SALESFORCE CHATTER
Supported the redesign for Real-Time Chat within Chatter, which helps you collaborate with your colleagues and clients, access files, and find the data you need anytime, anywhere. Created an MVP version of Chatter Screen Share (released internally), created the next version for Screen Share, and maintained designs for an "end goal" for the product, which was tested with end users. Also worked with a team to redesign the beloved Chatter Desktop product and worked as an interim Android designer for the files/mobile team.
ROLE: UX Designer for Chatter Screen sharing and Desktop, V1 of Chatterbox for Android
DURATION: 1 Year+ Chatter Real-Time, 4 Months+ Desktop App, 1 Month+ Chatter Files App
TEAM: Globally distributed Real-Time team (QE/Dev in Hyderabad with local Product Managers, Lead Designer, Researcher, Visual Designer). local Chatter Desktop and Android teams (PM, QE, Dev, Researcher, Visual Designer)
PLATFORMS: Web, Desktop, Android
LINKS: Chatter Screen Share Specs, Chatter Screen Share V1
I was the interaction designer on these projects. I worked closely with a visual designer and user researcher to finalize final visuals for the work I did on the Chatter Screen Share product. Desktop and Android had minimal visual design support, so my designs do not reflect the work of a visual designer in those cases. Once the ideas become more concrete, it would be passed over to a visual design team.
Every step of the way, I worked closely with engineering and product to ensure my designs were technically feasible and meeting business needs. Screen share was especially challenging because the team was 13 hours ahead of me, which meant we had very little overlap for meetings. Received the release award for Best Innovation Not Yet Released.
Empathize
Immediately after joining the Chatter team, I began understanding the competitive landscape of social productivity tools, social networks, messaging and team collaboration. I worked closely with a Lead Designer to gather inspiration. I also worked with a very talented researcher who conducted in-depth studies of how teams meet and collaborate. I was heavily involved with brainstorming the user research plans since I found it extremely interesting to research how people collaborate. It was inspiring to help plan and host the sessions using multiple monitors and meeting tools to record and share findings virtually (this wasn't as easy to do in 2012). Collaborating with a globally distributed presented the unique challenge of reviewing and implementing designs across the globe, which really helped build empathy for distributed teams who rely on remote collaboration tools to get their work done on a daily basis.
Interpret
& Define
Through research and technical constraints, we decided that Chatter Screen Share should be designed as a tool for small to mid-sized group collaboration. While the preliminary version of screen share would simply gave the presenter and viewer the ability to share screens, the future vision of the product was to make a much richer experience with voice, video, annotations, file sharing and deep chatter integration. We learned that Salesforce users had a need to better communicate with their teams in real-time, instead of asynchronously via Chatter and other business tools.
IDEATE
By integrating with Chatter, we planned to give users a more seamless experience when it comes to creating meetings, sharing files/meeting notes, and learning more about individuals in a meeting. I held frequent brainstorm sessions with key members of my team, including other (more senior) designers on related products, product, and engineering. I also was very fortunate to be able to have my designs critiqued by other Chatter designers during our biweekly meetings.
During the redesign process on the Chatter Desktop team, I held multiple brainstorms with all the members of the Desktop team. This was really great because they were all excited to redesign an app they had worked really hard to make. The users of Chatter Desktop had a higher engagement then those who used the web, and many of them really loved the existing app. I had to be careful not disappoint those users while offering them improved functionality that they never dreamed was possible. I conducted Competitive Analysis and shared it with the team to help seed the brainstorm sessions after which I created wireframes that took into account their opinions and technical limitations. It was a ton of fun and really exciting for the team
Prototype
Prototyping and delivering specs to developers for implementation was tough due to cultural and timezone differences with the team in Hyderabad. I had to provide detailed specifications with walkthroughs of exactly how each piece of the user experience functioned. Since our workday began when theirs ended, it could take 2-3 days to resolve open items. I also had to maintain high-fidelity mocks at all times since it became clear that low-fidelity interaction flows paired with visual design specs were causing a bit of confusion with the developers.
TEST & DELIVER
This was my first job out of design school, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Unfortunately, the screen share project that I worked on for most of my time at Salesforce never shipped. At first, I was dismayed, but later on I realized it's no big deal. Just because your product doesn't ship, it doesn't mean the designs were great enough. Sometimes priorities at organizations change which means it may take a bit longer for your designs to see the light of day. The cool thing was building an app that we felt was competitive in the market and creating a roadmap and future vision of where we'd like it to get one day.
While Chatter Screen Share was never released due to technical constraints and a change in prioritization, I had did get to be a part of Chatter Desktop and Android Files team to release apps. This also provided me with the opportunity to create designs for local teams. I worked closely with the scrum team to create designs that were technically feasible and in tune with what we were doing across platforms.
