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Bizzabo: Reactions Feature
Bizzabo is a data-rich event experience OS that allows to manage events in an in-person, virtual, and hybrid experience.
As a product that aims to create a meaningful experience, one of Bizzabo's goals is to encourage the users to be as much involved in a video session as possible.
The level of the participants’ engagement is an important data that Bizzabo measurs and provides to the customers on an ongoing basis.
Problem
One of the biggest deficiencies in a virtual event experience is the lack of interpersonal communication.
The ability to get real-time feedback such as a laugh, cheers, or even a glimpse of a smile from one another, gives both the speaker and the audience the motivation and the sense that they are being heard.
This lack leads to passive users with low engagement and low average of time spent in a session.
Mission
To increse the level of engagement, and create a sense of belonging among users by encouraging human feedback loop during a session.
Vision
During a live session, eather virtual or in-person, any participant should easly react and see how other participants react to the session, in real-time.
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(above: examples of engagement metrics measured by Bizzabo)
This map is a result of a research process conducted by the Bizzabo research team with the goal of understanding the perceptions, needs, and motivations of attendees at hybrid events. It is based on 18 expert interviews, 54 attendee interviews, and 636 survey responses.![]()
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Competitive Analysis
We started by searching how other video-based platforms deal with reactions.
In the research, we looked into several things: the feedback after clicking a reaction, the interaction with the video, the flow of use, how immediate is the action, and which reactions were chosen.
We found that in most cases, the reactions were placed inside a dropdown. So that in order to release a reaction, the user has two actions to make, which made it less immediate. In the other cases, the action was more instant, and we felt it is the right way for us, as a live session platform.
Another thing we found was that although the set of reactions is a bit different on each platform, there are certain emojis that have become common use, and perhaps people are used to expressing themselves through them.
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User Research
We conducted user interviews with participants of a real event, in order to see if there is a need for the feature in an in-person events.
Some of the things we were aiming to find out were: Do people feel the need to share their reactions during a session? If so, in what ways did they do it, other than clapping? Does reacting through the mobile in an in-person session, is something that can meet this need? Which reaction would they use?
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From interviews, we found that most people do want to share their reactions to a session, and added that this would give them the opportunity to react in a quiet way.
Also, most people would not use negative emojis because they think it is morally wrong.
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The positioning of the reaction bar and audience stream in the video was quite a challenge. After a wide exploration, tests and prototypes, it was decided that the reaction bar will appear while hovering over the video area and disappear when leaving it, this way it doesn’t interrupt the session content.
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Final Design
Attendee Side
When an event organizer creates a new session, he will have the ability to choose up to 6 reactions that best suit his session and define the order of appearance.
(above: examples of engagement metrics measured by Bizzabo) User Journey Map
This map is a result of a research process conducted by the Bizzabo research team with the goal of understanding the perceptions, needs, and motivations of attendees at hybrid events. It is based on 18 expert interviews, 54 attendee interviews, and 636 survey responses.
Competitive Analysis
We started by searching how other video-based platforms deal with reactions.
In the research, we looked into several things: the feedback after clicking a reaction, the interaction with the video, the flow of use, how immediate is the action, and which reactions were chosen.
We found that in most cases, the reactions were placed inside a dropdown. So that in order to release a reaction, the user has two actions to make, which made it less immediate. In the other cases, the action was more instant, and we felt it is the right way for us, as a live session platform.
Another thing we found was that although the set of reactions is a bit different on each platform, there are certain emojis that have become common use, and perhaps people are used to expressing themselves through them.
User Research
We conducted user interviews with participants of a real event, in order to see if there is a need for the feature in an in-person events.
Some of the things we were aiming to find out were: Do people feel the need to share their reactions during a session? If so, in what ways did they do it, other than clapping? Does reacting through the mobile in an in-person session, is something that can meet this need? Which reaction would they use?
From interviews, we found that most people do want to share their reactions to a session, and added that this would give them the opportunity to react in a quiet way.
Also, most people would not use negative emojis because they think it is morally wrong.
User Interface
The positioning of the reaction bar and audience stream in the video was quite a challenge. After a wide exploration, tests and prototypes, it was decided that the reaction bar will appear while hovering over the video area and disappear when leaving it, this way it doesn’t interrupt the session content.
Final Design
Attendee Side
When an event organizer creates a new session, he will have the ability to choose up to 6 reactions that best suit his session and define the order of appearance.
Desktop view
Mobile view
In-person event view
Organizer Side
When an event organizer creates a new session, he will have the ability to choose up to 6 reactions that best suit his session and define the order of appearance.
