VLDB
A conference app to enable attendees and speakers
build connections and plan their schedule easily
OVERVIEW
What is VLDB app?
International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) conference is an annual conference held by the non-profit Very Large Data Base Endowment Inc.
This app was launched to enable attendees and speakers to connect with each other, get conference overview and plan their schedule easily on the phone.
Team
Worked with the
team of product manager and
engineers to ship
the mobile app in Persistent Systems, Pune, India
My Role
- UX Research
- UX Design
- Visual Design
Timeline
4 weeks
Tools Used
- Sketch
- Figma
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Design a mobile app for attendees and speakers visiting India for the VLDB conference to provide conference overview, and enable them to get the most value out of the conference.
GOAL
Design an app to enable attendees and speakers connect with each other, discuss about sessions, research papers, workshops and plan their schedule easily.
DESIGN PROCESS
Empathize
Conducted interviews to understand user needs and pain points
Define
Defined how
might we design
the solution
Ideate
Brainstormed
feature ideas to meet user needs
Prototype
Designed low-fi & mid-fi prototypes to test with users
Test
Conducted user testing to get feedback and iterate
Ship
Designed high-fidelity mockups and handed over assets
GETTING STARTED
USER RESEARCH
Survey and User Interviews
Conducted 5 in-person interviews.
Objective - Understand goals, needs and jobs to be done for both the roles, attendees and speakers.
User Quotes from Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Then we analyzed research findings by putting them into below categories
Identifying jobs to be done
Insights from above mapping helped us identify jobs to be done for attendees and speakers
Jobs to be done for attendees
Jobs to be done for speakers
HOW MIGHT WE?
After research analysis and identifying jobs to be done, we defined HMW to decide further direction for feature ideas.
How might we make the conference attending experience more productive for attendees and speakers?
BRAINSTORMING FEATURE IDEAS
Collaborated with a product manager and engineers to brainstorm feature ideas to meet jobs to be done identified in the research, business requirements and technical constaints.
Key Features
View
conference details
Give rating and feedback on the sessions
Get recommendations on things to do near by
Connect with other attendees and speakers
Request for research documents
Schedule your day and get reminders
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE MAP
Collaborated with a product manager to define structure of the app and user flows to further translate into paper prototypes.
LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Created low-fidelity prototypes to quickly execute ideas on paper, to discuss with engineers at early phase of the designing process to understand constraints and iterate.
After a quick run-through of paper prototypes with the team of engineers, I iterated few screens to fulfill time and technical constraints.
Feedback and comments from engineering team
Before
Loading a full map to suggest things to do nearby, will be time taking feature to build and will make the app slow.
We want to enable users to tweet from this
page and join the discussion forum for
respective session.
We want enable users to tweet from this page and join the discussion forum for respective session.
After
How did I iterate
in the mid-fidelity wireframes
Simplified the feature by removing the map and providing a list of restaurants and places to visit.
Incorporated Chat icon for discussion forum and tweet CTA on top banner of the page.
WIREFRAMES
I, then, created mid-fidelity wireframes and conducted user testing with 3 users to evaluate iterations.
USABILITY TEST
Usability testing feedback and iterations on key screens
OLD
NEW
HIGH FIDELITY MOCKUPS
Onboarding
Users can complete a Log in/sign up process and take a quick overview of the conference on the home page
View Conference and session details
Attendees can view session details for all the days and bookmark sessions. On the session details screen they can mark going, add to their schedule, tweet and request for document to the speaker.
Plan your schedule
Attendees can add sessions to their schedule page to plan their day better. They can also view suggestions to explore the city attractions.
Easily connect with each other
Attendees can view each other's profile or connect by sending a message.
KEY LEARNINGS
1 Collaborating with engineers from the early phase
Working closely with engineers right from the beginning of the project helped me understand the technical constraints and brainstorm possibilities with them on initial ideas on paper to iterate faster.
2 Power of defining 'jobs to be done'
Using user research insights to define 'jobs to be done' helped me design user flows to meet user needs in a better way to help users perform their tasks faster and easier.