Miro. Reimaging hybrid workshop experience

Miro Brief

I work on this case study during Memorisely UX/UI Design immersive online Bootcamp. During the Bootcamp, I worked with a small team of designers around the world. The goal of this case study was to conduct user research and propose a conceptual idea of how Miro could evolve to keep its relevance in the market after people go back to the office.

Role

The Problem

How hybrid workshops (those with people both in the same room and remotely) can develop and what type of solutions could provide a better and more engaging experience to both facilitators and participants.

Hypothesis

We believe that by giving an opportunity to the facilitator to create hybrid workshop boards with virtual rooms, we make it easier for users to participate in a hybrid workshop, whether on location or remote while increasing engagement, focus, and inclusiveness which will multiply the number of hybrid workshops being organized with Miro.

The Solution

♟Preparation

By setting up Notion kanban boards with all the tasks and detailed info I was able to keep the track of the progress of my case study.

👀 Questions & Observations

To help me better frame any problems with the product, I began by forming some questions and observations I have about the product. To easily document these I followed the structure [situation], [response], [problem to business or experience] to ensure I'm aware of users and business needs.

When [workshopping from home (remotely)], users [tend to be distracted], which causes [less engagement in a workshop and loosing track by remote users]

When [participating in hybrid workshops], users [do not feel a part of a hybrid team], which causes [participants not being equally contributing to the workshop]

🔍 UX Research

To confirm my observations and begin forming a hypothesis backed by data, I drafted a user interview script and conducted a series of user interviews to uncover the core problems with the product that I could prioritise for user and business needs.

🎙 User interview

I used Otter https://otter.ai/ to make a voice transcript which was very helpful and speeds up taking insight from a conversation.

User Interview Synthesis - Affinity Mapping

To organize information about users that I gathered during the research phase I use the affinity mapping technique.

First I have recorded all notes or observations on individual virtual sticky notes then looked for patterns in notes or observations that are related and group them. Next created a group for each pattern or theme and give each theme or group a name. Finally, created a statement of what I have you learned about each group.

Miro board 👉🏻HERE

Usability review and Interface Audit

I have also conducted a Usability Review - a structured means of examining the usability of an interactive system. Heuristic reviews evaluate an interface against a set of usability heuristics (i.e. best practice: Learnability, Memorability, Satisfaction, Efficiency, Error prevention. I have discovered some of the pain points users may have while using a product.

While conducting the interface audit I have detected inconsistencies with the interface that requires fixing.

Customer Journey Mapping

My user interviews combined with the customer journey map have shown that there is a lot to be improved in collaboration on the whiteboard phase.

Figma board 👉🏻HERE

Ideation

I have used an ideation technique called S.C.A.M.P.E.R. to generate new innovative ideas. By asking these questions systematically, I was able to switch on my creative potential and opening up the possibility of combining different elements from multiple ideas.

Prioritized Problems

1. Remote participants may feel less engaged and their voices may be less heard and they may feel detached from a team in an office and not communicate effectively
2. Participants use a different set of tools and features depending on their status (remote, on location, observer)
3. New users may feel overwhelmed by the number of features and tools that Mirro offers

User Story

As a [facilitator], I want to [create a hybrid workshop board with virtual rooms so I can [make the hybrid workshopping experience more engaging and inclusive either for remote and in the office participants].

✍️ Hypothesis

Having prioritized ideas I wrote a hypothesis that helps me frame the problem for the user and business goals.

Users' goal is to easily and effortlessly participate in a hybrid workshop whether on location or remote and can easily communicate their thoughts and engagement whatever their miro skills and the number of participants taking part in a workshop.

The business goal is to increase the number of effective hybrid workshops being organized with Miro.

We believe that by giving an opportunity to the facilitator to create hybrid workshop boards with virtual rooms, we make it easier for users to participate in a hybrid workshop, whether on location or remote while increasing engagement, focus, and inclusiveness which will multiply the number of hybrid workshops being organized with Miro.

User Flows

✏️ Rapid Sketching

Following the creation of my hypothesis, I rapidly sketched solutions in lo-fidelity. This helped me quickly map and understand the current product and consider options for how I could iterate directly in the product. I was exploring many ideas created during the SCAMPER phase believing that a combination of all of them may solve the hybrid workshopping problem.

Low Fidelity Prototype

The exploration of different ideas in lo-fidelity helps me finally focus on the one I found the most interesting and helping to solve the problem. Below I have included the low-fidelity prototype of my final solution.

Final outcome and conclusions

The final outcome of a case study is a lo-fi prototype that represented my solution to the problem stated in the brief.

The gap communication problem between onsite and online people during hybrid collaborative sessions seems a huge problem to be solved. The creations of virtual rooms that let facilitators mix onsite and remote collaborators seems to be one of many improvements that make this hybrid collaboration both easier and effective. By letting teammates communicate directly and work together in smaller teams we could improve engagement, focus, and ensure attendees feel heard and included.

Next steps

With the hi-fi prototype created I will form a testing script with scenarios and tasks for the user to complete to validate the prototype with real users. To test the prototype I will use Maze and gathered feedback following every task.