Goldcast
Client
Goldcast
Role
Design Intern — UX, UI, Web Design, Branding, Marketing
Duration
2022 – 2023
Design Team
Jen Huang, Yunbo Xie, Kaiwen Tao, Jason Kim, Amy Zhang
Development Team
Dishebh Bhayana, Kashish Grover, Shikhar Sahdev, Gagandeep Singh
Overview
This was one of the first projects I worked on at AITHER where I got to learn and develop my design skills substantially alongside other designers. During the unpredictable challenges of the pandemic, we provided crucial support on product and launch strategy, helping Goldcast adapt to a rapidly changing market. From shaping the initial product concept to refining UX, UI, and interaction design for web and mobile, we laid the foundation for Goldcast’s growth.
Context
Modern-day workforce is demanding options to engage digitally. B2B marketers aren’t just thinking about in-person events – they’re also going big on digital events like webinars, virtual summits, hybrid events, and many more.
The reality is platforms like Netflix, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube have changed how consumers consume digital content. Most digital events put the audience to sleep whilst marketers are forced to use clunky, boring platforms to build those experiences.
Impact
That's why we had to reimagine the virtual event experience. Today, top B2B companies are finding success with Goldcast, efficiently connecting with their audience, boost brand authority, and drive revenue with engaging webinars.
+20%
more attendance
+25%
time spent in event
3X Over
pipeline goals
3 Weeks
faster delivery
Trusted by Thousands of B2B Marketers
Problem
Marketers are left asking: why is our attendance rate so low, how can we increase our audience engagement, and how can I help my sales team with their target accounts?
The UX could be better, the branding is lacking, and the tools don’t give any actionable engagement insights for driving revenue.
Discovery
Identifying issues
When looking at original screens, the following issues are evident: low discoverability, unengaging, and inconsistent combined with a lack of branding. Layout, order, and hierarchy can be better while engagement features are lacking. From my site audit, the design system seemed to also have many redundancies.
Research
Considering status quo bias, users tend to stick to default settings. Therefore, anchors and default speeds being set at a faster speed are much more effective. Additionally, users are more likely to interact with prompts that are self-initiated when they instinctively want to be consistent with their previous actions. Relieving friction with things like response suggestions can make users feel that a part of the job is already completed. People also tend to ignore areas where unrelated or redundant content appears, which is why avoiding clutter is so important for this product.
Competitive analysis
Competitors like Bizzabo was hard to manage due to limited customization and rigid agenda pages. Zoom is not only limited from a production perspective, but it also lacks automation to help teams scale event programming. Hopin had an overload of features. This informed our analytics and dashboards immensely, improving upon existing designs.
Outside of this preliminary research, I wanted to hear firsthand my target audience’s experiences to cater the final product towards their needs
User interviews
We asked 20+ attendees about: Which event platform do you use the most often? What do you enjoy the most from it and what is missing? What do you see as most important when attending a webinar or a virtual event? When do you find yourself more focused on digital content? What do you value the most? What are some of the tangible ways to exceed your expectations?
User interviews
Our Insights
Here are some key insights we gathered from user surveys and interviews.
GOals
We wanted to make it more efficient for both admins and attendees to interact with events while increasing engagement by improving individual features and how they come together. Throughout this process, bring more consistency to design system while enhancing branding and marketing materials.
Audit
Let's use this speakers tab as an example. For it to not seem foreign to the Goldcast’s original user base and for it to be easier to update for their developers’ end, I wanted to make sure that the overall format was relatively the same with the content centered and the event previews or other secondary information being on the right side.
Discovering more issues
I realized that both forms of navigation are not necessary to be displayed at all times. The way that users see the speakers is quite impersonal as well. How might we learn more about them and how can that information be displayed? What happens when there are too many speakers and users would have a harder time finding who they are looking for? On the right side, there’s a lot of wasted space, showing limited details and it is hard to differentiate from the content area.
Auditing design system…
ideation
I focused on defining the two main use cases, one being short, single-session events and the other being multi-session, multi-day conferences. I brainstormed how certain aspects could be omitted in the former one to simplify the user flow and which aspects to add in the latter to better complement more ambitious business objectives.
Wireframing to no end…
Refining layout and defining functions…
Strategy
To summarize some of the solutions that we worked with here: only the necessary navigations are displayed, space is better optimized, there is an improved layout and users now can actually better familiarize themselves with the speakers while still being able to view the event that is taking place.
Design Decisions
Simple and focused experience
Directly addressing both admins’ and attendees’ goals. Clear hierarchy, distraction free, with no redundancy.
Relieving friction as much as possible
Examples can include automated blog posts, follow-up emails, engagement prompts, and chat response suggestions.
I also focused on implementing the following elements throughout the designs: concise, effective onboarding, feature descriptions that are easy to understand, and tooltips.
Maintain consistencies
Keep all documentation updated with logic clearly articulated.
Final designs
Looking back at this now, there was many challenges when balancing between user satisfaction and business goals: with the user base being either admins from the business side or attendees from the general public, the needs can be very different—sometimes even conflicting so finding the solution that compromises with both sides was pretty interesting to deal with.
Designing for various devices and screen sizes and establishing flexible design systems while maintaining that consistency, communicating any changes being made to my team members, and making sure those changes are reflected across our designs was quite difficult—especially considering our time constraints. We had to prioritize high-impact solutions and address key requirements.
Build brand affinity with engaging events that people actually want to attend
impact
ScAleD over 1M MAU
Our work helped the platform secure $42M in funding, solidifying its position as a leader in the B2B video platform space. Beyond product design, we crafted a cohesive brand identity and versatile marketing templates used across both physical and digital channels, strengthening Goldcast’s market presence. Goldcast’s success was showcased on a global stage when it was featured in Times Square on the Nasdaq billboard.
Reflections
The significance of having a target audience
Developing a comprehensive event platform involves addressing various use cases, edge cases, and designing for numerous user needs. It's crucial to consider the individuals who form the product's foundation, ensuring its lasting impact—especially when designing for B2B clients.
Keep all team members in mind
While communicating with developers from Goldcast, I experienced real, technical constraints for the first time. This helped me learn to never hesitate to ask about the feasibility of a design and how to hand off design documentation to make the process easier for developers.