THM-Health
UX: Role management issue & Solutions
The current Default role setting in video conferences is unclear. When switching from Participant to Moderator, multiple other settings change without clear indication in the UI. This often leads to confusion of users. Steps to Reproduce:
- Open a video conference’s settings.
- Change the Default role from Participant to Moderator.
- ‘Waiting room’ options and ‘restrict participant rights’ settings become no longer functional.
Current Behavior in the 'Default role' setting: Participant role
- Supports waiting rooms.
- Hosts can use Restrict participant rights in video conferences.
- Limitation: External users (no university account) are always passive participants, with no access to features like screen sharing.
Moderator role
- Allows all participants equal rights (e.g., screen sharing).
- Removes the waiting room option.
- Disables Restrict participant rights.
Goal: It should be visually clear what selecting Participant vs Moderator does. Users should not be surprised by hidden or disappearing options. External users should have a clearer path to access key features. The goal is to make the impact of the Default role setting visually understandable all while not changing to the underlying logic.
Proposed Solutions
Concept 1: Educational vs. Professional Settings Prototype here Add a question in the Video Conference settings: 'What is the purpose of your meeting?', 'Educational' taking the place to the current 'Participant' role (with restrictions and waiting room) and the 'Professional' taking the current 'Moderator' option(everyone equal, no restrictions). UI adjustments:
- Remove the 'Participants' section.
- Move 'Allow new members' under 'Video conference'.
- Relocate 'Waiting room' into 'Restrict participant rights' (only visible in Educational mode).
- Remove 'Restrict participant rights' entirely in Professional mode.
Concept 1.2: Educational vs. Professional Settings + Warning Prototype here Same as Concept 1, but instead of removing 'Restrict participant rights' in 'Professional' mode, keep the options visible but disabled. Adding a warning message prompting users to switch to 'Educational' mode if they want to enable them. This may be beneficial as it allows the differences between the modes to be clearer than in Concept 1.
Concept 2: Host Moderation Toggle Prototype here Introduce a 'Host moderation' section with a toggle, 'Remove user restrictions'. When toggled on: A pop-up explains which new rights participants will gain. The host can confirm or cancel. If confirmed, participant customization options are blocked. The warning message explains that enabling restrictions is required to restore participant features. Hosts can quickly re-enable restrictions without pop-ups for urgent moderation needs. The default of the toggle would have the same function as the current 'Participant' role and when turned on it would function the same as the 'Moderator' role. UI adjustments:
- Move the ‘Waiting room’ into participant customization settings.
- Move ‘Allow new members’ under ‘Video conference’.
- Remove the current ‘Participants’ section.
Thank you for your observations. We are also not happy with the current solution and are looking for a better, simpler one.
We haven't implemented a requested feature that would allow everyone to be a moderator (see #1460) yet, due to the confusion and uncertainty described by you.
To add even more complexity to this topic, we also have to consider how to handle room type default and enforced settings, how to handle room type changes