Problem: To address client concerns about connection issues with RainFocus Media Suite, we wanted to implement a "peace of mind" initiative by developing a fallback stream feature, ensuring a backup stream is available if a live broadcast goes offline.
Solution: By creating an affordance for users to turn on a backup stream for their live event sessions, we reduced client care tickets by 74% in 6 months, aligning with our "peace of mind" vision by relieving client stress and frustration. Additionally, page enhancements improved the upload and session assignment process efficiency by 78% in terms of clicks.
The Problem?
While RainFocus Media Suite provides an avenue for event organizers to broadcast live streams, clients had shared their discomfrot with the platform as there was no fail-safe for streams that went offline or had connection issues. We wanted to mitigate this discomfort with a vision of "peace of mind" for the Media Suite. As part of this "peace of mind" initiative, we dived into a fallback stream feature in which if a client's live broadcast were to go offline, they would have a backup stream to keep them covered.
Discovery
With live streams being commonplace in the online landscape, I was able to do a thorough competitive analysis of different streaming platforms and their fallback options. While I was able to gain some insight from bigger social media platforms such as Twitch and Youtube, I was able to find a more applicable and sound understanding of the potential of a fallback stream from different event-centric media platforms ala Brightcove and Vimeo live streaming.
Screen from competitive analysis Figma page
Sketch work
Design Approach
With RainFocus Media Suite being a relatively new product, the UI and information architecture were a bit clunky on the stream details page. I was unsure how to fit a fallback functionality on the existing page. So, beyond implementing a new feature, I was hopeful to tactfully restructure the stream details page to better organize each feature and bit of information on the page.
First Iteration Designs
Although I was determined to improve the overall layout of the stream details page, my first designs kept things pretty safe without a lot of changes. This led to a lot of challenges as I felt like I couldn't fit all of the functionality I wanted for the fallback stream in the space I was allowing myself to work in. This took a paradigm shift in which I simply asked my PM and the devs on the team "why?" Why does the current page look like this? Why are we constrained to this layout - are we even constrained to this layout? This problem space focus allowed me to eventually be more creative with my designs and I believe it led to the final product being much better because of it.
Fallback enabled by toggle
Fallback disclosed in another tab
Page Overhaul
This is where the design work gets a bit more interesting. By digging more into the problem space of the (at the time) current page layout, I was able to open doors to overhauling the design of the page to not only incorporate fallback stream functionality but also improve the UX of the stream details page.
With that being said, I wanted to emphasize the video screens on the page as the user would need to test and verify their live streams were up and running through said screens. I laid out the metadata and details under those screens but was mindful to keep them in view during the initial scroll so they wouldn't get lost in the sauce.
While it may seem like a lot to have three separate video screens at the top of the screen, it is necessary in order to see your live stream's output in real-time. With the primary screen being the live broadcast, I was able to allocate the right of the screen to the preview/fallback streams.
By overhauling the page's layout, I was able to not only add fallback stream functionality but also improve the information architecture of the stream metadata.
Page overhaul to stream details page
Setbacks and Lessons
While we were enthusiastic about the design work being done for the fallback stream, we definitely could have improved in the initial discovery and overall testing process. This really came to show as we contacted our video platform provider as to the functionality of stream health statuses (an example shown above in the "Broadcasting" tag) and we were informed that they would be unable to provide that feature. We vetted this out as we were in the HiFi design stage and I definitely wish we had scoped that out initially in the whiteboarding and LoFi stages.
Also, although internal employees were stoked about these potential changes coming down the pike, we did not vet these designs out with external clients or users. Although I am confident we made a better design and provided a helpful feature (the feature was requested by several clients) I wish we could have validated our decisions even more. Although I understand there are business needs that can quell time for discovery and testing and these processes change from company to company - I am certain that we could have created an even better product if we had vetted our iterations through testing and validation.
Success Metrics
With the implementation of the fallback stream, we reduced Client Care tickets by 74% in the span of 6 months. This was huge as not having a fallback stream caused a lot of stress, pain, and frustration for our clients. This comes full circle with the vision of the enhancement bringing “peace of mind” to our users, and that manifested to us as client care tickets reduced.
Beyond the fallback stream, the page enhancements we made lead to upload/session assignment process being 78% more efficient (in terms of clicks).
I am extremely proud of the work I was able to do with the overhaul of the live stream details page and implementing the fallback stream. From the competitive analysis to the focus on the problem space, I feel like this was a project in which I was able to improve by simply asking "why?" This question really changed the trajectory of this project and improved not only the feature I was working on but the overall RainFocus Media Suite product as a whole.A