Convay Webinar

Convay needed a solution that could support virtual events with thousands of attendees, without overwhelming the host or the platform. I helped design Convay Webinar, a feature tailored for large-scale meetings with up to 5,000 participants, optimized for clear roles, real-time controls, and seamless backend transitions.


Built to handle complexity with simplicity, the system later supported high-profile events like SIDSSA 2025, where ICT Ministers from 30 African nations participated via Convay. The feature now plays a key role in Convay’s growth across 46+ countries, positioning it as a scalable alternative to Zoom Webinar and Microsoft Teams.

CATEGORY:

Web Design,

Product Design

ROLE:

UX Designer,

UI Designer,

UX Researcher,

Interaction Designer,

Information Architect

TOOLS:

Figma

Convay at a Glance

Convay is a video conferencing platform built for modern collaboration. Unlike traditional tools, it supports the full meeting lifecycle, from scheduling and hosting to AI-powered transcription, file storage, and post-meeting follow-ups.


Designed with scalability in mind, Convay now supports meetings with up to 10,000 participants and is trusted by governments and international organizations in over 46 countries.


Key features include:

  • High-quality video and audio conferencing

  • AI-based transcription and meeting summaries

  • Cloud storage for meeting files and chat logs

  • Real-time whiteboard, chat, and screen sharing

  • Enterprise-grade security with on-premise and cloud options


Convay brings everything into one platform to simplify meetings, improve productivity, and support high-stakes collaboration at scale.


Convay has been used in global events like SIDSSA 2025 and secured a €5M government contract through its scalable architecture and reliable UX.


Visit convay.com to learn more.

Feature Overview

Convay Webinar is built to power large-scale virtual events, from internal briefings to international conferences. The feature activates automatically when a meeting exceeds 200 participants, switching the system into Webinar Mode with UI and backend changes optimized for scale.


At the heart of this experience is the Middle Layer Interface, a streamlined control panel for setting up events. Users can define meeting titles, set participant limits (up to 5,000 attendees), schedule time zones, and manage permissions, all from one place.


While the underlying technology remains the same, this interface gives users total control over the event format. Whether it’s a boardroom session or a global summit, Convay Webinar adapts to match the audience size, speaker roles, and interactivity required.

Problem Statement

As Convay scaled, clients began hosting events far beyond the capacity of standard meetings, town halls, policy briefings, and international summits with thousands of attendees. But the existing meeting interface wasn’t built to handle that volume.


Hosts lacked tools to manage speaking requests efficiently. Participants felt lost, unsure how to engage. And behind the scenes, the platform strained to deliver a smooth experience at that scale.


We needed to build a Webinar experience that worked just as seamlessly for 5,000 users as it did for 50, without introducing friction, lag, or chaos.

My Role

As the UX designer on this feature, I contributed to creating an intuitive experience for both hosts and participants in large-scale events. My responsibilities included:


  • Designing the “Middle Layer” UI for meeting setup, allowing users to toggle between meetings and webinars.

  • Creating the attendee management flows including segmented tabs, request-to-speak controls, and dynamic participant views.

  • Collaborating cross-functionally with developers and the product team to align UX with backend architecture and performance constraints.

  • Applying the Convay design system across components to maintain visual consistency and scalability.

  • Iterating on feedback from internal testing to refine real-time states, especially for speaking transitions and large attendee views.

Design Goals

We aimed to make hosting large-scale webinars feel as simple as managing a regular video call.


Key design goals included:

  • Scalability without complexity: The interface needed to work seamlessly whether there were 50 or 5,000 participants.

  • Smooth host workflows: Allow hosts to schedule, manage, and moderate with minimal clicks, even during live sessions.

  • Clear speaker permissions: Make it effortless for hosts to approve or deny speaking requests while keeping the audience organized.

  • Seamless attendee experience: Participants should move from passive viewing to active speaking without confusion or delays.

  • Design system alignment: All new components had to follow Convay’s visual language, ensuring a consistent experience across the platform.


