Work-life balance among PhD students

Result of a semester-long interaction design project, Circles is a community-building app for Ph.D. and graduate students.

                                Team: 3 members
                                My Role: UX Researcher
Duration: 4 weeks
Advisor: Dr. Eun Kyong Choe
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Mental illness is a growing concern within graduate education and work-life balance is one of the major factors that contribute to an individual’s physical and mental well-being. With this research, our aim was:
      1. Study the prevalence of stress and anxiety among Ph.D. students and the factors that cause it.
      2. Understand their definitions of work-life balance, the current practices they employ to improve it, and the problems they face while doing so.
      3. Come up with design ideas that would help improve work-life balance among graduate students and potentially reduce their stress/anxiety levels.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

1.    Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education

2.    What I wish my friends and family knew about my PhD 
 
3.    Work-life balance of female PhD students in engineering

4.    Survival Strategies: Doctoral Students’ Perceptions of Challenges and Coping Methods

RESEARCH
We conducted a mixed-method research study to gather data about PhD students' lifestyle, understand how they perceive work-life balance and the existing methods they use to manage their work.
The one-on-one semi-structured interviews were designed to get a deeper understanding of what a day typically looks like for a Ph.D. student, what responsibilities they have, how they manage everything and how it affects their emotional well-being.

Participant Demographic for the diary study

DATA ANALYSIS
A total of 9 current Ph.D. students participated in our research process. The participants were an equal mix of both males and females and were at different stages of their STEM degree program. 9 participants signed up for the diary study and 6 signed up for both the interview and the diary study. The following table gives an overview of the participants recruited.
Tools Used for Analysis: Numbers for Mac, Miro
Link to the diary study: https://forms.gle/i9ZxAQJoRw7h7fnt9
Link to the Miro Board: https://realtimeboard.com/app/board/o9J_kxnYSJM=/​​​​​​

Affinity Mapping using Miro


MAJOR FINDINGS
PERSONAS​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Based on the results from our data analysis we were able to come up with a primary and secondary user persona.
Primary Persona
Secondary Persona
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