Avaya Equinox Case Study

The Ask

Create awarness about the Avaya Equinox platform so that it offers a wider appeal beyond Avaya’s reputation of being strictly an office phone system and communications hardware environment while competing against already popular tools.

Project Overview

Avaya Equinox is a communications suite that delivers email, texting, voice & video calling, conferencing, instant messaging, visual voicemail, and more.

The tools in the suite were highly integrated with each other, and worked on multiple devices and platforms. Plus, Avaya had an installed base of users who were already utilizing other Avaya platforms and had access to the IT professionals who often control the decisions around software selection.

My Contributions

Headed the team to win the business through proposal writing and client pitch.
Led the design team, from discovery, through design, to hand off to development.
Deliverables and Tasks: Interviews, personas, competitive analysis, storyboards, look and feel, script writing, animation

How We Got There

Below is an overview of the process used to create the digital user experience for Avaya. It starts with establishing empathy with the users. Once we have an understanding of who the user is we go deeper into learning about the unique experiences that they go through and how it shapes their needs. This is analyzed, broken into various flows that establish a clear path for the right solution. Finally, a design emerges that is based on an understanding of the needs of the user.

➊

Empathize

➋

Define

➌

Ideate / Prototype

➍

Design

➊ Empathize

Persona

Francine - IT Director

Needs to accomplish
‍• Unification of systems
• Allow users to connect with no downloads

After interviewing project stakeholders at Avaya including marketing directors, product managers and sales executives, we were able to have a better understanding of the target users and constructed a few personas. Francine, the IT Director was one of the main personas that was used to represent Avaya's typical buyer of a software platform solution such as Equinox. She is familiar with Avaya through their other products and services and likely already utilizing Avaya solutions for her team. She works with an international team and is busy, but will take the time to investigate before making a business purchase.

Needs to Feel
‍• Confident that system is secure
• Excited to share with the team

What are your priorities…
‍• Easy access on most any device from anywhere
• Ability to collaborate on documents
• Want to view a demo before I buy

Stakeholder Interviews

Comparative Examples

Through our stakeholder interviews, we learned that their customers often respond positively to online software demos. We presented a selection of different demos across a wide range of technical solutions. In the end, the example that resonated the most with our interviewees was the demo created for Nest Thermostats. We learned that the combination of technology with lifestyle storytelling connected in a meaningful way.

➋ Define

Common Scenario

As part of our effort to build empathy for the user, brief storylines are constructed to represent a common scenario that the user might confront. The story below takes us through an experience common to someone like our persona Francine where she might discover a solution like Avaya Equinox.

01 ⟶

Any time any place



My team is super busy and always on the run so we need to be in constant communication.

02 ⟶

Multi-platform



Our communications platforms are pretty disjointed between emails. texts, phone calls, conferences.

03 ⟶

Product Search



What platform will offer, voice, text, video conferencing, document collaboration?

04 ⟶

View Demo



I see Avaya offers a solution and we are already using their Aura platform. I can see my team getting excited about working with this.

Take Action



I’m going to contact Avaya to learn more.

➌ Ideate / Prototype

Touchpoint Journey

Based on insight from our discovery interviews, we learned that a lifestyle demo of the software will connect with users. We created a storyboard that takes the user through the day in the life of an on-the-go, busy office worker where she is interacting with her team and negotiating a contract with a potential new client. This user's day starts the moment she wakes up and looks at her phone on the nightstand. It continues through her commute and right into the office. Even lunch and breaks are opportunities to stay connected. The 'characters' in the story include Rachel, our main subject, her team at the office, the prospects, and it also integrates her devices and the Equinox software as main characters. Additionally,p location and time play a crucial role in this dramatic portrayal/software demo.

As the user scrolls through the demo, time advances and the story unfolds.

➍ Design

UI Design

The interface is split to show the day in the life events on the right and the software with features being called out on the left.

The designs were populated with JSON data enabling multilingual and multicultural content.

Desktop and mobile prototypes are created to test the interaction before development begins.

Alternative design approach presented for consideration