Project at Cvent

Modernisation of Chat Discussions

A low-adoption networking feature revitalised by aligning the UI with familiar social patterns, resulting in higher attendee engagement and planner enablement.

Agenda builder project Cover Image

Overview

Role: Senior Product Designer
Duration: 3 months
Team: 1 Senior Product Designer & owner (me), 1 Content Designer, 1 Localisation Specialist, Product Owner, Front-end Engineers
Tools: Figma, FigJam (for discovery work), MixPanel and CLS (data analysis)

Background

Cvent's Attendee Hub is an all-in-one digital event platform that powers virtual, hybrid, and in-person experiences by centralising content delivery, networking, and engagement tools into a single unified interface.

Networking is the heartbeat of any great event. While our Chat Discussions feature was built to facilitate this, we noticed that adoption wasn't meeting our expectations. Planners were hesitant to enable it, and attendees were unsure how to engage with it. My goal was to revitalise this feature, transforming it from a confusing utility into a thriving social hub, all while navigating tight timelines and technical constraints.

Problem Statement

How might we update our existing feature so that it meets our attendees' needs for a social wall style networking feature, thereby increasing utilisation and boosting planner confidence in our solution?

Defining the Problem

Through an audit of MixPanel data and Customer Support (CLS) cases, we uncovered a mismatch in mental models.

  • The Disconnect: The existing interface used a traditional group chat layout. Users weren't sure of the purpose of the feature and how to use it.
  • The Consequence: This ambiguity created friction. Attendees hesitated to post for fear of messing up, and without active discussions, Event Planners saw little value in the feature.

Challenge: We needed to clarify the feature's purpose without the budget or runway for a complete backend overhaul.

Strategy & Discovery

I led a discovery phase focused on understanding user expectations versus our current reality.

  • Internal audit: Collaborating with my Product Owner and engineering partners, we identified that the issue wasn't the functionality - it was the presentation.
  • External audit: I conducted a competitive audit of major social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, to identify the interaction patterns our users were already comfortable with.
  • The Pivot: We hypothesised that shifting the UI from a "Chat" metaphor to a "Social Feed" metaphor would instantly lower the barrier to entry by leveraging patterns users already knew.
Screenshot of the audit work
Img: Screenshot of the audit work

Finalised scope

The scope we finalised for this project was outlined as:

  • Feature's goal would remain the same
  • Function would remain the same
  • Only visual experience would change

The Solution

Working within the limitations of our 3rd-party library, I designed a solution that refreshed the front-end experience while keeping the back-end logic intact.

Clarifying Intent: I moved away from the left aligned message texts to full-width content cards. This subtle visual cue signalled "Public Post" rather than "Private Message."

Screenshot showing post order change
Img: Screenshot showing post order change

Encouraging Engagement: We elevated interaction options (reactions and replies) to the surface, moving away from long press only interactions, making it easier for passive users to participate without the pressure of typing a full response.

Smart Scoping: To meet our 3-month delivery window, I worked closely with the dev team to prioritise high-impact visual changes, while ensuring they are feasibility, over complex new features, making sure we delivered a polished experience on time.

What we changed:

  • Order of posts changed to most recent at top
  • Avatars now allowed displaying profile pics
  • Improved post creation workflow
  • Clearly mentioned time elapsed for each post
  • Updated the reactions
  • Interacting with reactions made easier
  • Adding comments made simpler

Outcomes & Learnings

The redesign successfully bridged the gap between user expectation and product intent.

  • Business Impact: Post-launch, we saw an uptick in planners enabling the feature, driven by a clearer value proposition.
  • User Engagement: Attendees appreciated the new look and experience, and adoption increased, with data showing a rise in both active posts and passive reactions.
  • Customer Retention: By solving a key engagement gap, we strengthened the overall specific value of the Attendee Hub for our B2B clients.

Reflection

This project reinforced a valuable lesson for me: Layout is language. By simply changing the container of the content and simplifying some of the interaction patterns, we completely altered how users perceived and used the tool. It was a reminder that sometimes the most effective design solution isn't about building new features, but about framing the existing ones correctly.

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