Zoom Note-taking
Designing a screen-shot embedded note-taking feature for Zoom
Type
Team project for Design for Future Creativity and Productivity course
Role
UI designer and UX researcher
Collaborators
Nicole Tran, Morgan Li, Stanley Ho, Mengyuan Zhang
Tool
Figma
Timeline
8 weeks (October 2021 - December 2021)
Problem
Users of Zoom often experience a cognitive overload or encounter slips easily due to such a tedious workflow and many interactions ends up being counterintuitive and counterproductive. If a user wants to note-take during a Zoom meeting often involves switching between multiple applications. These complicated interactions are required in order to achieve very simple intentions.
Goal
Reduce cognitive overload and slips by facilitating easy note-taking and better context based-communication by designing a screenshot-enabled note taking feature.
Sketches
Competitive Analysis
Google Docs
Advantages
Easy to convert into PDF or other file types
Live collaboration
Online storage for the documents
Limitations
Split-screen in order to take notes (difficult to view/note take while in the conference call)
Constantly switching between windows (Zoom to watch → Google Doc to note take → Back to Zoom → Back to Google Doc)
Tedious functioning on smaller devices when on Zoom and Google Doc (mobile, iPad)
Must go back and open both Zoom recording and Google Doc to review past video
No synchronization between specific note section and Zoom time frame
Snapstream
Advantages
Easy screenshot and annotation to facilitate live streaming process
Allows direct communication between participants and host: send screenshot to chat function
Limitations
Does not allow screenshots to be used personally: compiling and editing them into notes
Does not extract image or transcript separately
Mostly beneficial for visual art related streaming process
Wireframes
Note-taking Features
Advantages
Allows for direct screenshot inputting
Simultaneous note-taking alongside Zoom call
No switching between Zoom and note taking
Especially useful on smaller devices
Limitations
No collaborative functions
Limited fonts and colors to save the space
Notes Collection Features
Advantages
Creation of multiple notes
Notes synchronize with the timestamp of Zoom call
Easy to convert into PDF or other file types
Send notes to another user
Limitations
Selecting and using features takes too many clicks
Single notes may be preferred over having multiple notes
Screen-shot menu Features
Advantages
Real-time screenshot for editing
Easy to compile into notes or files and sends to chat
Easy to convert into PDF or other file types
Extracts transcripts
Limitations
Menu overlays on the of the Zoom window
May be slower than Windows snipping tool
Hi-Fi Prototype
Next Step
For our next steps, we’ve thought about further improving our design first by doing more user testing for an even more efficient note-taking system and flow. Also we would want to experiment more with the potential HCI technology used to facilitate a smoother Zoom experience, for example, using natural language processing to detect critical date and event information for setting automatic calendar events.