Cvent Event Diagramming (also known as Social Tables) is a software for event planners and venues to use in order to plan out how their events will look in real life. My goal was to find a new way for users to rotate their chosen floor plan and save it permanently. *DISCLAIMER: Some parts of this project are internal, therefore due to Cvent policies I cannot show every detail of this project via imagery.
OVERVIEW
PROBLEM STATEMENT: The orientation of a floor plan doesn’t always match the users’ mental model of the room, and there is no way to permanently tie this orientation data to a room.
HOW MIGHT WE: Allow users to set the default rotation of the room, as well as provide an easy way to permanently rotate the floor plan so they can match the orientation of the diagram with their mental model of the room?
TOOLS USED: Figma (prototyping and workspace), user data from a Product Manager, public search engines, internal Cvent search engines, Jira (referencing the problem ticket)
DESIGN PROCESS
DISCOVERY: First, I came up with pre-research questions in order to guide my research (ex: How does the user frustration affect their future journey or the points leading up to here?). I compiled existing user data , including number of clicks on the current rotation tool, utilization, and current rotation tool issues. The number of clicks helped to determine that I needed to attempt to shorten the amount of times a user clicks a button for higher efficiency.
After answering pre-research questions and getting the data in order, I moved on to research a wide array of tools/flows within Cvent and on the public internet that could be relevant to a permanent floor plan rotation.
Lastly, I compiled the most relevant ideas into a list so I could reference them while I started ideating. I came up with ideas for both an updated rotation tool flow as well as ideas for a potential place in Settings for users to access their saved permanent rotations. The updated rotation tool's intention was to make it easier and faster for users to create a rotation and save it so they wouldn't have to repeatedly come back to change it to their preferred view.
IDEATING: The first round of ideating was the messiest and least comprehensive. Creating something entirely new with nothing to reference but my discovery ideas and the current rotation tool was challenging to say the least! During this first round, it was also difficult to land on solid ideas. I jumped around a bit with location ideas for the updated rotation tool and couldn't quite land on a solid idea for the Settings part. I explored potential popovers and tooltips to guide users to this updated rotation tool. The screenshot below is a birds' eye view of the first round of ideations.
During the second round of ideating, I had more solid ideas and a good start on a direction I wanted to go. I created a potential venue settings flow, a potential location for a rotation tool, a general use flow and a save flow for the rotation tool, and a differentiation between what an admin role (venue or event owner) can do and what a non-admin role can do in terms of saving and applying permanent rotations to members of their team. This round I received more feedback on the admin/non-admin differences for saving floor plans, the best place for the rotation tool location, and how user settings should function.
The third round of ideating was when my concepts became more solid. I had now figured out a flow for the updated rotation tool, as well as decided to keep the rotation tool where users could currently find it: within the File menu. I updated the flow so that users could rotate many times and pick their own view within one modal; the current rotation tool requires users to go into File>Rotate Floor Plan each time they want to rotate the floor plan. I fleshed out the Settings more in which users would be able to access their saved permanent rotations and edit or delete them from there. I also created a potential special setting for admin roles for them to be able to apply permanent rotations to members of their team so that nobody has to rotate individually.
It was at this point that I planned a brainstorming session with other UX designers within and outside of my team. I presented my ideas and received a lot of valuable feedback on how to improve my user flow and functionality, much of which I ended up implementing.
The fourth round of ideating was the final round. I narrowed down all the ideas and concepts I had produced or gathered from others, and managed to narrow them down to one rotation flow, a Settings flow for both admin and non-admin roles, and a special setting for admin roles only. The rotation flow includes an option to set a rotation for one diagram only or to save it permanently. The final version is showcased in the video at the top of this page.
USER TESTING
This has not been tested with users as of the time of writing. However, I did do a mock usability test with a peer, and wrote a potential script that would guide the user through these concepts and ask them questions about the tools, which had a positive end result in that I got my first experience with user testing.
TAKEAWAYS/NEXT STEPS
As previously mentioned, this project was handed off to other designers in Cvent after my departure. It will likely be ideated on further and revisited, perhaps even redesigned, or scrapped entirely. Whatever the case may be, I learned a lot from this project.
I learned that the UX design process is never linear. During my ideations, I found that I had to revisit the same idea multiple times or even go back and revisit an idea from two rounds ago.
I learned:
-to take feedback and apply it, no matter my personal opinion, preference, or bias
-how to use Figma during this process; prior to this internship, I had no experience with Figma
-to prioritize user needs, pain points, and general usability, rather than prioritizing design or aesthetic choices.
The most important takeaway is that the UX design process is quite different from a general design process in that it requires more thoughtful discovery, as well as user testing, user flows, and thinking from the perspective of a user rather than my own personal perspective. This project was crucial in my UX learning process and made me a better designer overall.
