TYPE
Group Project
TEAM
1 product manager
3 product designer
DATE
Sep-Dec 2022
TOOLS
Figma
ABOUT
This project studies how to enhance productivity and facilitate social communication in a hybrid working setting. No matter where the team member is, SpatialMeet helps people connect and feel more immersive.
MY ROLE
Led the whole design process
Since the beginning of pandemic, the hybrid office mode has become the mainstream. However, there are many problems in traditional office software, such as the inability to connect people, lack of immersion in work, and hard to collaborate closely. At present, Microsoft and Meta are exploring the possibility of office products from multiple dimensions, so I also start thinking about what's next step.
I led the team to design a smart office product to address boredom and lack of immersion while working.
Solutions?
Online immersive workspace for hybrid teams to get efficient simultaneous work and team building anytime, anywhere
INITIAL DESIGN QUESTION
How might we create an immersive office product?
UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
Employees have some pain points when working in a hybrid office mode.
Semi-structured Interviews
User feedback on existing office products
Purpose
In order to better understand the users' pain points when they are working, I interviewed 12 users of different ages to nail down the problem.
Questions
The questions revolve around the following three topics:
1. What smart office software do users use on a daily basis? What functions will be used?
2. What difficulties did users encounter when using different office software?
3. What are the deeper and unique reasons for boredom?
UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
What is the holistic user journey - from working to getting off working?
Based on interviews, I summarized a common experience flow of user's work day.
UNDERSTAND THE USERS
Users struggle with productivity and social issues.
From the user research I conducted, I decided to focus on users who struggle with social demands and productivity issues at work and help them get a more comfortable working experience.
UNDERSTAND THE MARKET
Current office software cannot meet users' needs.
Insights
Smart office software makes it easier for the remote-first team to feel connected, but most of them still have big user experience problems.
Strength
Users like the fun 3D customization and interaction aspects and they rather use one tool than many.
Weakness
Users worry about their privacy and some new interfaces are not very new user-friendly. Also, software on the market today cannot balance work and entertainment content.
USER PAIN POINTS
Workers are separated from office life.
DESIGN GOALS
Define three design goals.
➜ Goal 1:
Increase the efficiency of collaborating
An efficient collaboration process helps users get work done faster.
➜ Goal 2:
Easy access to social communication opportunities
The solution should reduce user fatigue and boredom and make users happier to work.
➜ Goal 3:
Get to work quickly in an immersive atmosphere
An immersive atmosphere is a crucial factor that affects workers’ willingness of working.
REFINED DESIGN QUESTION (POV)
How might we create an immersive office product in the hybrid mode that enhances productivity and facilitates social communication?
BRAINSTORMING
Main ideas for the smart office product.
Following the 3 design opportunities, I brainstormed some ideas to achieve them.
NARROW DOWN SCOPES
Prioritize all the ideas and choose the solution.
By using the Impact-effort matrix, I prioritized all the ideas and analyzed what should be focused on as MVP
➜ FUN 1: 3D Customized office scene
Users can decorate their desks and virtual environment in the 3D scene.
➜ FUN 2: Shared workplace
Multiple users can share content at the same time. During the meeting, users can also add elements such as gifs and clear and fun reactions. The breakout room is made easy by spatial interaction.
➜ FUN 3: Social event in the company
Allow users to listen to music, play games, and watch movies with colleagues during breaks or after getting off work.
BASIC SETTING
Avatar Interactions.
Status
The avatar's rich presence indicators convey information about the user's voice status and the video will be shown inside the circle.
Spatial Interactions
Walking in and out of conversations feels natural and seamless. The closer you get, the louder and clearer the sound.
Hover Interactions
It only takes one click to start viewing the information about the user and add a friend.
END RESULT
Design & Solutions.
Make Your Virtual Office on Dashboard
Customize your favorite office space style and items with check-in rewards
Your Dashboard
Punch in
Record the user's working hours and encourage users to punch in and get virtual money
Your Dashboard
Customize your office scene
Start with a template, decorate your desks, or create a fully custom Space. It's an extension of the company culture
Cowork in A Digital Office
Experience a new quality of meetings with all the necessary tools and resources at hand. Invite people to discuss, share documents and collaborate in virtual purpose-based rooms.
