Virtual Backgrounds for Webex Video Conferencing
ROLE
Fei Huang / UX design & illustration
Pawel Rebisz / UX design & 3D
Sondre Brustad / UX & visual design
Chris Riggs / Art Direction
RESPONSIBILITY
Concept ideation
Create original drawings
Personality matters, it has an enormous impact on user experience and perception. Since Oct 2019 I and teammates have been working with UX writers to build the Webex personality through various projects for Webex products. The projects cover areas such as illustrations, voice and tone, and animations. Here let me bring you to the inside of virtual background imagery creation.
"Naturally, Webex is here with an expanded solution of our own. We’re certainly not the first or the last, but we’re excited to kick off the Webex Artist Series by offering our unique take on video backgrounds to further our mission of transforming collaborative work by crafting experiences people love. "
The inspiration
After a couple of rounds of exploration, we narrow down to focus on creating Webex-owned original imagery/drawings that reflect our passion for inspiring vibrant remote work culture.
Two primary ideas
1. We’re a globally distributed organization working across various time zones, geographies, and cultures. This means we’re influenced by a wide range of “places,” all of which serve as inspiration for the experiences we create. Similarly, we design products for our customers’ diverse teams who are more often than not, remote and distributed in various ways.
2. Webex has a vibrant creative culture, with designers and artists who have a strong creative point of view they’re eager to express.
These ideas culminate in exciting new video backgrounds for the latest Meetings release for desktop. And backgrounds for our Red Dot Award-winning Desk Pro video conferencing device will follow.
The collection
Time and space. These backgrounds represent different natural environments from across the globe, each evoking a mood through simple illustrated form and color.
Environments. These are intentionally unexpected and a little whimsical, inspiring imaginative ways to think about the spaces we occupy for work, play, learning, and more.
Neutrals. We see a need for backgrounds that have texture and color but recede, allowing the meeting participant to be the focus. These have a very practical use for when a calm, familiar backdrop is needed.
Additionally, users will be able to choose a more traditional photographic background (landscape or executive office) or upload an image of their choice.