RFarn

Feature Design

Zoom Case Study

I grouped with student designers to analyze current videochatting platforms. Our research led to the design of an in-call Zoom feature aimed to improve efficiency and ease of video calling during quarantine.

Role
UI/UX Designer
Contributors
Harmony Jackson, Bharati Mahajan, Sonali Patel
Year
2020
Duration
2 months

Problem

Work-from-home user

During quarantine, people are looking for ways to effectively interact virtually and adapt to work-from-home lifestyles. They are becoming reliant on video chatting platforms, such as Zoom, to communicate and run their businesses. With changing user habits, how can we improve this product to make the work-from-home experience easier and more efficient?

Solution

In-call feature

The in-call meetings feature helps users quickly navigate between meetings and access their schedules and information while in ongoing calls. Information and actions are consolidated into a concise and accessible window to make the process of organizing and attending virtual meetings simpler and faster.

Competitor analysis

To begin our process, we researched existing popular video chatting platforms. We directly compared features of Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom.

Competitor analysis — comparing features of popular video chatting platforms.

General findings from our analyses

Platforms should include safety measures (password, controls, etc).
Platforms should be able to accommodate at least 100-150 people.
Virtual backgrounds are a good feature for those with distracting backgrounds.
Waiting rooms are helpful to let you know who you are letting in.
Dashboards are helpful for planning calls.

Interviewing video chatters

To gain more user perspectives, we interviewed individuals on their video chatting habits, most used platforms, and problems with existing products. We found Zoom to be one of the most used and decided to focus on improving the single product.

General interviews — asking video chatters about their habits, common used platforms and video chatting pain points.

Zoom user survey

With a focus on Zoom, we wanted to learn more specifically about its user experience and identify potential problems. We sent out a survey to current users.

Zoom user survey — asking users about their likes and dislikes of Zoom as well as uses of the platform.

Insights gathered from our survey

Zoom is primarily introduced and used for work.
Growing population of users also use platform for personal video calls.
Most pain points relate to organizing calls and accessing zoom links/invites.

Personas

Based on our survey results, we created four personas to represent the range of customers and various uses of the product.

Persona 1 — Zoom for non-work related/social events and activities.

Persona 2 — Student.

Persona 3 — Working adult in managing position.

Persona 4 — Working adult in freelance position.

Ideation

With a better understanding of the products existing pain points and user contexts, we moved on to brainstorm potential features and improvements. We performed two exercises to help prioritize ideas and identify which ones were most practical.

Exercise 1 — Categorizing ideas based on content.

Exercise 2 — Organizing ideas based on value and cost.

Conclusion based on exercises

We decided to focus on improving call scheduling and access. Our ideas were most concentrated in that category and more practical (high value and low cost).

Wireframes

Once we pinpointed which areas of the product we wanted to focus on improving, we drew basic wireframes to begin visualizing our solutions. We came up with two directions: an in-call feature and a dashboard redesign.

Comparing the directions

The dashboard redesign was focused more on fixing technical issues and editing small details. With the in-call feature, it more directly solved issues we identified in our research and had more opportunity for design.

Iterating on wireframes

We continued to iterate on the in-call feature and tested out various indicators and details on users.

Different ways to visually indicate ongoing calls.

Potential action buttons and icons for meetings.

Feedback from users

A solid blue fill was most favorable for indicating ongoing meetings. Users found the other indicators to be too subtle or hard to interpret.
Users liked meeting buttons to stay consistent with those on the dashboard.
They also felt they wouldn't use the remind/notify icon in the context of this feature.

High Fidelity Prototype

Pop-up window

In-call meetings window is designed to fit the format of existing features and interactions.

Meeting buttons

Key information and actions are displayed to allow for efficient transitions between video calls and easy access to call links.

Scheduled meetings are displayed with information — ongoing meetings are highlighted in blue, non-hosted meetings show host name.

Meeting buttons can be expanded, hosted meetings have additional actions.

Non-hosted meetings only have join option.

Ongoing meetings buttons can be expanded, majority actions are disabled.

View clickable prototype