Business communication desktop app — UX Strategy Part 2.

A strategic roadmap aimed at comprehending the project’s objectives and formulating effective solutions for a unified communication desktop application.

Users and Customers

What type of users should we focus on first? Personas.

Prioritizing user focus: Which user types should be given primary attention?
Identifying the characteristics, behaviors, and motivations of Comcast VoiceEdge users to gain insights into their demographics and usage patterns.

User Benefits

What are the goals our users are trying to achieve?
What is motivating them to seek out our solution?

• Efficient Communication: a solution that enables them to communicate effectively and efficiently to streamline their communication process, ensuring quick and seamless interactions with colleagues, clients, and partners.
• Enhanced Productivity: increase their productivity by leveraging a business communication solution to save time and effort by having all communication tools and features readily accessible in one place, enabling them to focus on their core tasks and responsibilities.
• Improved Collaboration: enhance collaboration within user’s teams and across departments. Give a solution that promotes teamwork, facilitates information sharing, and enables smooth collaboration on projects, leading to increased productivity and better outcomes.
• Expanded Network: grow user’s professional network and expand their connections. Give a solution that helps them easily reach out to new contacts, build relationships, and establish valuable connections for career advancement and business opportunities.
• Simplified Contact Management: help to manage their contacts and ensure easy access to relevant information. Give a solution that offers robust contact management capabilities, such as advanced search, tagging, and synchronization with external sources, to keep their contact list organized and up to date.
• Flexibility and Accessibility: ability to communicate and access their business communication solution from anywhere, at any time. Give a solution that offers cross-platform compatibility and mobile accessibility, allowing them to stay connected and productive while on the go.
• Cost and Time Savings: a solution that offers cost and time savings. Give a solution to reduce expenses associated with traditional communication methods and minimize time spent on manual tasks, such as searching for contact information or managing multiple communication tools.

Solution Ideas

List of features, enhancements and overall ideas that help our target audience achieve the benefits they are seeking.

List of features, enhancements, and overal ideas:

1. Contact Management: Implement a robust contact management system that allows users to easily organize, search, and synchronize their contacts. Include features such as tagging, grouping, and advanced search filters for efficient contact management.
2. Seamless Integration: Integrate the business communication app with popular CRM platforms, email clients, and other relevant tools. This allows users to sync their contact information, communication history, and schedule seamlessly, ensuring a unified experience.
3. Multi-Channel Communication: Provide a variety of communication channels within the app, including messaging, voice calls, video conferencing, and file sharing. Enable users to switch between channels effortlessly and maintain a record of communication history across channels.
4. Smart Contact Suggestions: Implement an intelligent algorithm that suggests relevant contacts based on user behavior, past interactions, and contextual information. This helps users expand their network and easily connect with potential leads or colleagues.
5. Intuitive User Interface: Design a user-friendly and intuitive interface that simplifies the communication process. Ensure clear and intuitive navigation, easy access to features, and a visually appealing design that enhances usability.
6. Advanced Search Functionality: Enable users to perform advanced searches within their contacts, including filtering by criteria such as job title, company, or location. This allows for quick and targeted contact retrieval.
7. Collaboration Tools: Integrate collaborative features such as document sharing, real-time editing, and project management tools to facilitate teamwork and enhance productivity within the app.
8. Personalized Notifications: Provide customizable notification settings, allowing users to prioritize and manage their communication alerts effectively. Users can choose to receive notifications for specific contacts, message threads, or important updates.
9. Cross-Platform Accessibility: Develop the app to be accessible on multiple platforms, including desktop, web, and mobile devices. This ensures users can stay connected and productive, regardless of their preferred device.
10. Analytics and Insights: Incorporate analytics capabilities to provide users with valuable insights into their communication patterns, such as call duration, message response time, or network growth. These insights help users optimize their communication strategies.
11. Security and Privacy: Implement strong security measures to protect user data and ensure privacy. This includes end-to-end encryption, secure authentication protocols, and adherence to industry best practices for data protection.
12. User Feedback Mechanism: Incorporate a feedback mechanism within the app to gather user input and suggestions for improvements. Regularly review user feedback and implement relevant enhancements to enhance the user experience.
13. Click-to-Call: Implement a feature that enables users to place calls directly from their email client, CRM platform, or web browser using a click-to-call functionality. Also, consider developing a Chrome extension for easy access to calling capabilities.
14. Enhanced Call Handling: Provide clear feedback and instructions for users when placing calls from desk phones or other devices that are not their computer. Ensure a seamless experience for all types of calls, regardless of the device used.
15. Mute Incoming Call Ringer: Allow users to mute the ringer for specific calls without disconnecting them, providing them with the flexibility to manage their incoming calls discreetly.
16. Password Remembering: Include an option for users to save their login credentials securely within the app, allowing for automatic login and reducing the need for repetitive password entry.
17. Automatic App Startup: Provide users with the option to configure the app to start automatically with the operating system, ensuring convenience and quick access to communication features.
18. Keyboard Shortcuts: Implement keyboard shortcuts for common actions and functions within the app, enabling users to navigate and perform tasks efficiently.
19. Microinteractions: Incorporate subtle microinteractions throughout the app to enhance user engagement and provide feedback on actions, such as button presses, message sent notifications, or call connection animations.
20. Persistent Dialer: Ensure that the dialer is always accessible, allowing users to initiate calls from any screen or section of the app, facilitating quick and easy communication.
21. Call Back Notification: Implement a call back notification feature that reminds users to return missed calls or follow up on important communication.
22. Compact App Size: Optimize the app’s size and resource usage to ensure it runs efficiently, minimizing its impact on system performance and user experience.
23. Floating Window for Calls: Allow users to continue their tasks and navigate through the app while on a call by providing a floating window for the call interface.
24. Clear Notification System: Implement clear and informative notification messages, such as toast messages or banners, to provide users with relevant updates and alerts.
25. Recent Calls Dropdown: Include a dropdown menu in the number input field that displays recently dialed numbers, making it convenient for users to redial or access frequently contacted contacts.
26. Voice-to-Text Transcription: Introduce a feature that automatically transcribes voicemails and call recordings into text, enabling users to review and search through their communication history more efficiently.
27. Alphabetical Contact Navigation: Provide an alphabetical index or sorting mechanism to help users navigate and find contacts quickly, particularly when dealing with a large contact list.

