The feature I storyboarded below is the conference service interface a user encounters when he or she first “calls in.” This is just one feature of an audio teleconference app. More broadly, the audio conference service works on desktops, tablets, and smartphones and is focused for business use. Users have individual accounts. A user who wants to set up a call can schedule it, invite people, and change settings making the call private, or allowing invitees to invite others. The service can also sync with Outlook, Google Calendar, or other appointment systems to find mutually free times. People who have been invited to the call can press a button to “call in” a few minutes before the conference start time, until the end of the call.
When a user “calls in,” the screen on the device shows who else is on the call, with some basic information about each of them (such as their company and position). Users will use their regular microphone, speakers, or headsets. The system can detect human voice and cancel background noise, as well as identify who is currently talking, and highlights that person (or persons) on the screen. The person who sets up the call can also display an agenda or slides on callers’ screens so that everyone can see the same thing.
A storyboard based off of the scenario written below.
Scenario:
Steve’s meeting ran late, and now he is late for a teleconference meeting. Not wanting to be even later, he pulls out his tablet and headset as he walks back to his office, finds the conference event on the app, and connects to the call. He is connected and hears others’ voices, already in the middle of the meeting. He knows that they can see that he is now on the call, so he doesn’t interrupt the conversation to introduce himself. Looking at the screen, Steve glances at who else is on the call and their position, noting that a manager is currently talking, and that the meeting is on the second agenda point. By now, Steve has gotten back to his desk, sits down, and begins contributing his own points seamlessly into the conversation.
The audience of the storyboard is other people in the design group, who are looking at what the system does at a relatively high level. This storyboard is at an early design stage and may be one of several possible ideas of how a user may connect to a call.
Thus, the storyboard focuses on how the user connects, but is not detailed enough for software engineers to begin programming the interface. The level of detail is minimal, so that the main points are emphasized. Since this is internal, the storyboard is a hand-drawn sketch (if it were for investors, perhaps it would be more photo-realistic or made through Photoshop to convey professionalism). Color is only used once to indicate highlighting. Times are shown to indicate that the user is late to the call. Text is shown within the scenes to represent headings on the interface, or thought bubbles. 5 scenes are enough to tell the story, from a variety of angles to see both the interface and the user’s context.
