Out of office
Reimagining how to share information when stepping away from work
RingCentral provides cloud based communication and collaboration tools for companies internally and with external clients. They are a global company with over 2,000 employees.
This was an exploratory project done for my internship at RingCentral. I primarily worked within the Apps team which focused on the design of the desktop chat interface. I was the primary designer working on this project but received help and advice from my mentors throughout.
As working professionals use chat based platforms more and more, how can they better step away from work, communicate their availability and see the availability of others?
RingCentral provides cloud based communication and collaboration tools for companies internally and with external clients. They are a global company with over 2,000 employees.
This was an exploratory project done for my internship at RingCentral. I primarily worked within the Apps team which focused on the design of the desktop chat interface. I was the primary designer working on this project but received help and advice from my mentors throughout.
As working professionals use chat based platforms more and more, how can they better step away from work, communicate their availability and see the availability of others?
RingCentral provides cloud based communication and collaboration tools for companies internally and with external clients. They are a global company with over 2,000 employees.
This was an exploratory project done for my internship at RingCentral. I primarily worked within the Apps team which focused on the design of the desktop chat interface. I was the primary designer working on this project but received help and advice from my mentors throughout.
As working professionals use chat based platforms more and more, how can they better step away from work, communicate their availability and see the availability of others?
What you see
What they see
Auto response to an @ message in group chat
What you see
What they see
Auto response to an @ message in group chat
What you see
What they see
Auto response to an @ message in group chat
What you see
What they see
Auto response to an @ message in group chat
Beginning the research process for this project I decided to conduct a competitive analysis and look into the companies user feedback and analytics. While many competitors took on nuanced features that communicated availability there were three that particularly stood out
By filling the gaps in features that RingCentral has and leveraging their internal calendar with the many other functions that only RingCentral has, (tasks, events, internal video call, etc) it is possible to create dynamic services that are not currently seen on the market.
- Availability/DND is too rigid and cannot be adjusted
- Availability does not communicate enough information to be useful
- People just ignore availability/statuses
- Users feel obligated to check in on their work even outside of office hours and on vacation
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario, I had users walk through setting themselves away for a doctors appointment in 3 different ways. Users were also shown a video of how RingCentral would currently perform this action and were asked to reflect on their own experience. Each flow varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario, users were tasked with attempting see if a fictional user named Arianna was online at the moment. These flows also varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
Beginning the research process for this project I decided to conduct a competitive analysis and look into the companies user feedback and analytics. While many competitors took on nuanced features that communicated availability there were three that particularly stood out
By filling the gaps in features that RingCentral has and leveraging their internal calendar with the many other functions that only RingCentral has, (tasks, events, internal video call, etc) it is possible to create dynamic services that are not currently seen on the market.
- Availability/DND is too rigid and cannot be adjusted
- Availability does not communicate enough information to be useful
- People just ignore availability/statuses
- Users feel obligated to check in on their work even outside of office hours and on vacation
- Availability/DND is too rigid and cannot be adjusted
- Availability does not communicate enough information to be useful
- People just ignore availability/statuses
- Users feel obligated to check in on their work even outside of office hours and on vacation
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario, I had users walk through setting themselves away for a doctors appointment in 3 different ways. Users were also shown a video of how RingCentral would currently perform this action and were asked to reflect on their own experience. Each flow varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario, users were tasked with attempting see if a fictional user named Arianna was online at the moment. These flows also varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario I had users walk through setting themselves away for a doctors appointment in 3 different ways. Users were also shown a video of how RingCentral would currently perform this action and were asked to reflect on their own experience. Each flow varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario users were tasked with attempting see if a fictional user named Arianna was online at the moment. These flows also varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
Beginning the research process for this project I decided to conduct a competitive analysis and look into the companies user feedback and analytics. While many competitors took on nuanced features that communicated availability there were three that particularly stood out
By filling the gaps in features that RingCentral has and leveraging their internal calendar with the many other functions that only RingCentral has, (tasks, events, internal video call, etc) it is possible to create dynamic services that are not currently seen on the market.
- Availability/DND is too rigid and cannot be adjusted
- Availability does not communicate enough information to be useful
- People just ignore availability/statuses
- Users feel obligated to check in on their work even outside of office hours and on vacation
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario, I had users walk through setting themselves away for a doctors appointment in 3 different ways. Users were also shown a video of how RingCentral would currently perform this action and were asked to reflect on their own experience. Each flow varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
10 participants, 3 flows
For this scenario, users were tasked with attempting see if a fictional user named Arianna was online at the moment. These flows also varied in terms of the number of clicks, complexity of functions, and visual hierarchy.