By incorporating these features, enhancements, and ideas, our business communication app can effectively help the target audience achieve their desired benefits, enabling efficient and streamlined communication, enhanced productivity, expanded networks, and simplified contact management.

Hypotheses

Our assumptions.
We believe that [business outcome] will be achieved if [user] attains [benefit] with [desktop app/feature].

1. We believe that achieving a higher usage rate will be possible if Comcast/Blueface customers can attain a more streamlined user experience with the Desktop App.
2. We believe that increasing the number of digital workplace users will be achievable if Comcast/Blueface customers can hold business meetings effectively through video conferencing within the app.
3. We believe that providing a higher value featureset can be accomplished if Office Users can attain time efficiency with the SMS feature.
4. We believe that creating a more competitive Desktop App can be achieved if Comcast/Blueface customers can benefit from a unified product offering through the Desktop App.

Riskiest Assumptions

For each hypothesis identify the riskiest assumption.
This is the assumption that will cause the entire idea to fail it is wrong.

1. Riskiest assumption: Assuming that users want additional features such as video conferencing, SMS, and instant messaging when they can easily access these functionalities for free through other platforms. If this assumption is incorrect, the investment in building these features would be wasted, and the overall value of the Desktop App would be significantly diminished.
2. Riskiest assumption: Assuming that Desktop Users have a strong need for SMS and video conferencing capabilities. If this assumption is incorrect, and users do not consider these features essential or valuable, it could lead to low adoption rates and limited usage of the Desktop App, impacting its success.
3. Riskiest assumption: Assuming that users prefer software-based solutions over deskphone solutions. If this assumption is incorrect, and users have a stronger preference for deskphone solutions, it would mean that the core driver behind the Desktop Project is flawed, potentially leading to low user adoption and limited success.
4. Riskiest assumption: Assuming that users desire a comprehensive set of features in a single system. It is possible that users may only require a telephony product and have limited interest in additional features offered in a desktop package. If this assumption is incorrect, it could result in the development of unnecessary features, adding complexity to the app without providing significant value to users.

Takeaways

1. Simplicity: The app should prioritize simplicity and avoid over-complicating the interface with an excessive number of features. Keep the user goals clear and ensure a frictionless experience.
2. Research-driven design: Conduct thorough research to compile insights that will guide the design decisions. Collect both qualitative and quantitative data to understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of both external and internal users.
3. Opportunity for innovation: Consider this app as an opportunity to create a fresh and new face for the Blueface product. Leverage the insights gathered to develop innovative solutions that address user needs and stand out in the market.
4. Problem-solving approach: Stay mindful of the problem that the app is intended to solve. Align the features and functionalities with the identified user needs and pain points to provide effective solutions.
5. Target audience considerations: Evaluate whether the user profile described aligns with the target audience for the app. If there are discrepancies, it may be necessary to re-evaluate the user personas and ensure that the app meets the needs of the intended users.
6. Define business and user needs: Further define and document the business needs and user needs to identify areas where their requirements intersect. This will help in generating ideas and designing features that address these needs effectively.
7. User-centric approach: Prioritize user needs by focusing on designing features that cater to their requirements first and foremost. This will ensure that the app delivers value to the users and meets their expectations.

By incorporating these takeaways into the design and development process, the app can be tailored to meet the needs of the target audience effectively, ensuring a user-centric and successful product.

Results

GO / NO GO

DID WE SURVEY EACH RISK/ASSUMPTION?

DID WE SURVEY RESULTS VALIDATE OUR IDEAS?

IS OUR IDEA STILL VALID?

DO WE HAVE ALL THE RESOURCES TO BUILD OUR SOLUTION?

All our answers above were YES — we are ready to move to build our idea!

Continue reading … Business communication desktop app — Roadmap

Business communication desktop app — Roadmap