The Challenge
When I joined the team as the design lead, the product already had a feature called Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN) dialout. PSTN enabled a meeting host - often doctors - to invite another participant into the meeting via phone. This was mostly used by healthcare providers to dial out to a language interpreter.
The existing PSTN feature only allowed for one call out at a time. However, this limit was becoming a problem for our users as they often needed to call more than one participant at a time. So the design challenge we were trying to solve for was:
Cisco Webex Instant Connect
Design Lead
8 weeks, Spring 2022
Product Rebrand, Information Architecture
Background
Instant Connect, a Webex Verticals product, is a browser-based meeting platform for telehealth visits, allowing patients to access healthcare services remotely without an in-person visit. This product aimed to power various virtual care models globally.
Note: The timing of this feature enhancement coincided with a parallel effort I was spearheading to update the entire product so that it is consistent, from a visual and branding perspective, with Webex’s recent major rebrand. This will become relevant later.
Reflection
Know your users
Initially, the scope of this project was just to build on top of the existing user experience to support multiple PSTN calls. The team was on a strict timeline and there was pressure to start working on designs immediately. However, I felt strongly that we should at least talk to some of our customers and get a better grasp of their workflows and needs. Thankfully, the rest of the product team got onboard and we were able to conduct interviews with our customers. From those conversations, we uncovered brand new insights and deepened our understanding of our users’ day to day challenges in virtual care.
This experience was a good reminder that as a product designer, I should always strive to listen closely to our users and advocate on their behalf, even when timelines are tight.
Understanding
Before designing, I first wanted to learn more about our healthcare providers’ workflows and needs in virtual care. I conducted interviews with 3 doctors and 3 healthcare administrators; from those interviews, I identified the following key points.
Calling language interpreters and family members
Aside from calling language interpreters, patients might also want their family members dialed in to the virtual visit - in the same way one might want to bring a family member for moral support to an in-person doctor’s visit. Being able to call multiple participants would allow for both use cases in the same call.
Bedside manner is relevant even in virtual settings
Similar to bedside manners in in-person visits, it is important for healthcare providers to adopt a good “webside” manner in virtual visits. For instance, it is crucial for a healthcare provider to be able to see their patients so they can continuously assess how their patients are feeling and respond accordingly.
It can impact patient-clinician relationship if you can’t see each other at all times
Design Process: Two Birds, One Stone
As mentioned above, while designing this feature enhancement, I was also working on rebranding the entire Instant Connect product. I took this as an opportunity to not only redesign the feature so that it supports multiple dial outs, but also to improve any existing user experience issues.
First, I evaluated the existing PSTN flow to identify current points of friction.
Then, I explored different ways of supporting multiple PSTN dial outs. I iterated based on feedback from critique sessions I ran with customers and also with internal stakeholders (product manager, engineers, fellow designers).
Final Design
More intuitive information architecture
In the old product, the PSTN dial out feature was located in the bottom control panel. Users often missed it as they looked to the participants panel to add or remove someone from the call.
I moved the PSTN dial out feature, positioning it next to similar features, such as being able to invites others by email or text. This better catered to users' mental models.
Enhancement without distraction
Previously, the PSTN dialout dialog overlaid part of the patient's video feed, making it difficult for healthcare providers to stay engaged with their patients.
Now, the entire end-to-end dialout flow is confined within the side panel, ensuring the patient is visible at all times. This allowed for an improved “webside” manner as doctors can stay connected to their patients as they place an outgoing call.
Simplified experience
Healthcare providers often need to go through voice systems to get connected to the right interpreter. If multiple calls are placed at once, with each reaching a separate voice system, it can quickly become overwhelming.
In the new design, healthcare providers have to connect one call before placing another outgoing call, instead of making multiple outgoing call at once. This enables them to focus on one thing at a time.
This redesign on PSTN calling is a huge workflow win for us
