QuaQua
Innovative video meetings with instant translations.
Breaking free from traditional constraints.
The way it used to be? Interpreters could only translate on the spot, in the classic interpreter booths. Companies and organizations in need of interpreters were bound to local interpreters or to interpreters willing to travel to the meeting or conference location.
How QuaQua transformed the interpreter business? Interpreters don’t need to travel from Madrid or Rome to Brussels anymore, they don’t even need to leave their home office. The QuaQua platform links remote interpreters to online meetings. No travelling needed, no software of hardware needed, no problems scaling your meeting from 5 to 50 participants. You reduce your meeting costs up to 50%.
By creating an online platform where meetings can take place at any place and time. We've been able to reduce meeting costs by 50%.
Understanding the challenge and the user.
The challenge? Create future standards for a multi-user platform, while still respecting today’s conventions. An extra layer of online interactions required very smart data handing and smart user interactions. The transformation deeply impacted all users.
Meeting participants are accustomed to Skype, Zoom and other online meeting tools where people can easily interrupt each other.
Interpreters are accustomed to the standard for interpreter desks, the award winning Televic Lingua that Made designed.
Meeting moderator who manages the speakers queue needs to adapt to the new online interface.
Defining a great user experience.
We have built upon our experience in designing market changing interpreter desks to create the ideal user experience for online, multilingual meetings. The main focus of the interpreter platform is ease of use. We did not just copy-paste the interpreter desk, not every analog button should be a digital button. We simplified the interface to a few key ingredients:
People tend to start speaking at the same time when using online meeting tools. That’s very inconvenient for interpreters. The toolbars and the sidebars handle the cue and allow speakers to ‘pass the mic’ to whoever is next in line.
The interpreters see who comes up next, so they know when it’s up to them to translate. They always have a clear overview of the queue, the participants and the language they speak.
They can also collaborate and pass the roll to a colleague when they need a break (translating is grueling work).
The participants can ask for support of an interpreter in the sidebar.
User testing & validation
User testing was key in the successful launch of QuaQua.
We had different groups of users testing the tool: interpreters off course, but also meeting participants and meeting organizers/moderators.
Users all over the world were involved in the testing and validation process.
We organized separate user tests for separate parts of the flow of the tool: a user test for the login, a user test for the queue, etc.
A custom design stylesguide
QuaQua’s design does not only focus on ease of use, it also creates high consistency between interpreter and user interfaces. The style guide we created is being used in both the tool and the website. The brand design and the colors give QuaQua an energetic feel, but in the interface we toned it down to ensure maximum focus for the users.
Go to market: how we launched.
How did we launch QuaQua?
We built a marketing website that tells the story of QuaQua.
Detailed manuals show users how to use the tool.
Sales pitches are tailored to target the different user groups: companies and organizations setting up online meetings and professional interpreters on the lookout for more user-friendly, digital ways of working.
Contact
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Wondering what’s on their mind, and how design thinking helps you accelerate creative ideas and solutions faster?
Made's Consumer Innovation and Design Director Simon de Smet is keen to have a chat. Want to define what's next together?
