Projects
Project Overview
zoom reConnect focuses on improving the virtual meeting experience by providing users with more opportunities to hang out with others virtually, powerful coordination tools, and an immersive chat experience with cool emojis on Zoom. By bringing the virtual Collaboration Room, the all-new Whiteboard, co-editing Wiki Doc, and updated emojis, our design makes the online meetings more immersive. This redesigned Zoom encourages communication and collaboration anytime to help users reduce the loneliness caused by remote work.
Project Type
Mentorship project,
virtual meeting platform redesign, new features prototyping.
Team
Yitong Du, Jundi Fu, Yang Chen, Jinzhao Chen, Jie Li
Responsibility
User Survey & Interview, Persona & Journey Map, Prototyping, Usability test,
UI Design
Duration
Dec 2022 - Feb 2023
Introduce Zoom reConnect Features
Feature #1
Collaboration Room
A communal work area maintains orderliness for ongoing gatherings, tasks, or courses, enabling participants to labor, learn, and enjoy amusement concurrently.
Feature #2
Co-editing Wiki Doc
An integrated doc along with a streamlined documentation process aids in decreasing tasks and boosting productivity.
Feature #3
Whiteboard Annotation
Enhance annotating usability via toolbar revamp and additional feature.
Feature #4
All-new Emojis
Engaging and personalized emoticons enhance interactive conversations between individuals. Reimagine the application of emoticons according to various contexts and tendencies.
UX Research & Design Scope Defining
Secondary Research
Insights:
1. Employees who work remotely every day may quickly become disinterested in constant virtual interactions.
2. Workers often experience reduced efficiency when in recurring low-energy states.
3. The majority of workers believe there is a shortage of effective tools designed for remote work and virtual meetings.
4. Most employees require a more engaging method to interact with colleagues while working from home.
User Survey and Interview
Remote interviews were carried out with twenty interviewees between Nov 14th, 2022and Nov 18th, 2022. Interviews were conducted with frequent Zoom users. The Key Findings from the interviews are:
Based on the research findings, we created the two personas and a Journey Map to visualize what we learned from the interviews:
Aligned Personas
User Needs & Design Impact Analysis
Step 1:
What features should be narrowed down to focus on helping Zoom users feel more communicative, productive, and joyful?
Step 2:
We grouped concepts jointly based on their influence and practicality, enabling us to make informed choices and assess proposed measures prior to implementation. We opted to concentrate on:
Prioritized Design Tasks
Our team defined four key features to build a better experience for remote working employees. To continue with the design process, we reframed the design questions and ideated a few solutions for each task.
Design Question Reframe & Design Solutions
Design Question #1:
How might we help users work effectively together in a shared workspace where users could store previous meeting documents, work and have fun in one place?
User Flow - Virtual Collaborating Room
Design Solution #1:
Save meeting preparation time and improve team engagement and alignment.
Design Solution #2: Avoid toggling between tabs/third parties.
Design Solution #3: Upload files from Wiki to your meeting room.
Design Question #2:
How might we enhance productivity by establishing Zoom as the primary platform for teamwork and co-creation via an integrated document and file management system?
Key Screens - Wiki Doc
01 File Template
Offer document design formats for simple user selection.
02 Recent Files
Offer a method for reaching recent documents quickly and efficiently.
03 Build-in Document
Allow users to generate, modify documents in Zoom, preventing platform switches.
04 Co-editing
Allow users to collaborate on a single document simultaneously.
Design Question #3
How can we enhance distant interactions by making them more engaging and intelligent through reimagining emojis?
Live Chat - Variable emojis to color your chat
Through secondary research, we comprehend that users don't consistently utilize emojis according to their official significance; hence, we decide to characterize the meaning from the context where emojis are used instead of adhering to formal descriptions.
User Case - Zoom Meeting/Group Chat
Group chat mentioned the keywords, such as the party, drinks, food, etc., the live chat will automatically show the related emojis that may fit in the current context. It not only helps save time to scroll down the whole menu to find the emojis but also provides ideas of what the users may want.
Add more emojis reactions
to the Zoom chat
Use emojis to respond more vividly.
Customized Emojis
Customization is a way to express personal identity, and create users shared identity. It provide means to say “this is us” beyond the content of conversations, which can strongly contribute to a sense of belonging in online spaces.
In the context of personal communication, customization can help create “mini communication places”within an app reflecting the intimacy of a relationship in the interface itself.
Reflection & Next Steps
Reflection
Zoom reConnect creates a communal space where users can collaborate effortlessly without being dominated by “the loudest voice in the room.” We aim to assist users, whether for business, education, or leisure purposes, in preparing for meetings while preserving the efficiency, joy, and interactivity of these gatherings.
Initially, our vision for an online meeting platform was overly ambitious compared to what was realistically achievable. I mistakenly believed that the ideal app would include numerous innovative features.
The team came to understand that users prefer not to make extensive decisions independently. Simplicity is valued more highly since, contrary to the initial assumption, the application would prove to be much more intuitive and user-friendly if designers can empathize with users and make choices on their behalf based on individual preferences.
Next Steps
Zoom reConnect creates a communal space where users can collaborate effortlessly without being dominated by “the loudest voice in the room.” We aim to assist users, whether for business, education, or leisure purposes, in preparing for meetings while preserving the efficiency, joy, and interactivity of these gatherings.