Suzy Live Research Platform

Prototype

Moderator View - Manage participants flow

UX Prototype

Click the image below and it will take you to the UX wireframe prototype.

Live Site Screenshot

These are my teammates from PM, BA, Dev to QA! Everyone looked super happy and was proud that Focus Group Interview is live. What’s your question? You don’t see me? Oh, I was playing the role as a note taker invisible behind the screen. :)

KPIs Review

Focus Group has its first release on June 22, 2022. Below is our one month KPIs review on July 22, 2022. Behind the stunning data is our countless days of hard work and team collaboration.

Competitive Analysis

PM, BA and I researched on how other qual platforms use focus group involved Disussio, Recollective, FocusVision InterVu. We analyzed attributes of major features, UX / UI elements, Design Pros and Cons, Ideas for Suzy Live. Below are a few slides in our final research report.

Discuss.io

Discuss.io has been recognized as one of the most innovative market research platforms. It provides comprehensive features, recruitment and global service for oversea projects. The product builds customized questions for screening participants.

Recollective

Recollective focuses on online qualitative studies, specialized in online focus groups. Its Video Focus Groups feature let you quickly connect with up to 25 participants on any device and engage in live conversations to uncover insights.

FocusVision InterVu

FocusVision InterVu is an online focus group for live streaming video of multiple participants up to 25. Features include stimulus presentation, screen sharing, whiteboard / mark-up, card sorting, polls and virtual breakout rooms.

Later when our team developed Video Open End, I have further conducted competitive analysis with specific attributes.

Target Audience Behavior

There are four types of target audiences in the Focus Group interview. 4 personas were created to help to understand their pain points and guide design process. I interviewed 5 moderators who shared their experience in real physical room. I also analyzed 5 online interviews through Zoom meeting.

1. Moderators - Who prepare and host the interview

2. Participants - Who participate the interview

3. Note Takers - Invisible to the participants and stay in the backroom. But they can chat with Moderators.

4. Viewer/Clients - Invisible to the participants. In the backroom as a observer.

Workshop

1. Survey about Participants

In order to understand Focus Group participants, I launched a survey using our own Suzy survey platform. I sent a questionnaire to 100 Crowdtap members (Crowdtap is one Suzy product with 60k monthly members which is the main source of Suzy Audience recruitment team). Here are some details about them.

1. Crowdtap members who participate in Focus Group are using 17 different tools, including Survey Junkie, User Interviews, Facebook Focus Groups, 20|20 Panel, Craigslist, FocusGroup.org, Google Usability etc.

2. Why Crowdap members join focus groups? 57% Earn extra money, 28% Share opinions/Have voice to be heard, 8% Learn about the topic at hand, 4% Other.

3. Crowdtap members experience in participating focus groups, 25% Less than a yr, 39% 1-2 yrs, 15% 3-5 yrs, 20% 5 yrs +

4. Crowdtap members frequency in participating focus groups, 15% A few times a day, 17% A few times a week, 14% A few times a month, 44% A few times in 6 months. 12% Other.

5. Crowdtap members’ interest in joining more focus groups in the future. The bar chart below shows 67% are interested in online focus group. It provides research support to our Audience team.

I shared competitor analysis, target audience research, participants’ survey to our team. Internal team and stakeholders were invited to the workshop. I collected use cases trying to gain deeper understanding of user goals, needs, motivations, frustrations, positive / negative experience. Then I combined these artifacts together.

2. Brainstorming “Crazy 8s” Section

In the middle of the workshop, I hosted Crazy 8s section. VP level leaders, stakeholders, lead designers/engineers were invited to the section. This is a fast sketching exercise that will challenge our team to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. Below are a few sketches from the section.

There are a few brilliant ideas adopted later into our product or on the way of feature adoption, such as moderator rating the members, live annotations, social media sharing etc.

Design Process

Design Sprint

Suzy product and development team use Agile Scrum methodology. Each sprint runs 2 weeks long. Design process in Suzy is showing as the two diagrams below.

1. Task Analysis

Before I started sketching, task analysis helped me map out clear task scenarios in different flows.

