Understanding the Problem
Carnegie Mellon University professors and TAs came to Zoom with multiple issues surrounding reclaiming host when the original host drops due to wifi, battery, or anything else, and tries to rejoin the meeting. I was presented with the two main problems demonstrated below.
Problem 1:
Hard to locate "Reclaim Host" button when original host drops and rejoins
Problem 2:
With automatic reclaim host, breakout room and poll management can get disrupted
User Flows
Because Zoom has many host, co-host, and alternate host flows, I decided to first define the flows before touching any designs. Here, I outline the reclaim flow for each of the three types of host. I also highlighted the end flow as green if this is how the product works today or red if this requires a design or engineering change.
Initial Designs
After discussing my flow with the PM and Engineer, I started on designs for the desktop client. These designs include a warning prompt that outlines who the temporary host is, that reclaiming host can disrupt management of certain Zoom features, and a toast to show reclaiming host can be done at any later time through multiple different avenues.
Later Additions
After the initial design review, we found the use case of when co-host is enabled, the host would want the option to reclaim host or stay co-host, not the original design of reclaim host or stay participant. I updated this and designed the flow for mobile screens.
Impact & Key Learnings
This project was shipped in August 2021 and was very well received by Carnegie Mellon University, the main customer who brought the initial issues to our attention.
I really enjoyed working through this project and it taught me:
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I love working through flows and trying to problem solve for all users involved
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Share often and early with PMs and Engineers
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Don't jump to designing the solution too quickly