Before
Quotes from the usability testing:
"The chat box accounts for 1/3 and affects my viewing of the main content"
"Can't find the button for the chat window"
"It is easy to confuse the icons on the interface"
After
Set a chat entry in the lower right corner that conforms to user habits
Design more intuitive and clear icons
Before
Quotes from the usability testing:
"When viewing files and shared screens in full screen, the background switches abruptly, which is no longer the original meeting environment"
After
A background consistent with the virtual scene of the meeting, which is more user-friendly
Office Meetings
Add elements
Embed your favorite whiteboard and add some elements to encourage your colleagues
Office Meetings
Multi-screen sharing and annotation
Share a single screen or multiple screens simultaneously with others. You can also highlight and tag the content.
Have An Efficient Breakout Room Experience
Enter the breakout room by interacting with your virtual space
Breakout Rooms - General User
Enter breakout room the easier way
When a larger meeting break to several smaller meeting, people can enter small group to discuss with other people or the speciffic person they want to talk to
Option 1
Users can enter the group space by clicking the breakout room icon below to freely group and engage in activities
Pros: General users have more autonomy to group and explore freely
Cons: There is a big learning barrier for new users. The usability of this feature scored an average of 2 out of 5 in testing result.
Option 2
The user is assigned a room by the host first, and then joins after accepting. If the user wants to change the room, click the space to join the waiting list.
Pros: Users can more quickly commit to breakout session content. The scheme presents the traditional grouping process in the form of spatial interaction.
Cons: Lack of flexibility and innovation
Breakout Rooms - Host
Time extension
Get a time extension for the breakout rooms when you feel the discussion is intense
Easily Participate in Team Building Activities
Build a connected and productive team with interactive objects like music, movies, and games.
Social Communication
Get a more interactive reaction
Start audio chatting with others around you by sitting next to them. React by sending cute emojis.
Social Communication
Listen together
Listen to the same playlist with everyone in the coffee room. You can add new songs and point it to the top right of the screen if you think the player is blocking your view
OUTCOMES
How will we measure success?
Our goal is to help hybrid teams enhance working productivity and facilitates social communication. While this project was a case study, we conducted usability testing with 12 users after design for feedback and the success of this project can be measured by the following points:
➜ 11/12 of users feel more relaxed while working
➜ 12/12 of users like the way we use 3D to visualize the information in traditional office software
➜ Increase in average time spent collaborating on SpatialMeet
➜ Increase in 30% workers engagement through online questions or chat
➜ Number of clicks or impressions on social links
Usability testing goals:
1. Discover what stimulates people’s interest in exploring the space/social with others
2. Learn what people find immersive throughout the experience
3. Discover where in the process people need instructions
4. Find opportunities to improve the product in order to enhance immersiveness and productivity
REFLECTION
Takeaways and if I have more time...
Put yourself into users’ shoes
As a newcomer to the workplace, I have experienced the inconveniences of working with a hybrid team: when I am at home, I sometimes have concentration issues; when I am in the office, I feel lonely when my team members are not there.
But not everyone’s key issues are these. Some users prefer a relaxed working environment. As an interaction designer, I need to comprehensively consider how our users think and understand their needs.
Unify the interactive language and add more spatial interactions
Transforming traditional content into spatial language is the feature and innovation of this product. For example, office products will no longer require users to click on boring text interfaces, but in space. At present, this product is still a mixed mode, and I hope to explore more non-traditional interactive content.
Lower learning barriers for new users: design tutorials
The functions of new products are very different from traditional products, especially when users are used to clicking text buttons and other instructions. Certain users report that they have learning barriers to products that interact with the space. If I had more time, I would consider including a new user tutorial to guide users to use it more easily.
Consider more edge cases and accessibility issues
I will continue to lead the team to study innovative issues such as voice interaction in online meetings, and at the same time consider accessibility issues for people with eye fatigue, visual impairments, and voice impairments.