.

dashboard visualizes employee stress impacts their work over time. AI-powered insights surface patterns and suggest small changes that support healthier, more sustainable work lives.

USER FLOW

Journey Map

Research Participants

Attune is primarily for the employee, it was important to consider everyone within the ecosystem to ensure it could work.

INITIAL RESEARCH

The Culture

Hospitality has a long history of glamorizing self-sacrifice. Workers are expected to perform, wellness even when they're not, and asking for help breaks that persona.

USER INTERVIEWS AND CO-CREATION

We interviewed 6 hospitality workers. Conducted 2 co-creation sessions, with 1 of them.
Synthesized insights into 6 buckets and 4 product principles.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

Research Participants

Attune is primarily for the employee, it was important to consider everyone within the ecosystem to ensure it could work.

Research Participants

Attune is primarily for the employee, it was important to consider everyone within the ecosystem to ensure it could work.

Insights

Human Support and Empathy

Insight 1: “Human touch matters” beats tools or procedures.

 Insight 2: Small, consistent gestures of care go farther than ‘corporate’ programs.

Stress and Emotional Labour

Insight 3: Stress is emotional as much as physical.

 Insight 4: Politics and power dynamics are core stressors.

 Insight 5: Workers face ‘double pressure’ from managers and customers.

Coping Strategies

Insight 6: People self-regulate on shift; formal channels feel unsafe.

 Insight 7: Connection with co-workers helps buffer stress.

Management and Leadership

Insight 8: Many managers aren’t trained (or incentivized) to care empathetically.

AI in Mental Health

Insight 9: People are wary: AI must not surveil or be ‘for productivity.’

 Insight 10: AI’s role (if any): contextual, bias-aware nudges & accessibility.

Relationships and Trust

Insight 11: Co-worker closeness helps, but power dynamics limit manager trust.

 Insight 12: Workers often build personal ‘safety nets’ with owners to buffer risk.

hover to

see quotes!

Provotype- A provocative prototype

Provotype- A provocative prototype

Provotype- A provocative prototype

we used a provocative prototype to test how much visibility workers would tolerate, and where support started to feel like surveillance.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

2x2 Ideation Matrix

We drew on our insights, aligning them with our design principles to stretch our thinking across levels of feasibility and creativity, encouraging both practical solutions and bold provocations.

Storyboard/Prompts

How might we build genuine empathy within the system (making stress more visible and understood) while ensuring employees still feel safe, supported, and in control, rather than exposed or monitored?

Learnings we wanted to implement

Anonymity & Privacy

Facilitator & Balancing Power

Flexible and adapt

hover to learn more!

Design Principles

A multi-touchpoint system that detects and communicates worker stress in real time, creating shared visibility across employees, managers, and workers themselves. It enables individuals to take action while supporting coordinated responses across roles, acting as a facilitator that prioritizes trust, privacy, and actionable intervention.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

Design for empathetic flexibility

Design for empathetic flexibility

Support systems should be built with empathy to create mutual respect and trust, flexibly adapting to workers diverse needs.

Informal support system exists. Formal channels feel unsafe, managers aren't trained to respond empathetically, and power dynamics make asking
for help feel risky.

Keep support human-led

Keep support human-led

Approach adding AI into their workplace with delicacy. AI should not try to replace the connections, but instead facilitate them.

Enable everyday resilience

Enable everyday resilience

Support self-regulation and peer connection as healthy, everyday ways to manage stress.

Informal support system exists. Formal channels feel unsafe, managers aren't trained to respond empathetically, and power dynamics make asking
for help feel risky.

Acknowledge the full spectrum of stress

Acknowledge the full spectrum of stress

Address stress as a mix of emotional, physical, and organizational pressures, not just workload.

REFLECTION

If continued, I would prototype consent controls, manager dashboards, and escalation boundaries to make sure Attune supports workers without creating new forms of workplace surveillance.

Testing highlighted a tension between the concept and the project's screen-free ethos.
To keep the focus on physical interaction,
we positioned it as a supporting exploration rather than a defining feature.

work.naomishah@gmail.com

work.naomishah@gmail.com

work.naomishah@gmail.com