Project Overview

UCaaS, short for Unified Communications as a Service, represents our company's commitment to pioneering the future of communication in the market. It is a cloud-based service that provides a comprehensive set of communication and collaboration tools including voice calling, video conferencing, messaging, presence, and other communication and collaboration features. One of the focal points of our development efforts is the enhancement of chat and messaging capabilities. The team is dedicated to refining and expanding these features for seamless team collaboration.  The goal is to empower organizations with the flexibility, scalability, and efficiency encapsulated within one single product: GlobalMeet.

Upon joining the UCaaS team, I focused on refining the group chat feature, initially concentrating on the Desktop application. The goal was to streamline group chat functionality to foster seamless team communication.

Problem

The current design of the GlobalMeet Chat may not fully align with modern UI standards or may lack certain functionalities expected by users. This could lead to a less intuitive and inconsistent experience across different devices (desktops, laptops, smartphones), potentially impacting the effectiveness and user adoption of the platform.

Key Challenges

Modernizing the User Interface: Updating the UI to align with updated design system to maintain brand identity.
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Ensuring Functional Consistency: Making sure that all essential chat functionalities work similarly across all devices.

UI Scalability and Flexibility: Designing a UI that not only looks appealing on all screen sizes but also maintains functionality and ease of use.

User Navigation and Accessibility: Enhancing navigation and accessibility, ensuring that users can easily find and use the features they need.

Integrating Feedback in Design Iterations: Incorporating user feedback into the redesign process to ensure that the new design meets actual user needs and preferences.
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Potential Impact:

A UI that is outdated, inconsistent, or lacks critical functionalities can lead to reduced user satisfaction, decreased productivity, and a decline in the usage of the GlobalMeet platform.

Research
Competitive Analysis

Through this analysis, I identified key strengths and weaknesses, learning about their user interfaces, feature sets, and overall user experiences, allowing me to make informed design decisions. I focused on three main areas: layout, input field, and messaging. This analysis aimed to identify functionalities that could be integrated into our existing chat to enhance team collaboration. These considerations included optimizing how messages are displayed, managing text-intensive content, handling attachments, emojis, member mentions, notifications, and enabling conversation editing/deletion.

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The competitor report confirmed the potential for an enhanced chat interface. It revealed that our competitors excel in efficiently utilizing chat space, while our product tends to exhibit an excess of unused space within the interface.

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The existing design
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Expanding the chat window results in the creation of additional empty space

Solution Approach

User-Centered Design Process: Engage in a user-centered design process that involves understanding user needs, behaviors, and pain points through research and feedback.

‍Responsive and Adaptive Design: Employ responsive design principles to ensure that the UI adapts to different screen sizes and orientations effectively.

‍Design Consistency: Apply a consistent design language using our updated design system (like color schemes, typography, button styles) across all platforms while respecting the native patterns of each device.

‍Iterative Testing and Refinement: Continuously test the new design with real users on various devices and iterate based on feedback to refine the UI.

By addressing these areas, GlobalMeet can upgrade its chat feature's UI to be more functional, user-friendly, and consistent across all devices, enhancing the overall user experience and supporting the platform's goal of UCaaS service.

New Design Proposal

Prototyping and Testing

For this project, I transformed the initial design proposal into interactive prototypes using tools like InVision and Framer. To validate and enhance the design, I orchestrated user testing sessions with a group of participants, collecting their feedback for iterative improvements. This feedback-driven approach was used in refining the design to ensure that the final product aligned with the needs and expectations of our target audience. It's important to note that in our company, feedback on new features is welcomed and valued from all employees, irrespective of their role or department.

Final Design

The final design of this project is centered around the newly developed chat component in our design system.  It is integrated into each screen, maintaining consistency in functionality and aesthetics across various screens.