Through user research we learned that users who immediately logged on to the platform we're having trouble assessing what was going on in the world around them and which of their teammates were around and available.
Context
SoWork is a virtual office tool for remote workers in distributed workplaces. You create a custom avatar and enter a 2d isometric office where you can engage with teammates and colleagues via character proximity. SoWork also offers a bevy of meeting and productivity tools such as meeting recordings, automated meeting summaries, custom emojis, and an in-world map maker.
As mentioned in the overview, users on the platform were quick to point out that they loved their offices and environments but were hard pressed to find out what their teammates were up to and wanted a quick way to get a pulse around the virtual workplace. Our user story to design and solve for was as following:
"As a user I need to be able to easily and rapidly see who is in the office and obtain important information that helps me know if (and when) I can connect with them."
The Solution
The implemented solution was a feature called "What's Happening" which is a toggled state with drawer like functionality that slides up and houses important information about who is in the space with you. It can showcases users in the room, users who are in meetings, has a calendar reminder for your next event (Google Calendar integration), and gives you the online statuses of everyone in the room and in your friends list. Users can choose to leave this toggled state open or closed as they see fit and it is always one-click away.
Now users could use this feature to locate teammates and guests instead of walking around the world or zooming in and out of the map.
Feedback on this feature was so overwhelmingly positive that when users log in to the app it is now opened by default (outside of initial onboarding).
