UX analysis of Zoom App

By Sai Swarna D.R.

Introduction

Zoom, a well-known video communication platform, was one of the fastest-growing apps during the pandemic, with a growth rate of 2,900% in the number of participants in the meeting and 300 million participants per day on average in April 2020. These numbers clearly show Zoom’s user base has increased significantly in recent years and it has distinguished itself from other apps on the market. Although this is true, the overall experience of the product also poses some important problems. This blog post highlights the usability problems in Zoom based on the results from the survey and interviews and also includes a competitive analysis of Zoom with its competitors.

User Research

User-survey

The survey was taken via Google Forms. There were 37 participants, out of which 54.1% were students and 43.2% were working professionals. The image below shows some of the problems mentioned by the users.

Personas

Based on information gathered during research, I created the user personas based off of my Qualitative research (user interviews). The primary user persona is a working professional and the secondary one is a student.

 

Competitive Analysis

In order to analyze and examine Zoom's usability aspects, the survey included a question to compare Zoom with its competitors - Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Skype, and Cisco Webex. The bar graph below shows that more than half of the participants found it easier to use Google Meet than Zoom. Next is Microsoft Team, where about half of the participants find it easier to use than Zoom.

Usability Issues and Suggestions

After my research, I identified a few distinct UX design issues in the Zoom platform.

The message to everyone and the private message in the chat feature are combined within the same chat window.

Chat window includes both personal and private messages in a single chat window, as shown in Figure below. When there are many messages, it is easy to lose the tracking of messages. Users must navigate between chat with everyone and chatting with one person in chat boxes while sending a message every time. 

Recommendation

It is better to provide conversation threads, otherwise, it is difficult to follow the conversation context. One chat window for messages to everyone. Other chat windows to send direct messages to individual users. I have proposed a design solution for this problem with separate chat threads as shown in the image below. This way it is easier to maintain separate conversations, instead of scrolling through the same chat window to find a message.

The text shows “Your screen sharing is paused” even though a specific application screen is being shared.

When sharing a specific application's screen, the message appears "Your screen sharing is paused". This may confuse the person sharing the screen. Even though other participants in the meeting can still see the screen being shared, it shows paused which is an issue.

Recommendation

The text should be “You are sharing a specific application”. Even better if it mentions which application is being shared. Besides, the option “Resume share” should not be present. Only “Stop share” button is enough, users can simply click on Stop Share to stop sharing the screen (specific application).

Chat history lost in main meeting room and breakout room, when moved to breakout rooms from main meeting room and vice-versa.

When a user enters the main meeting room into the breakout room, the chat information is lost. Important messages may be lost. The images below are the screenshots of the chat window in the breakout room when the user first joined and after the user returned to the main meeting room.

Recommendation

Better to persist the chat data while navigating to and from the main meeting room and breakout room. The user should be able to see the history of chat even if they move from main room to breakout room, until they leave the entire meeting.

Conclusion

Zoom could do some UX lift-ups in its application if it intends to attract new users. In this blog, I have found some spots that could be improved in the app, like the chat box and screen sharing. Through these concerns, Zoom can maintain its competitive edge in the video conference market and continue to be a solution to the needs of remote communication. Imagine a Zoom app where everything just works smoothly. How do you think these changes would affect your virtual meetings? Any features you think need an upgrade? Let me know in the comments.