Juggle for Zoom

A new feature to allow multi-tasking through Zoom.

7 min readDec 27, 2020

My Role: UX Designer | Duration: 1.5 Week | Project Status: Concept

This year has been full of change and most of us have learned to adapt to the circumstances. We all began to heavily rely on technology to be able to speak, see, work and even be taught in remote settings. Accessibility to video-calling, messaging, screen-sharing and more became the norm, and being able to use them throughout different platforms and devices is incredibly important for us to continue our everyday life. In continuation, we will be exploring, discovering, and designing ways to improve the remote experience, specifically during video-conferencing.

Scope of Work

Explore and discover a solution within a mobile app that will support the remote experience.

Research/Discovery

The team began with an internal brainstorm, discussing the topics and ideas that first come to mind when we think about video-calls. Shortly after, we formulated our initial Hypothesis, Assumptions, and Problem Statement, which would be proved right or wrong during the research phase. With these crafted, we came up with a series of questions/discussion guide that was utilized to conduct a series of interviews. During these interviews we retrieved physical data, ranging from the application itself to the frustrations of the user.

Problem Space Statement

Hypothesis:
Mobile users need a video-chatting app that easily launches and links to their contacts, so they can connect/engage more quickly with the other person.

Initial Problem Statement:
How might we improve the convenience of the home page (of the app) to facilitate overall ease of use within the platform?

Goal/Methodology

Goal:
Understand convenience and usage of video-chatting platforms & what problems arise while they use the app.

Time/Duration:
Conducted Interviews with 5 users of varying backgrounds | Average length: 10 minutes.

Outcomes:
Learned about the app itself as well as user frustrations/needs.

Synthesis » Affinity Mapping

The interviews began to clarify our assumptions and support the hypothesis and as they continued other problems became prominent. We found out that Zoom in the most utilized application whether its for work or fun. The idea of connectivity as well as accessibility within an individual app became important. The ultimate idea would be to merge all the apps into one space, however in this space, we decided to better one aspect of the Zoom app. We decided to implement a multi-tasking feature, where you can video and chat simultaneously.

Once the interviews concluded, the data was synthesized, using a method called affinity mapping. This grouping method displayed similarities, overlapping themes, and insights that guided us during the creation of the ideal user named, Oliver.

Findings + Themes + Insights + Takeaways
In order to retrieve the specific insights and organize the user interview research gathered, we leveraged affinity mapping. This is where we converge all the data into similar groupings.

Users enjoy having multiple features within the platform.
Users want multi-tasking capabilities.
Users know that they will be talking to many people at a time and enjoy when things go smoothly.
Users wants to easily connect to the call with as little steps possible.
Users enjoy calls with no interruptions in order to increase productivity.

Persona

Once groupings where made, this helped us find similarities, overlapping themes, insights and other important information that became part of our fictional user, we call this the persona. From now on, this persona, will be referred to throughout the design process.

From now on, this persona, will be referred to throughout the design process. With Oliver in mind, we took a look back at our problem statement and synthesized data to find out if that was the ultimate problem that needed to be solved. We found out that it wasn’t and therefore revisited the initial problem statement. The statement was rephrased in order to encompass the true needs of the user and launch the design phase.

Revised Problem Statement

INSIGHT: Users are working remotely and want multiple features within their video-call, whether those features are for fun or for work.
PERSONA: Who is the intended audience? Could also be an archetype.
PROBLEM: As the work from home order continues in the US, workers have adapted to the remote environment by using video-conferencing tools. As a result, Oliver finds himself using several different platforms to perform different calls to achieve what is needed without disrupting his video feed.
GOAL: How might we provide users with an embedded messaging tool that will allow them to multi-task and not disrupt their video feed?

RESEARCH » DESIGN

I need features to have a productive call. » Embedded a split screen in order to access multi-tasking feature.

DESIGN PHASE — Meet Juggle!

Design Studio: Sketching + Concepting

Low-fidelity Screens

With the revised insights, challenges and ultimate goal, the preliminary design stage began. We started by sketching a few iterations to ultimately arrive to what we believe is a great solution for the user, being able to access chat while still viewing the video feed. These sketches were refined to a low-fidelity wireframe and prototyped and used for the first round of Usability Testing. Use LINK on following page to view low-fidelity wireframe on FIGMA.

Findings + Themes + Insights + Takeaways
After testing the prototype on five different potential users (all who use ZOOM for work, but not necessarily on their phone), the users ultimately mentioned that the interface was slightly difficult to use. They ultimately understood the task, and even though 2 out of the 5 failed, they all believed that if it was touch-screen they would have been more successful or ultimately would have know to swipe.

Regardless of that hiccup, users want more than one way to access the chat, need to have more text, hierarchy, and color, and want to be able to directly click and see the chat. One user particularly mentioned, “imagine if you had a ZOOM with 50+ people… I don’t want to have to swipe through multiple pages to get to the chat.” All in all, the user likes the concept but wants multiple ways of accessing with the fewest steps possible.

Users want several ways of accessing the chat.
Users need to be able to click the “message bubble” and sent straight to the chat.

Mid-fidelity Screens

With the new insights that the Usability Test provided, we were able to take a look back at our initial prototype and improve the overall design and flow of the new feature. We found out that the user went straight to clicking the “message bubble” (instead of swiping), therefore the bubble will now be clickable for them in addition to the swipe approach. Additionally, the user pointed out that it would be useful to have more than one way to access the chat, therefore we added a new screen obtainable through the “more” button. Now, if they click “more” it will mimic the Zoom screen with an additional button that will say “quick chat”. Below please find a LINK to the mid-fidelity wireframes.

Findings + Themes + Insights + Takeaways
After testing the new prototype on a new group of potential users, the results in comparison to the first, completely change. All the users were able to successfully accomplish the task, regardless of how many clicks it took them to get there. Providing multiple ways of access was the ultimate recipe for success, because as we found out during this round of testing, some accessed it directly through the “message bubble” and others went through the “more” screen. All in all, users found it easy to find the messaging tool that will allow them to multi-task and not disrupt their video feed.