The mental model of an event
User research enabled the ideation of a new start screen for Live events
The Covid pandemic of 2020 created a need for people to host virtual events. Until then virtual events meant a one-hour webinar at best. Webinars had limited interaction & participation by attendees. There was a need for hosting larger events with multiple sessions with greater autonomy and participation for attendees.
A healthy competition developed with innovative products created to address this need. As virtual events grew in functionality and complexity, the approaches to shaping a Live Event varied among these contenders.
Attendee experience — Webinars
The dominant mental model for attendees was their prior experience with Zoom Webinars or GMeet Virtual meetings where they are directly placed in a video call after entry.
Attendee Experience — Conference
Larger events like ‘Conferences’ had more complexity and functionality. The participants had the freedom to join sessions, networking tables or visit the exhibition booths of sponsors. With so much going on, it was important to guide the participants.
Neha & Amrit from the design team reached out to participants of events to gain an in-depth understanding of their event experience. Users did not know what to do after they entered the event. They felt anxious because they did not know how to join a session.
The big questions on their mind were:
1. Have the sessions started?
2. How do I join a session?
The interface had to guide them through the schedule of activities in the event.
Inspiration
A new mental model of consuming video content has emerged with the popularity of OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix and others. Together with Android TV, a dominant model or pattern is continuing to evolve which most people are now familiar with.
Interestingly, the new Amazon Prime Video app bears a striking resemblance with Netflix.
The design team sketched out a redesigned approach for the reception of the Live event and created a prototype to test with users. Feedback and observations were noted and the designs were refined further.
The new design is completely customizable and allows event organizers to promote specific sessions, speakers, booths or sponsors. The session cards are shown upfront for Live & upcoming sessions at a given time.
This together with the ability to customize the overall branding of an event was implemented to the delight of marketers. It also improved the session join rates of attendees by 10% ensuring a high attendance of 96%.
Demo
Check out a demo event configured as an Annual Auto Expo.
Click here to Experience the reception
