Designing a User-Centred Team Role Testing APP: Revealing Team Dynamics Through Visual Analysis

Abstract: In today's fast-paced work environment, teamwork is considered to be one of the most effective ways of working. Teams facilitate cross-functional collaboration by assembling members with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. Nonetheless, the calibre of teamwork is contingent not solely upon the individual competencies of specific team members but also upon how well the roles and skills of each member are coordinated and balanced within the team. The allocation of roles within a team exerts a profound influence on the team's overall performance, and unfair or ineffective distribution principles can lead to significantly lower team performance in practice. Hence, in practical team collaboration, the equitable allocation of roles within the team is a challenging issue. The primary aim of this study is to design a visual tool to foster the establishment of an appropriately skills-balanced team while facilitating team members' comprehension of team dynamics.Following a comprehensive review of team working and team role allocation practices we proposed Belbin team roles as the theoretical underpinning for the tool’s team role equilibrium processes. We employed a qualitative methodology to gather user requirements, undertaking unstructured interviews with ten individuals experienced in collaborative working. Detailed user requirements were gathered from this data and an interactive prototype was designed using Axure. The prototype was designed to analyse users’ personality types with respect to Belbin team roles and use this information to allow the optimum allocation of members to teams for a proposed project. The tool also allows the make-up of the team to be visualized using a range of graphics which present the outcomes of team assessments and offer developmental recommendations tailored to the specific industry of the team.The tool was evaluated using a combination of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) and semi-structured interviews. Two rounds of evaluation were conducted, using a further 10 individuals; five were non-industry users and five were industry experts. After each iteration the prototype design was refined.The design underscores the significance of product design and iterative processes grounded in user requirements within the realm of mobile application design. Such insights may hold substantial implications for teams across diverse industries and work environments, particularly concerning the equilibrium of team roles and the dynamics within teams in the future.

Keywords: Team collaboration, Team role balance, Team role allocation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004596

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