Building A Web Product For A Better Meetings Experience
Facebook • 2022
My engineering manager and I kickstarted this side project at Facebook when we kept having meetings that weren’t too successful. This led to an idea of a single web surface that can host all of your other meeting-related applications; notes, calendar etc. We can also host files that can get transferred throughout similar meetings.
Role
As the only designer, I created the concept, led the team, found and collaborated with XFNs-all the way to execution.
Impact
Rolled out to 2,500 employees and the project was absorbed by another team that had much more resources.
People Problems
Meetings take up a lot of supplemental information to be run effectively. This information tens to be scattered throughout many places; Calendar, Workplace Chat, G.Docs, Figma etc. This puts the burden of information on the attendee, which is a different experience for each attendee and this can lead to miscommunication. In addition, any artifact (notes, chats etc) shared in a meeting end with that meeting and potentially lost.
Features
Doc Repository
All documents that are attached to a meeting. This will get carried through if the meeting is part of a series.
Present or Work
Present or work on your own files at the same time. Tap on the overflow menu to present or click on the file to view in center pane.
Running Agenda
The meeting agenda is captured from Calendar and shown with a running timer.
Chat
During a meeting, chat with your fellow attendees. You can also share files that will be attached to the meeting files panel.
Attendee Information
Present attendees are shown differently from absent ones. You can mute/unmute, raise hands and send reminders to late attendees.
Focus Mode
Hovering over the center pane will bring up additional features including focus mode, where you can hide all panels to focus on the task.
Design
We had core features that we needed to build based on the needs from our internal partners. Beyond that we had a backfill of requests that were either improvements or products gaps. I worked in close partnership with our engineers to launch iteratively.
Navigation + Tools Panel
Creating Meeting via Calendar
This feature required working with the Calendar team. Rooms team already had an entry point and so did the 1:1 team. We met with all respective teams and compromised on just having the Meeting Central entry point for the test users (if we detect that the meeting is not a 1:1).
Zero State
Presenting
Adding files
Zero State (Participant)
Split view
This feature enables you to multi-task simultaneously while a meeting is in session. The panels auto collapse to give the participant more real estate and minimize visual fatigue.
Personal Notes
Permissions
Meeting Feedback