Swann:

A robot prototype that helps to promote more balanced, inclusive, and productive hybrid meetings.

Situation

Context:

A class project (Intro to Build) that required us to create a physical prototype via UC Santa Cruz's HCI M.S. program

Problem:

How to encourage and support an engaging, productive, and inclusive hybrid team meeting?

Duration:

5 weeks

Team (3):

Derusha Baskaran (me)
Pariya Samandi
Victor Li

Task

Goals:

Understand users' experiences with hybrid meetings
Identify common themes among user experiences with hybrid meetings
- Are they able to share their needs/wants easily during meetings?
- Any shared problem areas among users' various hybrid meetings?
- How can Swann improve the user experience with hybrid meetings?

My Roles:

UX Researcher
UX Designer
Prototype Designer
Project Manager

Action

Research:

Literature Review
Competitive Analysis
(6) Semi-structured Interviews
Persona
Empathy Maps
User Flow Diagram

Design:

Ideation
Sketches
Wireframes
Mockups
Storyboarding
2D and 3D Prototyping (Low, mid, high fidelity)

Result

Final Outcome:

Prototypes of a physical 3D robot and a companion digital app to help make a more efficient & pleasant hybrid meeting experience.

Future Work:

Creating various sizes and styles of Swann (i.e. small/portable size, Kid-friendly, etc.)
Conduct an observational study while a group of users is having a hybrid meeting using Swann

Lessons Learned:

Time management , organization, & communication is crucial
Research & design is an iterative process

Let's Do a Deep Dive into the Project

Use Case/Behavioral Prototype

Watch this informative clip to get a brief overview of how Swann can help improve users' hybrid meeting experience.

Project Background

What's Swann?

A robotic product that has both a physical component (Swann robot) and a digital companion app that enables teams to have more engaging and inclusive hybrid team meetings.

Project Goals

Help users manage and participate in hybrid meetings efficiently
Promote engaging and inclusive hybrid meetings
Increase team productivity

Research Process

Research Objectives

In order to best create Swann, we had to:
- Explore existing work and products
- Understand users' current experiences with hybrid meetings
- Learn how users engage in a hybrid meeting with their team
  - What are some pain points?

Research Methods

Collecting data:
- Literature Review
- Semi-structured interviews
Analyzing data:
- Persona
- User Journey
- Empathy Map

Participant Background

For the research phase of this project, here is some context on our participant background.

Total Number of Participants: 6
Key points to note:
- Range of participant backgrounds across academia & industry
  - 3 participants had work-related experience with hybrid meetings
  - 3 participants had school-related experience with hybrid meetings
- A limited number of participants due to time and resources

Check out the personas and user journey map based on our interview data to better understand users' needs, experiences, and goals
(Click the images to enlargen)

Persona A

Persona B

Persona A

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Research Findings & Empathy Map

After conducting research, we discovered results that can be categorized into the following four themes:

Productivity
- Participants were eagerly looking for ways to have productive meetings
Speaking Opportunities
- Participants noted that their managers/educators spoke more in hybrid meetings than others in the meeting
Hybrid Team Meeting Dynamics
- Participants and their teams relied on internal tools to help foster healthier meeting environments
Time Management
- Participants liked the idea of a timer to utilize during their hybrid meetings to help manage the speaking time for both the team as a whole and individually

Check out an empathy map of created from our interview data.

Design Process

Design Objectives

In order to create Swann, we had to brainstorm and create design iterations for how to best achieve the needs/wants of users around:
- Productivity
- Speaking Opportunities
- Hybrid Team Meeting Dyanmics
- Time Management
Conduct usability testing with users on our designs
Design physical & digital companion productss

Design Methods & Techniques

Brainstorming:
- Competitive Analysis
- Design Ideation
- Sketching
Designing:
- Wireframes
- Mockups
- Prototyping (physical and digital)
Design Research: (with our designs)
- Cognitive Walkthrough
- Focus Group

Design Ideation

Based on our research findings, we sketched ~30 potential design ideas to brainstorm how to best achieve the needs/wants of users and a great prototype of Swann
To best keep in line with our grad school & project timeline, we communicated and collaborated amongst ourselves to narrow down our project design scope to two designs (physical and digital) which focused on addressing the user needs/wants based on our research findings:
- Productivity
- Speaking Opportunities
- Hybrid Team Meeting Dynamics
- Time Management

Selected Physical Prototype Design (which I designed!)

Brainstorm pile

Team Swann Brainstorm Session

Selected Physical Prototype Design (which I designed!)

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Check out the user flow diagram & lo-fi designs (digital & physical) to better map and visualize the UX with Swann
(Click the images to enlargen)

Swann Product Design User Feedback

After conducting design research sessions via cognitive walkthroughs & a focus group, we noted some user feedback with our early design iterations (see design images above, which we made sure to consider for the final version.
On the right side, check out some of the questions and answers brought up and addressed,

Questions

Would the moving robot be distracting during a meeting?
Will the Swann robot and app be compatible with popular video meeting platforms like Zoom?
How will Swann recognize users' voices in order to best interact with them?

Answers

The Swann robot would roll slowly and quietly toward the speaker to signify that someone else would like to speak as their name/face would appear on its Screen
Yes, it would be compatible via plugins with other video meeting platforms
Through machine learning and accessing acknowledged user data, Swann would be able to recognize and engage with users based on their voices and Swann app data.

Physical 3D Design Disclaimer

Our class project requirement included a few specific components for the 3D portion:
- 1) create a 3D-printed model
- 2) build and code Arduino parts
While we successfully achieved both, unfortunately, the Arduino parts (i.e. digital screen, breadboard, sensor, lights etc.) that were included in our class toolkit were large and it wasn't possible to have smaller parts shipped to us before our class ended.
- So this led to us having to create a larger-than-imagined physical prototype of our Swann robot in order to house all the technical parts.

Enjoy the final outcome of this project below
(Click on any image to magnify specific parts)

Design Style Guide

Here's an overview of the typography and colors used in the final redesign.
These design elements are simple and clean that helps to promote a sense of modernity and trustworthiness across the Swann products

Wrap Up

Challenges/Limitations

Equally dividing project workload
- Ensuring everyone is contributing to the project and is able to meet deadlines
Burnout
- Simultaneously juggling other class projects, jobs, and life priorities
Time

Future Work

What to do differently?

Conduct multiple observational studies for a longer period of time
- It would be interesting to see how users feel using Swann for a longer duration (Does it seem effective or not with their hybrid meetings?).
Try other research methods
- i.e. Participatory design for both the 2D and 3d products

Lessons Learned

Research and design is an iterative process
Communicate with teammates sooner than later and be flexible with workload adjustments
Time management and organization is crucial to accomplishing deliverables
Team work makes the dream work

Like what you see? Let's chat.

Contact Me