Modern Talking
An application facilitates communication
and increases commitment to conference and industry meetings participants
Objective
The goal of this project was to design a solution that facilitates communication to conferences participants.
Research phase
Areas to discover
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Do participants of industry meetings want to make contacts with each other?
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If so, how and what is the role of new technologies?
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If they encounter difficulties, how can they be helped?
Goals
Main goal
Examining the communication processes taking place between the participant and during industry events related to new technologies and design
Specific goals
Understanding the motivation of participants in industry events to make contacts with strangers
Acquiring information on emotions related to establishing contacts and networking at various stages of the meeting
Analysis of the role of new technologies (devices, applications, etc.) in establishing relationships with other participants in events
Research methods used
Interviews
Goal: better understanding of the target group, examination of motivation related to participation in industry events, role analysis networking, the way of establishing and maintaining contacts contained during industry meetings, their quality and structure.
Observation
Goal: to observe the listeners directly during the event
Online survey
Goal: to obtain quantitative data on the habits and behavior of participants in the context of communication
Card sorting
Goal: to get to know the feelings that dominate among the respondents, at different moments of the industry event
Interviews
Recruitment criteria: the respondents were selected based on the screener response analysis:
• 11 single and multiple choice questions and descriptive commands
• people who have expressed their willingness to participate in the study in the last two years qualified participated in at least four industry events related to IT, new technologies, design and design (5 questions)
• the remaining 6 auxiliary questions were aimed at preliminary identification of the personality of potential respondents and their attitude to new technologies and participation in industry events
Factors such as age, place of residence, education were not taken into account because they do not determine participation in industry meetings
Respondents: 7 men 6 women
Industries: 9 IT 2 Design 2 Finance
Artifacts: 2 Videos 11 audios 13 card sorting
Average survey time : 45 min
Observation
Observations were conducted at 2 conferences held as part of Word Usability Day:
WUD Silesia
WUD Kraków
note: Both meetings at which observations were made were important events for the industry UX, meetings were free and took place on a non-working day. As a result, many participants came to the meeting together with friends from the industry, which could have influenced the result of the observation.
Online survey
Survey was published on Facebook:
posts in thematic groups corresponding to the sample on which interviews were conducted
on the wall of private persons •
sent via Facebook Messenger - as amessage addressed directly to the respondent (15 people)
duration: 4 days 82 answers
51% of the respondents are men, 49% are women
Card sorting
The respondents received a set of 7 moments related to the conference and a set of 8 positive and 8 negative emotions. Their task was to assign feelings to moments according to their own vision
Conclusions from research
Primary objective
To facilitate communication for participants of conferences and industry meetings
Conclusions:
Conference participants have no major problems with establishing contacts. this facilitates common context - participation in the same presentations and workshops (main staffs).
Only people who participate in the conference for the first time do not approach other people, remain passive and observe the situation.
New goal
To increase the engagement of participants during the conference.
Additional conclusions
Problem:
a sense of alienation in a large group of unknown people - too many conference participants make it difficult to enter a contact. The strategy for the project: supporting moments where there is the lowest sense of belonging to a group (eg the beginning of a conference)
Solution:
Creating groups and subgroups (you can use meetings in small groups to discuss a topic (open space, open mic), which is a great time to make friends.
Problem:
boredom during uninteresting / too long conference. Project's motivation: activating participants when they have nothing to do, looking for a job, wanting to kill time.
Solution:
a tool that will allow time to develop more productively (many respondents reported that they were for a mobile phone with internet access).
Problem:
participants do not like most of the currently used methods of integration of conference participants (they are referred to as pre-school). Project for the project: to propose an interesting solution that will be closer to the target group.
Solution:
using elements of gamification that will increase participants' involvement and create more opportunities for direct conversation.
Personas
Based on the interviews/surveys we set up three personas. We referred to them throughout the entire product development process.

Strategy phase
Value proposition
Problems that wanted to be solved:
• too little involvement of participants during industry events
• boredom and weariness appear
• too little profit for the development of individual participants
Value proposition:
Participants: Increasing the participants' involvement, help in adapting the event to their own goals, providing participants with transparent information about the event, providing substantive materials and facilitating networking, networking and integration of participants, and making the time spent at the conference more enjoyable through entertainment.
Organizers: First of all: making the event more attractive (satisfied participants are happy organizers), in addition: organizational support, eg streamlining the registration process, promoting the event, feedback from participants, sharing the database.
Speakers: Immediate feedback from listeners about the lecture; the opportunity to reach participants interested in the topic before the conference
Sponsors: Making the sponsored event more attractive, ie creating a positive image of the company on the market, the ability to provide information (also personalized) to participants (eg about recruitment), personalized sponsorship campaigns (eg conference games with a motive indicated by the sponsor)
Companies that send employees to conferences: Verification of the degree of achievement by employees of the objectives set at a given conference by the company, that is, "maximizing profits from delegating an employee to a conference"
Recruitment agencies and HR departments of companies seeking employees: Access to a group of specialists in a given field, the possibility of making meetings with them on the basis of speed dating during the conference
Measures of success - KPI
Basic
• number of downloads
• number of active users
Additional
• number of own goals set by users
• number of implemented system goals
• number of lecture ratings
• number of entries for presentations
• number of opened "open mic" events
• number of clicks on the linkedin (Facebook) profile of users in the application
• a point score obtained in post-conference polls carried out by the organizer
Customer Journey
In order to get to know our users' behavior better, a Customer Journey Map has been created.

Prototyping phase
User flows
In order to create a MVP version of the application, six user flows were modeled.
Below is an example of four user flows like:
A) Checking the recommendation of the lecture
B) Checking the speaker's biography
C) Choosing an interesting lecture
D) Notification receiving of and request for participation in an open meeting

Sketches



Wireframes
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Prototype
Link to an old version of prototype: