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UX RESEARCH / APP DESIGN
We created a future-proof digital mapping UI to help firefighters navigate buildings during crises
The Rounds
UX RESEARCH / UI DESIGN
ROLE
Research, wireframing, prototyping, iterating designs, presenting to stakeholders
TEAM
Sole designer with 2 product managers and 3 developers
AUDIENCE
15,000+ healthcare practitioners & pharmacists
Background
For healthcare practitioners (HCPs), education doesn’t end in med school. Medical science is constantly improving, so HCPs are constantly learning throughout their career.
To stay on top of the latest developments in their field, HCPs routinely seek expert insights at conferences and events. 15,000+ of them do so on The Rounds, a gated networking and events platform where HCPs can connect with and learn from experts in their field.
Virtual events are The Rounds’ primary attraction as they allow users to interact directly with expert keynote speakers. Though wildly popular, The Rounds had no proper UI for these events, which made finding and participating in them clunky and confusing.
One of my many projects as The Rounds’ sole UX designer was to design tailored interfaces for three different virtual event types with a coherent visual identity and flow between them and the rest of the site.
Goal
Design virtual event interfaces for physicians to engage with keynote speakers
Research
User Interviews
The Rounds runs virtual events by inviting acclaimed doctors to be keynote speakers, then manages event setup and promotion on their behalf. It’s up to the speaker, however, to choose one of the three event types to host: Webinar, Video Series, or Ask the Expert.
Each event type has a distinct format and unique user needs. However, they each lacked dedicated support in the existing UI, as they were all hosted in the same post-feed page format as The Rounds’ Communities (a joinable subfeed similar to Facebook Groups).
I conducted a series of user interviews which our physician users to better understand how each of these events were run, how users experienced them, and how they could be improved:
Ask The Expert
Finding “Ask The Expert” is a Q&A-style event where users can post questions for keynote speakers to answer over several days. In the existing UI, these questions can get disorganized as posts in the event page’s feed. Users are also unsure if they can post questions on the event page and/or are nervous to do so.
Insight My Ask The Expert UI should help event hosts navigate Q&A and encourage users to participate.
Video Series
Finding Rather than livestream, many keynote speakers prefer to pre-record their talks and release them periodically as a video series. Users find it hard to browse these videos, however, as they all appear as separate video posts in their feed.
Insight The Video Series UI should catalogue videos in such a way that users can easily access and browse through them on the event’s page.
Webinars
Finding The existing UI for Webinars was a livestream video post, under which users could comment questions. Users said they were nervous about asking questions so publicly. They also couldn’t access the comment field while watching the webinar in fullscreen.
Insight The Webinar UI should be welcoming and immersive so users can comfortably and seamlessly interact with speakers.
Workshops & Insights
To better understand user needs and business objectives, I consulted my user interviews, past user research from my other projects at The Rounds, and relevant internal teams for their insights.
From this data, I extrapolated user journeys and identified key needs for event attendees and pain points to resolve. There were substantial areas for improvement, so internal workshops were instrumental in defining the scope of this project.
The Rounds’ CEO, product team, and member success team provided insights into what we might need to build and how we could do it within the company’s means. In doing so, alignment was ensured across all departments, and potential challenges were identified early on.
Internal workshop in FigJam
Our goals and insights were extensive, diverse, and documented in detail. Most were captured within a handful of overarching themes and goals, which I considered throughout my design process:
Obvious Interactions
Finding Even while on an event page, users were unsure if they were in the right place. The UI was a feed page where any attendee could post and comment. Livestreams and videos would get lost as posts on the feed, and it was unclear when speakers were contributing to the content.
Insight Each event type needs a visually similar, modular layout that can support and highlight their unique interactive features.
Platform Integration
Finding Though events are the most popular attraction for new users on The Rounds, past user research found that they were hard to locate on the site. Users who registered for an event struggled to access it by its start time, and many only discovered new events via marketing emails.
Insight Events need to be visually prioritized and easily navigable within the site’s existing information architecture.
Event Management
Finding Events are run by 3 types of users: keynote speakers, their moderators, and platform admins (i.e. The Rounds staff) who set up the events in the backend. Speakers wanted to be able create events themselves, and allow platform admins and moderators to interact with event attendees on their behalf.
Insight Events need frontend support that allows platform admins, speakers and moderators to co-host.
Concept Development
Design Critiques
I regularly held meetings with the rest of the product team to gather feedback on my designs. Once I prototyped a key user flow, I’d share its Figma link, a video of it in action, and any explanatory comments that could help product managers and coders “digest” it ahead of our meeting.
This ensured our design critiques would be productive, as everyone could give structured feedback during, before, or even after the meeting. Also, since all my design decisions were documented in advance of these meetings, other internal stakeholders were able to review my work, offer their own feedback, and stay apprised of the project’s evolution.
Future-Proof MVP
My market and user research produced a lengthy wishlist of possible features, many of which required further validation through research and/or extensive coding time.
I plugged these ideas into an effort vs impact matrix that allowed the product team and I to collectively decide what was necessary (and doable) for an MVP events launch.
Doing this early on helped me design mindfully, as I ensured my designs would have enough visual real estate and modularity to to add our “post-MVP” features later on.
Market Research
It was clear that The Rounds event UI would need a complete overhaul to support its three unique formats and their interactions. To kickstart my ideation, I referenced interfaces from other sites that supported livestreams, video playlists, and “ask me anything” events (e.g. Twitch, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit).
This helped me iterate ideas efficiently, as I took inspiration from what worked for competing products and what didn’t. For example, I found we could sidebar comment threads next to Webinar videos (re: Twitch chats), which would be more convenient for users than commenting below them (re: LinkedIn live events).
Final Design
Next Steps
MVP Launch
The Rounds launched my events redesign in March 2024. It’s now live on their official website, which is accessible to verified healthcare professionals.
Post-MVP Launch
The product team and I deferred some creative but non-essential features to be released post-MVP:
∙ A “file bank” where attendees can download a Webinar’s slides, transcript, and other supplementary materials to reference after the event
∙ Saving recorded Webinars and Video Series to a “watch later” list
∙ Redesigning the upcoming events on The Rounds’ public landing page to match the new design
∙ Animated heart reactions during live Webinars
∙ Polls, activities, and other novel engagement opportunities for attendees
Many of these have been wireframed and await further validation.
Ariel Kenny
THEY/THEM
Hi! I’m Ariel, an end-to-end UX designer with 5+ years of experience innovating products and services for good causes.
I design intuitive workflow solutions and accessible care experiences using swift and thorough user research strategies.
When I’m not using Figma to problem-solve, I’m using it for open-source volunteer projects, interior design mockups, game design ideation, or Dungeons & Dragons campaigns 🖖
I love turning research into results for those who need them most—and working with fellow problem-solvers to make it all happen. Get in touch if you want to collaborate!