Tandberg’s entire portfolio of personal telepresence products is characterised by elegant interaction design and good usability. EX90 is Tandberg’s flagship and is aimed at middle and senior management.

Videoconferencing, a PC screen, desk telephone and document camera are merged into one system. The aim was to provide a user-friendly product with a face-to-face experience that was as close to a physical meeting as possible.

Strict prioritising makes for a better user experience

EX90 is a video conferencing system like no other. The large screen is used for working on and having meetings. A crystal-clear image is delivered by the professional optics in the integrated camera. If you flip the camera, it becomes a document scanner that can be used in meetings. It is easy to organise discussions and meetings with the small touchscreen. Participants can easily be drawn in, rearranged, put on pause and “thrown” out. Special features are easily accessible but muted. All interfaces, including the physical, are incredibly detailed and have a clear Tandberg profile. Strict prioritising has made for a good user experience. Only the essentials are available, the rest has been left out. EX90 is focussed, clear, easy to read and desirable. This is interactive design at its best.

Company strategy

TANDBERG is a Norwegian technology company that has experienced many phases, but has always stood for innovation and quality. Tandberg Telecom has developed from being a small market player that started with video conferencing in the 1980s into a market leader with a market share of over 40% when the company was bought by Cisco in 2010. The EX90 has not only helped Cisco strengthen its position as a technology and market leader, but also secured its place as design leader in its market.

Gathering information

Cisco wants to reach people in high positions within organisations, a level defined as theexecutive experience. This target group is concerned with efficiency and user-friendliness, as well as status. Cisco wanted to develop the second generation of what it calls personal telepresence. This builds on the TANDBERG 1700 MXP, a good, marketable product that could be developed into something much better. The EX90 is an attempt to move video conferencing from the meeting room to the desktop.

Planning

The EX90 is the result of cooperation between experts in fields such as design, mechanics, sound, cameras, electronics and software. The cooperation between the different disciplines was based on the assumption that more participants would enable a greater overall understanding. By gaining greater insight and understanding for other fields, the technologists involved became interested in developing good design and the designers became more concerned with technology. Design has become an important discipline at Cisco. Its department, with 18 permanently employed industrial and interaction designers, is probably one of the largest in-house design environments in the country. Design is used throughout the whole development process, from conceptual studies to the completion of new products and services.

Test and choice of direction

From the start, the focus was on designing the EX90 so that it would function as a video system, PC screen and desk phone. Interdisciplinary workshops were arranged around the user context, interactive prototypes were developed and all involved in the project were “forced” to use them as video systems to identify what the user’s actual needs were. This helped the entire project group to gain a common understanding of the most important challenges and aims. Shared empathy for system users was one of the most important success factors – work meetings changed the direction of the project several times during the process.

Design specification

In the project, there was most uncertainty about developing the touch screen and the menu systems. When the decision to go for touch technology was taken, the iPhone was the only system on the market that had solved touch screen interaction in a good way. It was important to the designers to avoid the user experience ending up in the same category as photocopiers or ticket machines, so Cisco took touch technology seriously. Furthermore, the interface had to be adapted to user scenarios and have a distinctive Tandberg look. The interaction designers worked hard to identify the requirements for a good interface. Stock items were rejected, and the control unit was designed from scratch.

Development

Developing the control unit was a learning process for designers and technologists. Relatively late in the process, all disciplines were gathered together and asked the following question: Does the solution we have gone for provide a user experience of the desired quality? The answer was no, and a new round of comprehensive upgrading of the control unit began. It requires a certain amount of courage to turn around so late in the process, but it can considerably improve the final product. The changes not only solved the performance problem, but at the same time opened up the possibility of using the touch screen as the control unit for all Tandberg products. From a user’s point of view, this is a big plus as the menu system and interaction will be the same in the meeting room as on the desktop.

Commercialisation

The EX90 has set a new standard in the market for making video conferencing easier. Based on the market’s reaction, the production capacity for the EX90 has had to be doubled compared to what was originally estimated. The project had a positive return on investment (ROI) only six weeks after the product became available to customers. The EX90 is actively used to market the company’s video portfolio. During state elections in the USA, CNN has sent out an EX90 instead of a camera team on a number of occasions. At the VoiceCon business communications trade fair, the EX90 was voted one of the 25 “hottest” products.

By developing the EX90, Cisco has managed to produce a video conferencing system that is not only technically outstanding but also awakens customers’ enthusiasm. Or, as one of the foremost analysts in the video conferencing market, Andrew Davies of Wainhouse Research, said: “All my life I wanted a Porsche. Now I think I’d like an EX90 instead.”

Company: Tandberg (part of Cisco)

Project group company: Ivan Kristiansen, Interaction design - Gaute Hovdal, Industrial design - Simen Andresen, Industrial design - Morten Iveland, Graphic design (Apt) - Hallgrim Sagen, Design Manager

Design: Tandberg (part of Cisco)

Award / year: Honours Award for Design Excellence - 2011

Category: Winners