VoiceVoice
Role
UX Researcher, UI Designer
Background
VoiceVoice is a video chat platform built for breakout sessions. Their users felt uncomfortable, especially the first time. I researched why this was and revamped the on-ramp to make it more welcoming and increase conversion.
Persona
VoiceVoice provided some of their surveys and recordings of users. From those, I created a Persona - Heather - that would guide the rest of the project.
Most germane to the project were Heather’s frustrations:
She’s not always comfortable using new video platforms
She feels awkward in video calls where she doesn’t know the other participants
She doesn’t always speak up because it’s not clear how the conversation is supposed to go
User Flow
Using the Heather persona as guidance, we created a User Flow, following the process a user takes to join a VoiceVoice-hosted call, which led to our How Might We question
How might we increase customer conversion by making the participant on-ramp experience welcoming by providing the tools they need?
Competitor Research
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I analyzed how other video platforms carry their users into conversation. For research, I focused on four of the main competitors of VoiceVoice: Zoom, Google Meet, Toasty, and Wonder.
Google Meet
Zoom
Google Meet also has a minimal on-ramp experience, mostly just providing an opportunity to check your camera and microphone before entering. It relies on the user having been trained to use video chat platforms already and as such buries the FAQ and other help options in a menu not on the main page.
Zoom’s on-ramp is fairly barebones. By virtue of being a downloaded app, it has more space to provide functionality, but otherwise, the biggest thing it does is provide users the opportunity to check their camera and microphone before entering the call.
Wonder
Toasty
Wonder also provides a more niche video chat platform, with a focus on breakout rooms and virtual conferencing. As with the above platforms, it gives you an opportunity to set yourself and check your camera before entering. Where it differs is that the on-ramp into the platform also includes tooltips to help the user navigate Wonder’s unique interface.
Toasty is a more direct competitor to VoiceVoice, with its focus on directed conversations and breakout rooms. Since it is providing a service beyond simple video calls, it provides a short tutorial when entering the conversation, so a user knows how to take advantage of its offerings.
From this research, my main insights regarding what competitors offer were:
providing an opportunity for users to check themselves before entering the call is important
the more niche your platform is, the more training you want to provide your users so they can use it appropriately.
Website Analysis
For the other portion of our plan (i.e. the suggested website reorganization), we analyzed the current VoiceVoice website according to the Nielsen Heuristics, and from that, we provided a sitemap that would help provide an easier experience for new participants who want to learn more about the VoiceVoice platform.
Low Fidelity Designs
Website
Platform On-Ramp
Usability Testing Plan
I established a testing plan and rubric based on the recordings of conversations that VoiceVoice provided. I also created the questions that would be used in the testing sessions.
- You’re on a call and suddenly your roommate comes home, barging loudly into the house. You don’t want to disturb the rest of the conversation, so what do you do?
- You’re having a lively conversation with the other folks on the call. You’ve exhausted the discussion question that is on the page and you’re ready to move on. What would you do?
What if you’re ready to move on, but the others aren’t?
- You found this VoiceVoice conversation through a climate change activist group. You signed up to partake in this discussion about how to reduce your plastic usage, but you have some questions that aren’t being covered in the discussion material. What would be your next step?
Conclusion
While I have not been able to test the results of the work my team did for VoiceVoice, we were able to recognize the pain points and find ways of addressing them without redesigning the actual video platform. It was a good experience for my team; learning to share one Figma document while meeting exclusively online was an important skill to learn in the era of working from home.
Looking forward, I would like to run some usability tests and continue to refine the on-ramp for the VoiceVoice platform. The breakout rooms that VoiceVoice is built on provide great, meaningful discussions and I want to make sure users are getting everything they can out of it. I plan on being in touch with the company going forward to offer to do some testing.