Events Scheduling Application Design | Client: ExxonMobil
08.2019 - 12.2019 | Member: Zhaoying Li, Yunmei Liu
Overview
Focue Setting
The purpose of this project is to design a web-based internal events scheduling tool for all the ExxonMobil employees, to help attendees easily view events information, register events, share events with others and allow creators easily create, manage current events.
My Contribution
Lead the whole project.
Start from User Research & Data Analysis, Brainstorming, design, and User Testing. Mainly responsible for all the design parts.
Including, Wireframe Flow design, Wireframe design, final Interactive Prototype design, and create the video sketch.
Design Approach
Research
What's the current problem?
We conducted a focus group of 9 current ExxonMobil employees from 8 different teams with an average of 1.95 years of job experience to uncover the pains about ExxonMobil's current events management system. We identified two types of users: event creators and those registering for an event. Users can be in both categories, but we have this separation because the needs of these two types of users are different. Plains were revealed that:
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Users don’t know their current position after being put into a waitlist.
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Users spend a long time to find an event they are interested in.
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Users have to check the device of rooms physically before they book one.
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Sometimes users cannot find events they have registered/ created.
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Creators find it hard to add participants to events.
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Creators want to collect audience preference before creating an event.
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Users want to share events with their friends.
Dig out the real user needs
We then used an affinity diagram to analyze the results from the user research. Thirteen types of needs emerged, we then voted to decide four key user needs for this project.
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Users are looking for a way to easily share information about events with other employees.
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Creators want to plan events that meet their target audience’s time, personal, and location requirements.
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Users want to attend events that meet their interests and social goals.
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Creators want a way to easily manage the attendees, location, and facilities of events.
Background: ExxonMobil is the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company. This project would entail envisioning and designing an interface to allow ExxonMobil employees to easily coordinate and register for different types of events (workshops, training, forums, etc.) that are offered across the company.
Design & Ideation - 1
User personas & storyboards
Based on our research, we recognized that there were 2 key user types. The primary user, who works for a long time in Exxonmobil and acts as both an event creator and register. The secondary user, who is fresh in the company and has little experience in creating an event. Our design ideas focused on both of them, to maximum meet user needs
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Create functions for the application
We brainstormed over 80 diverse features based on the 4 user needs. We formed an initial set of key features to improve the experience of events management for both registers & creators.
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Tag function (quick search & find)
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a Poll System (gather information before creating an event)
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Show Current Position & Possibility of Wait List
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Link signed up events to users’ calendar
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Show Participants of the events
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Provide Device Information of a room
Design & Ideation - 2
During this phase, we turned our research findings, the set of key features into the framework. According to our task flow, we conducted the first low-fi wireframe.
Task flow diagram
we created task flow diagrams for two of the main tasks we identified: finding events and organizing events. The purpose of these diagrams is to show how tasks are ordered from one to the other.
Design ideations
Main logic & navigation bar
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Main logic: V1-V3, based on frequency Events (register an event) > Create events; V4 - V5, based on the main purpose of the product, Register = Create.
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Create events logic: V1, Create - Book a room/ Poll system(Survy); V2 - V5, pull out the two functions from Create.
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Navigation bar: V1-V5, move the navigation from right - top - left based on user preferences and habit.
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Add icons: V5 - final interaction version.
Wireframes
Based on our brainstorm features and the task flow, we created our original wireframe flow diagram. Then, we conducted 3 round user testing with the original wireframe, here below is the Version 5 wireframe for this project.
Prototyping & Evaluation
Does the user know how to use it?
We conducted three rounds of user testing. One with our client, and the other two were done with employees outside the company, to see whether people with little related experience could use the application easily. Everyone was asked to complete four tasks: create & register an event, share an event with friends, create a survey in the app.
Prototype
Based on the results of our user tests, we have improved the original low-fidelity design and made a prototype using InVision Studio.
Home page
We made the "Events" page the home page, where users can sign up / create events quickly. Recent big events will also be found on this page. The sidebar is designed for users to have a brief idea what this app could do, even they are a fresh user.
Subpages under "Events"
Under "Events" section, we designed the Sign Up page (left), where shows users all the events in four default selections: the hottest, lastest, interests related, and friends liked. Inside the Sign Up page, one could also check the events they already signed up for, or the progress of the events they wanted to attend (Waitlist page).
The Creator page (left) allows users to manage all the events they have created. We also linked the create function with the Poll System, where allows users to input the data/information they get from the Poll. The individual page of an event is also shown below:
Profile page
A simple Profile page, which also summary shortcuts for users to manage events.
Schedule page
The Schedule page automatically adds the events users signed up, and also allow users to "add" any schedule they want. Users could cancel any events they signed up for on this page too.
Message page
This page combines the simple function of an email box, and also have several unique functions for ExxonMobil. There is a filter for the inbox messages, where users could select to see events friends shared with them, or the upcoming events. The Event Alert function is a reminder, which ensure users do not forget any important meetings or events.
Social page
The social page gives users a clue what events their friends are interested in, and improve their social ability.
Poll System
Before creating an event, one usually needs to know the schedule, preference, etc of the majority, this is what the Poll System does. Surveys, questionnaires could be created in the system, and the results would automatically send to related events if the creator needs it.
Application Demo
Future improvement
We also conducted a round of user testing with our final interactive prototype. Here are some of the suggestions users' give:
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Create event page: Users pointed out that all events in our prototypes have a photo, however, in the create event page we did not create a place for users to upload the event photo.
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Add cancel events function to the “sign up” button, if users click on the events they already signed up, the events could be canceled.
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More research needs to down to figure out what is an efficient way to help users read the time easily, because there are several time zones even in the U.S.