Service Design — Crafting a Virtual Meeting Guide
Recently I designed a reference manual for using virtual meeting tools at work. Yes, reference manual. I didn’t think too much at the beginning, but in the end, I realized the process was literally the same as designing a digital product, which broadened my understanding of UX design.
1. Explore and Verify Potential Solutions
It all started with identifying the challenge:
HMW regulate the process of virtual meetings better?
This originates from a recent Dev update. This update allowed whoever books for the virtual meeting type in ANY tool they want to use with an open textbox. This update broadened our meeting formate from ONLY Skype to Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and even a phone call.
To accommodate the various meeting tools students would request to use. We thought about doing a training on how to use each common virtual meeting tools and communicate with clients who book the meetings. However, we decided to do an internal survey before rolling out the training. This way, we can verify ideas with end-users, i.e. our colleagues.
Through the survey, we found there are almost equal voices on having the training or not, including one that chose “not sure”. so we decided to meet both sides halfway by:
creating a written reference manual. Users can refer to it whenever they need. At the same time, we will allow individuals to book for personal training sessions if they prefer.
This was a solution to balance both sides’ opinions. All in all, we could have still enforced the in-person training, but the time and investment would be much higher than this solution above. Plus, if half of them do not show up, it would not be effective enough to hold the meeting.
2. Research and Drafting
Now we’ve decided to use a written guide. We need to diverge again to gather information on how to draft the content.
I collaborated in the office to see the top services students and tutors tend to use for virtual meetings. Given that we have paid services with Zoom already, we decided to put that on top of the manual, followed by Google Hangouts, Skype, and phone call meetings. I also walked through all the above virtual meeting platforms myself to mark down the user flow for setting up or scheduling a meeting.
With this information, we started the first draft and kicking it off to my colleagues for review and editing.
3. Leverage Testing for Getting Buy-in
We then tested the prototype with two users before reporting out to the stakeholder. The testing showed that:
- users had confusion on how to use this guide more effectively.
- Some were wondering does the order of the tools mean anything.
Per these findings, I added a top section of the manual to explain:
- how they can use “Navigation” in Word to jump to sections that they need for the specific meeting tool, e.g. if I am using Google Hangouts, I do not have to read pages 1–2, which are focused on Zoom.
- I also added a section to succinctly state that we are prioritizing using Zoom given that we have default business accounts that perform more stable.
This yielded Version 2, which was used in getting buy-in with stakeholders. The virtual meeting guide got approved fairly quickly.
4. Continue Testing with More Users
After getting the buy-in, I tested version 2 with more colleagues in the office, where both confusions shown in the first testing were solved.
Another new finding emerged during this round:
- users could not distinguish between subsections. This was mainly caused by the wording fo the subtitles.
- We also got more feedback on lacking documented troubleshoots where a person can call in with their phone when their built-in mic on the computer does not work.
Per these findings, I edited the draft to version 3, where:
- I named the subtitles using common verbiage my colleagues use during virtual meetings.
- I also added how to troubleshoot for unable to use built-in microphones.
Version 3 went through another review with my manager and got tested with another two colleagues, where we decided to launch this version 4 into practice from the beginning of 2020.
5. End Notes
Reflecting on the process of creating this virtual meeting guide, I realized that this was actually my first attempt at service design. The design process is very similar to designing a digital product.
Of course, the real test begins as I collect more and more user feedback as they are using the virtual meeting guide in their daily work.
I worked mainly solo for this project, which accelerated the process of converging to pin down a solution and prototyping. While working with a bigger team, you might actually have more ideas generated from other designers on the team, then “design the thing right” may take longer.
Hope that you enjoyed reading, see you at my next project. =]