When reflecting on their previous experiences only 60% said that they were satisfied with the current features they used in their professional practice though 100% said that the functions were clear and easy to understand.
Flow 1 rated highest in terms of comparative utility while flow 3 rated highest on visibility/clarity by a significant amount.
Flow 2 was rated poorly for being complicated and displaying too many features at once. Users also pointed out that some functions were not likely to be used every day and should be separated from functions that could be done more quickly. This led to the development of two use cases for setting oneself as away. A fast impromptu away and a longer, more official out of office/vacation.
While flow 1 was initially received quite well for its utility compared to users current platform, it ended up ranking the lowest in the end. Users did not want to have to message someone who was away to receive an automated reply message.
Flow 2 was seen as being visually too aggressive with red as the color choice for the highlight but users did like the visibility. Users also liked flow 2 for placing the away message as a banner directly above where they would type a message, thus stopping them.
80% users liked flow 3 best for it’s ease of use and comparative utility but wanted the visuals of flow 2 so that the information was harder to miss.
Had there been more time I would have liked to have conducted another round of heuristic testing and considered some of the features that were unable to make it into the final design. Knowing the availability of others is a vital part of scheduling meetings. This is especially true for RingCentral as a global company with employees spanning many different time zones. The mobile experience of users checking in on their work when away could also be a valuable design opportunity.
This is not to say that this project did not face difficulties or have flaws. While designing these features, I wanted to create something that could act as a step between where we are currently and where we want to be. In reality, some of these designs would be a significant lift for multiple development teams. Implementation would require a number of incremental changes in some cases and systemic redesigns in others.
When reflecting on their previous experiences only 60% said that they were satisfied with the current features they used in their professional practice though 100% said that the functions were clear and easy to understand.
Flow 1 rated highest in terms of comparative utility while flow 3 rated highest on visibility/clarity by a significant amount.
Flow 2 was rated poorly for being complicated and displaying too many features at once. Users also pointed out that some functions were not likely to be used every day and should be separated from functions that could be done more quickly. This led to the development of two use cases for setting oneself as away. A fast impromptu away and a longer, more official out of office/vacation.
While flow 1 was initially well received for its utility compared to users current platforms, it ended up ranking the lowest in the end. Users did not want to have to message someone who was away to receive an automated reply message.
Flow 2 was seen as being visually too aggressive with red as the color choice for the highlight but users did like the visibility. Users also liked flow 2 for placing the away message as a banner directly above where they would type a message, thus stopping them.
80% of users liked flow 3 best for it’s ease of use and comparative utility but wanted the visuals of flow 2 so that the information was harder to miss.
Had there been more time I would have liked to have conducted another round of heuristic testing and considered some of the features that were unable to make it into the final design. Knowing the availability of others is a vital part of scheduling meetings. This is especially true for RingCentral as a global company with employees spanning many different time zones. The mobile experience of users checking in on their work when away could also be a valuable design opportunity.
This is not to say that this project did not face difficulties or have flaws. While designing these features, I wanted to create something that could act as a step between where we are currently and where we want to be. In reality, some of these designs would be a significant lift for multiple development teams. Implementation would require a number of incremental changes in some cases and systemic redesigns in others.
When reflecting on their previous experiences only 60% said that they were satisfied with the current features they used in their professional practice though 100% said that the functions were clear and easy to understand.
Flow 1 rated highest in terms of comparative utility while flow 3 rated highest on visibility/clarity by a significant amount.
Flow 2 was rated poorly for being complicated and displaying too many features at once. Users also pointed out that some functions were not likely to be used every day and should be separated from functions that could be done more quickly. This led to the development of two use cases for setting oneself as away. A fast impromptu away and a longer, more official out of office/vacation.
While flow 1 was initially received quite well for its utility compared to users current platform, it ended up ranking the lowest in the end. Users did not want to have to message someone who was away to receive an automated reply message.
Flow 2 was seen as being visually too aggressive with red as the color choice for the highlight but users did like the visibility. Users also liked flow 2 for placing the away message as a banner directly above where they would type a message, thus stopping them.
80% users liked flow 3 best for it’s ease of use and comparative utility but wanted the visuals of flow 2 so that the information was harder to miss.
Had there been more time I would have liked to have conducted another round of heuristic testing and considered some of the features that were unable to make it into the final design. Knowing the availability of others is a vital part of scheduling meetings. This is especially true for RingCentral as a global company with employees spanning many different time zones. The mobile experience of users checking in on their work when away could also be a valuable design opportunity.
This is not to say that this project did not face difficulties or have flaws. While designing these features, I wanted to create something that could act as a step between where we are currently and where we want to be. In reality, some of these designs would be a significant lift for multiple development teams. Implementation would require a number of incremental changes in some cases and systemic redesigns in others.
