Making online meetings more engaging

the long version

process

We followed a rather classic human-centered design process, starting with ethnographic research methods and analysis. After brainstorming ideas, we developed three concepts and selected one to refine through iterative work.

Design process (own visualization)

Research & analysis

research

We conducted various types of research, including semi-structured interviews to get an understanding of how distributed work was perceived and identify ways to improve that experience.

Due to COVID, all activities were done remotely, which gave us the opportunity to speak with people from 10 different countries and collect diverse experiences.This helped us gathering a wide variety of findings and capture a broad range of user stories.

remote interviews

Main factors influencing engagement in distributed meetings

analysis

We identified different factors influencing engagement in online meetings. Many challenges came from overlapping environments, leading to miscommunication. Still, most people valued remote work and enjoyed new practices like walk-and-talk meetings or joining calls without worrying about their appearance.

We saw this shift as an opportunity to explore, rather than trying to replicate in-person meetings.

design principles

Our research helped us not only identify what to focus on but also determine how to approach it in a way that stayed true to the values shared by the people we interviewed.

Enhance behaviors

Enhance existing distributed collaboration practices rather than force users to completely change the way they communicate.

Tailoring to the individual

Accommodate diverse cultural expressions of the same type of response.

FOCUS ON THE team

Prioritize showing collective engagement over individual participation to foster a positive group dynamic and allow introverted individuals to show engagement without feeling singled out

Respect privacy

Address concerns of privacy invasion by providing solutions that allow users to be present and professional without requiring video .

ideation

from user challenges to concepts

We centered our ideation around a broad 'How Might We' question and refined our ideas by asking ourselves questions based on the relevant user challenges we captured, such as, 'How would our solution help Fabian with his daily problems?' or 'How would Jana feel if she had this product?'

This approach allowed us to explore different ideas while grounding them in concrete use cases.

example of user challenge

workshop activity

experience prototyping

We created playful scenarios to explore different interaction modalities and observe how people would react. One of these was a workshop where we tested existing configurations and discussed their effects.

We noticed that video calls often highlights individuals, making them less likely to engage. This led us to the idea that creating concepts allowing for collective engagement could be a more promising approach.

concept

a device made for the home environement

We designed a small microphone speaker and an interface to complement Konftel’s existing product portfolio and fit seamlessly into a home environment.

We made this choice because, during testing, we found Konftel’s current products worked well for remote conferences but were less suited for home offices due to their large size and corporate aesthetic.

The microphone speaker allows users to choose the call mode, while the interface visualizes collective engagement.

concept of a device and an interface

reactive mode filtering sound

introducing a reactive mode

One key aspect of the concept is the 'reactive mode,' which uses AI to filter sounds. This allows voices to be heard clearly, translates sound reactions into collective visual representation, and removes background noise.

It eliminates the need to constantly mute and unmute, while still allowing users to show engagement without disrupting the speaker or presenter.

Showing collective engagement

Since the lag between video and voice in regular calls causes strain and fatigue, we explored alternative ways to show engagement without relying on facial expressions. One key idea was to use abstract, shared visuals, allowing back-channeling reactions to be expressed without being mistaken for a desire to speak, while still reflecting the 'mood' of the virtual room. For instance, purple signifies neutral agreement, green represents hesitation, and yellow indicates enthusiasm.

full screen

presenter screen

gallerry view