2. UX

Based on what we concluded in the previous research work and task analysis, I have had all the features and flows in my head while sketching UX wireframes. To be honest, I felt pressure to lead design of the most important product in a new team in a startup company. I kept reminding myself: Stay with the tasks and flows.

1. An online research video meeting tool for the moderator and participants (1 mod, 8 participants at most)

2. Has Chat, Backroom (for the note taker), Question panel

3. Both moderator and participants can share screens

4. Moderator’s activities: bookmark, mute/unmute, turn on/off video, lower hands, Admit participants to join

5. Participants’ activities: mute/unmute, turn on/off video, raise hands

These drafts explored multiple possibilities in the design early stage.

Usually we have Dev feasibility meeting after the prototype and internal review. Since it’s a specific video interview platform, I have many unknown area about the video and thumbnails. I requested an early feasibility meeting to make sure what we think in our mind will be implementable.

What I learned from PM, stakeholders and Dev feedback is that:

1. Question section is important for moderators during the whole interview.

2. Participants’ thumbnail size matters as the moderator need to see participants’ facial reaction to questions.

3. Video thumbnail ratio is always the same. Even Dev can make the thumbnail adjustable to the screen resolution, the ratio remains the same.

4. Transparent background could cause usability issues later.

I realized that space is quite critical for a video product. I tried to maximize the video meeting area not to lose the hierarchy of the Question and Chat panel. That’s why I came up with the design below.

Moderator View

One question I encountered: Should the Participants Management be on the Chat Panel or Tool Bar?

In my early design, Participants management was designed as a tab on the Chat. Later I changed my mind and thought it should appear in the Tool Bar as it’s part of meeting management. Which one makes more sense? Will our user easily find it? So I brought this question to the usability testing. The answer will be revealed in the Usability Testing section below…

Participant View with Annotation

3. Prototype

I made different prototypes based on different needs. Usually I will make

1. breakdown flows (shown as below)

2. MVP flows for internal review and stakeholders review.

3. One integrated flow for usability testing (shown as the clickable one on top of page). It’s more like a story with complete scenario.

Final prototype for Dev Team usually will be #3 prototype as it went through many updates and it’s usually the final version.

Click the screenshot below and it will take you to the breakdown flows prototype.

4. Review and Updates

Review sessions are always great to gather feedback. The main feedback we got from stakeholders are we should focus on the MVP flow. Make a real case scenario that

1. A moderator adds participants

2. Mute all/Ask all to unmute

3. Raise Hand

4. Send message to a member

5. Remove member from interview

These feedback shaped our final design and prototype.

5. UI

The UI design work was completed by my teammate (attached below). I participated the UI review meeting. Visual designers can also raise questions and many times it changes the design. Sometimes, I need to go back to update UX because we adopt the visual designer's opinion.

Usability Testing

Usually, we run usability testings after the prototype and before handing over to UI. Since the usability testing can be conducted any time when needed during the design process, I list it as a separate section here.

1. Testing Script

I wrote the report with the test plan. Before I upload it to usertesting.com, I usually invite PM and other designers to review together.

2. Testing Process

I tested on usertesting.com. 5 individuals with a background in moderating virtual Interviews. With research and advertising backgrounds. Gender Split. Ages 24-57.

Usually I test one first to see if all goes well with the script and if testers understand the question correctly. Then I continue with the rest of the testing. The test took 1-2 days to generate the test videos. After that I reviewed 5 testing videos and bookmarked those places where there is a helpful or critical comment.

3. Test Report

A 19-page usability report was submitted as part of the deliverables. Here attached below are a few slides from the report.

Answers to the question raised above.

Our test result shows testers had no issue to locate the Participants Menu (icon). They had successfully completed Admit members, and Mute All actions in the Participant Menu. Participants menu on the toolbar was verified by users.

4. Design Updates Based on Test Results

Takeaways and Recommendations are most important part of the whole testing. According to the test result, the design file and prototype are updated right after we submitted the report.

Appendix

Figma File Screenshots