Redesign
base on version 5.12.0 (11129) / September 26, 2022
The redesign of Zoom desktop App looks for improving the team collaboration experience within the context of remote working.
passion project
Team
2 Designers
contribution
UX/UI Design
project management
Tools
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Duration
2 months
Sep-Nov 2022
CONtext
👩💻 Remote working has become the new norm.
As remote working has been shifting the work pattern since pandemic, Zoom emerged as a popular video meeting centric collaboration platform to enable remote work patterns.
⬆️️ Time for managing system and tools = ⬇️ productive remote collaboration.
We are heavy Zoom users for its high quality video conferencing experience with collaboration tools. Starting from our own experience in remote work and digging into the facts, we identified great opportunities to drive collaboration to the next lvl.
Challenge
How to improve remote collaboration experience in zoom to boost productivity in daily workflow ？
Solution Brief
An enhanced Zoom platform with streamlined collaboration workflow and extended scenarios.
01
streamlined workflow from scheduling, joining meetings and following ups
02
smarter process in setting up group discussions and monitoring participants' activities
03
improved experience to further compare, and preserve collaboration results when sharing screens.
My Contribution
I collaborated with another designer for 2 months to drive this project from 0 to 1, and we developed a highly efficient work mode. During which, my main areas of contribution include:
🗓️ Time management: monitor the process, and ensure the output quality.
📊 Exploring and synthesizing insight: from collecting resources to concluding insights.
🔄 Design iterations: always think and explore further for final design.
🎨 Infographic design: synthesize research to easily understandable visualizations.
Intended outcome
As a passion project, we were not able to collect enough stats from user testings. While from the beginning of the design process, we agreed on these 2 key metrics to measure the success of our solutions.
🖥 Reduce the time wasted in shifting between applications
⏱ Save more time for remote collaboration during virtual meetings
How we got there
Analysis
Identify macro trend
Define target group
Identify user needs
Frame problem
Ideation
Brainstorm solutions
Define MVPs
Design
Iterate solutions
Validate with users
Reflection
Think further
Takeaways
ANALYSIS
Research
What are users suffering from current collaboration scenarios?
Reduced efficiency due to 'toggle tax' between zoom and other tools
Hindered collaboration experience in screen sharing
Difficulty in managing multiple-group discussions
View Research Process
Brainstorm
Based on the previous ideations and considerations for feasibility, we used prioritization matrix to narrow down the redesign MVPs.
Prioritization Metrics
Based on the previous ideations, we used prioritization matrix to narrow down the redesign MVPs with the consideration of following metrics.
whether align with identified business trend and goals
satisfy both business value and user value
adequate developer hours and costs of external services
positive impact on existing Zoom features
DESIGN
IDEation
How might we help users decrease the cognitive load of managing systems and adjust to tools?
testings & iterations
What are the key findings of testings?
We developed low fidelity wireframes and performed testing with 5 users. With confirmed ideas/features from the high level, we refined the design and conducted usability testing with 15 users.
Some problems exposed:
Need better information hierarchy and readability
Increase the discoverability for some key features
Improve Accessibility
How do these results affect iterations?
Several user goals, usability, and interaction issues were further revealed from the testing. Based on feedback from usability testing. We conducted iterations, including user flow, wireframes, and visual presentation.
View iteration Process
final solution
01
Integrated Meeting Management
Lucas Garcia
“Hello Monday, let’s do a weekly catch-up and quickly schedule for a few meetings.”
Synthesized management platform
Reduce the wasted time between zoom and other tools from pre-meeting scheduling to historical meeting management.
Intuitive scheduling system
a detailed panel to know team’s availability at a glance, and to choose the best time by clicking the auto-suggested time blocks.
Efficient information collection
show all the upcoming and historical meetings with improved hierarchy, and gather all the information as needed.
02
Enhancing breakout rooms experience
“I am going to host a workshop with colleagues from multiple service lines.”
Virtualized set up and edit workflow
different ways of assigning to support simple choose, batch process, and random assignment.
Manage and monitor multi-group discussion
Improved the flexibility of switching between rooms and the visibility of the status of each room.
In-group discussion
Live discussion on screen: no more worry on missing information.
Switch between main screen & room screen without leaving room.
03
Improving Screen sharing Collaboration
“I am going to discuss with colleagues for a few solutions to revise the final report...”
Improved annotation tool bar
Enable users to quickly find the tools through efficient grouping and visualization.
Manage discussion result with screen shot and pin
Screenshots are automatically saved to the temp folder, and could be pinned on the screen for sharing, or to be batch saved/deleted
REFLECTION
THINk Further
What would be the future of work?
1 month after our project was done, Zoom surprisingly released the concept of ZOOMTOPIA with a set of new features including Calendar and Mail, which confirmed our design decisions from the high level.
A passionate project won’t be so perfect to cover all and the future of work will be keep evolving. Here are a few thoughts I have as next steps:
⚙️ Increase the synergies across devices to further extend the possibilities.
🧩 Enhance the multi-modality in collaboration scenarios for inclusiveness.
🤖 Integrate AI functions into online office platform to boost efficiency.
Take aways
When the project finished within our preset timeline, we exchanged ideas on the our gains and the key factors contributing to a smooth collaboration.
keep a clear scope
Since this is a passionate project, the biggest challenge was to identify the design scope as well as define final deliverables. Even though without the real business metrics, we set principles based on preliminary research and kept focusing on MVPs.
be a better designer from accessible design
During the high fidelity prototype validation process, we occurred to test with a user with chromatic weakness, and then we revised all the designed screens. When the consideration of accessibility is maintained from the early stage of design, the accessibility specification problems caused by negligence can be avoided later on.
