Project Description
Context
Polycom is a California based multinational, leader in hardware and software technologies for audio, video and multimedia communications used by more than 400,000 clients worldwide.
Following the acquisition of Accordent in 2011 (subsequently renamed Video Content Management or VCM group), Polycom worked to integrate the acquired products into its own systems. In 2014, User Experience was given priority in the upcoming version of the Polycom web platform, Media Management System, which allows for the acquisition, organisation, search, publication, and access level definition of multimedia presentations created with desktop software along with other types of text, graphic, audio and video files.
Note: In accordance with a non disclosure agreement, not all documents produced for the project have been published, and some documents are only published in part.
Challenge
The new version of Media Manager must bring about major improvements in user experience both for clients and for end users.
Requirements for the new version include new branding guidelines, full support for smart phones and tablets, social media sharing, and a new player that can integrate with existing Polycom videoconferencing systems.
Process
With my teammates on the VCM group User Interface team, we carried out research, planning, design, testing, and development leading up to the identification of five areas key to improving user experience: publication, organisation, search, and visualisation of multimedia content, and support for the installation and use of the system.
During the research phase we analysed tickets opened by clients and met with the technical support team. We then surveyed the sales engineers and interviewed around ten clients chosen from the main Media Manager user categories (businesses, government agencies, universities).
Extensive analysis of the solutions offered by competitors brought useful information to our analysis of the existing product, and with those results we created Personas, User Stories, and Scenarios which we then plugged into User Flows.
During the design phase, after modifying the information architecture of the system, an iterative succession of wireframe design, prototyping, and testing phases oriented towards mobile and desktop devices followed, using the documentation generated during the research phase.
Results
The research phase allowed clients to see our company’s active interest in satisfying their needs, and it allowed the design and development teams to use a concrete plan to improve the experience of using the products.
The introduction of UX phases within the agile cycles increased team participation and improved the process of designing and implementing user-centred design methods.
The documents generated during the design phase, which focused on the five key areas mentioned above, provided precise and useful directions for development of the new user experience intended for the new version of the Media Manager product.
