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Chatbox Redesign in Zoom
Redesigning the chat box and engagement tools in Zoom meetings to enhance asynchronous communication experiences
Project Type
‍
Product Design Case Study
Timeline:
‍
Feb 2023 - May 2023
Tools:

Figma
Prototyping
Illustration
Interaction Design
Motion Design
Project Highlights:

UI/ UX Design
Product Design
User Research
Data Visualization
Research Analysis
Final Design
The Problem
Chapter 1

2020 brought about the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced us to adapt to hybrid Zoom meetings as a new way of working. However, the current App was not initially designed for hybrid meetings, causing technical issues and communication challenges, and users have to pay more attention to do extra efforts to achieve an ideal meeting experience. But what if we don’t?

Research
Chapter 2
User Interview

To deeper understand the current pain points of a variety of users, I conducted a series of interviews with various hybrid meeting users to gain insight into the scope of the obstacles that they face.

The interviews were structured around several key questions designed to provide a detailed understanding of users' experiences with hybrid Zoom meetings. See Report Here

Interview Questions
Research Synthesis
Chapter 3
At what stage did users become dissatisfied with Zoom experience?

To deeper analyze users’ feedback, I visualized each individual’s answer and overlaid all the graphs. By doing so, I was able to identify common inflection points, which provided valuable insights into current pain points.

After visualize the experience flow of using hybrid zoom meeting, I was able to locate the current users’ pain points, which encapsulated the major challenges and needs users to face from the hybrid Zoom meeting experience

Want attentions

Online participants, feel hard to draw attention from the in-person group since the zoom App always runs in the background and is ignored.

Need Interactions

Facial expression and body movement help us to express our ideas better. However, in the online meeting situation, we need more interactions to ease the downside.

Meeting Environments

Facial expression and body movement help us to express our ideas better. However, in the online meeting situation, we need more interactions to ease the downside.

Turning Point
Chapter 4

While I conducted the interview several interviewees shared their experiences of needing to resort to third-party apps to send DMs in regular meetings. This drew my attention, and I wondered if the chat feature and other engagement tools have been ignored by the current Zoom platform.

“Have we underestimate the importance of the chat box and engagement tools on the Zoom platform?”
2nd Round Research
Chapter 5
A process that opened up the potential solutions

In order to address my question, I conducted another series of user interviews with a focus on the chat and engagement tools available on the current Zoom platform. This approach helped to validate my inquiry and gain a thorough understanding of users' expectations regarding interaction features.

The current chat box makes it impossible to get notifications in time. The initial and the second user interviews reflected that people do use the chat box feature a lot, but the current feature does not push any notifications to users, and users need to swipe back to the zoom window to check frequently.

The reaction feature on Zoom is great, but it’s hard to navigate. During user interviews, it was mentioned that some users love sending reactions on Zoom because it creates a sense of engagement and bridges the distance between participants. However, the current placement of the reaction feature on the bottom bar of the UI makes it difficult to send a quick reaction when needed.

Zoom window always runs in the background, making it easy to forget about engagement. Most of the time when we use an App we pay 100% attention to it, but Zoom is a unique case since users tend to keep the app running in the background while giving a presentation/ sharing ideas. However, without any visual cues to remind them of ongoing meetings when no screen-sharing is in progress, they often forget to check in with their team and drop engagement.

Research Converge

With the surprise I noted, I broadened the scope of the design prompt as I realized that the hybrid Zoom meeting experiences amplified the fundamental problem of the platform's lack of optimized engagement features. As a result, I pivoted the project idea towards designing engagement features for the current Zoom platform rather than solely for hybrid meetings.

Design Process
Chapter 6
Defining the key metrics of the project

When I began the design phase of this project, I outlined three key metrics for success: capturing attention effortlessly, enhancing communication, and complementing the Zoom environment. By focusing on these objectives, I aimed to address the fundamental engagement challenges that arise when utilizing the Zoom platform.

Exploring the possible visual solutions

Then, I drew inspiration from the concepts of "Dynamic Window" and "Floating Videos," focusing on the floating video box within the current Zoom platform. I identified this feature as a tremendous opportunity to attain our design objectives, despite it being underutilized.

Feedback Session

Before starting the final design, I wanted to present the key features in the prototype to users and conduct some user testing to validate the designs to ensure it was meeting the goal. And within the feedback, I changed some details of the design and revised some of the features’ priorities.

Concept #1
Expanding video window that allows users to receive/ send messages quickly

Like: The quick reaction feature, it's really useful, especially when attending lectures

Dislike: The green stroke outside the box is too eye-catching, it feels like too many things going on.

Concept #2
Sending DMs by clicking the video box

Like: the new way to send DMs, it’s more intuitive and will less likely to send to the wrong recipient.

Dislike: Would need to have a optimized feature for group chat situation, when there is multiple participants in the meeting.

Concept #3
Dynamic control panel for minimizing box views

Like: the consideration for minimizing view, and also keep the high frequently used buttons.

Dislike: the reading space might be too small when there are multiple incoming messages.  

Thanks for reading till the end

Please reach out to me for further details of the project.

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