These goals became the foundation for all design decisions, guiding both the interface and interaction patterns as we built a webinar platform designed for scale, clarity, and control.

Middle Layer: The Central Hub for All Meetings

To streamline the creation of large events, we introduced a middle layer interface, a centralized setup screen that helps users configure meetings or webinars based on expected size and purpose.


This wasn’t a new technology, it was a smart UI layer built on top of existing functionality, designed to simplify event creation.

Convay Middle Layer

Key functions included:

  • Dynamic meeting type selection:
    Users could choose between a standard meeting (≤200 participants) or a webinar (up to 5,000 participants). This removed the need for manual input or technical understanding of capacity limits.

  • Comprehensive scheduling controls:
    Hosts could set the title, date, time, timezone, recurrence, and participant roles, all from one page.

  • Access and permissions setup:
    Role-based controls enabled hosts to predefine permissions (e.g., presenter vs. viewer) and generate unique access links per role.

  • Unified flow for small and large events:
    Whether it was a daily team sync or a national-level broadcast, the scheduling experience felt consistent and intuitive.


By consolidating everything into one streamlined UI, we reduced friction and ensured that non-technical users could confidently set up high-stakes events without navigating multiple screens or settings.

Host Controls and Attendee Management

The host controls in Convay Webinar are designed to allow seamless interaction for large meetings while keeping the conversation organized. With the Main Attendee List View, the host has an overview of all attendees, showing their roles (e.g., presenter, guest) and current permissions. This list enables quick actions for each attendee, such as inviting them to speak or adjusting their access.


When a participant wishes to speak, they can use the Request to Talk Notification option, which notifies the host. The host can then either approve or deny the request. Once approved, the participant’s view updates to Approved to Talk View, where they have speaking access, while the rest remain muted to maintain focus on the approved speaker.


The Allowed to Talk Tab and Wants to Talk Tab make it easy for hosts to manage who has speaking privileges. The “Allowed to Talk” tab displays participants currently permitted to speak, allowing the host to revoke permission if necessary, while the “Wants to Talk” tab lists those waiting for approval, simplifying the moderation of large groups.


Additional features include the Invite Options for Attendees, where hosts can invite users as either presenters or guests, adding flexibility for structured events. The Manage Attendee Options offers further control, allowing the host to grant speaking permissions or remove users from the meeting as needed. These functionalities work together to create an efficient and structured environment, enabling hosts to manage even thousands of participants without confusion.


This system ensures that the flow of communication remains smooth, with only approved speakers active at any given time.

Main Attendee List View - Shows all attendees with their roles (e.g., host, presenter, guest) and allows hosts to see details and manage permissions.

Request to Talk Notification - Displays when a participant requests permission to speak, allowing the host to approve or deny the request.

Attendees View - Shows the attendees view with the participant’s video enabled, while others remain muted.

Allowed to Talk Tab - Hosts can view participants who are allowed to talk and remove permissions if needed.

Wants to Talk Tab - Lists participants who have requested to speak, allowing the host to manage permissions.

Manage Attendee Options - Hosts can give talking permissions to individual participants or remove them from the meeting if necessary.

Invite Options for Attendees - Allows the host to invite participants either as presenters or guests, adding flexibility for large events.

Applying the Design System to Components and UI Elements

With the foundational variables and styles established, I applied these elements to create a cohesive, scalable design system for Convay’s UI components. This step involved building out reusable components using the defined colors, text styles, spacing, stroke widths, and effects, ensuring each part of the UI adheres to the new design standards.

  • Buttons: I used the global color variables and spacing options to design different button states, such as primary, secondary, active, hover, and pressed. Each button is visually consistent with the brand colors and provides clear feedback to users during interactions, enhancing usability.

  • Icons and Badges: The icons and badges across Convay were updated to align with the new color scheme, using accent colors for alerts and notifications. Each icon’s stroke width and corner radius were adjusted based on the defined variables, ensuring they are visually harmonious across all screens.

  • Forms and Input Fields: The design system also covers form components, including text fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, and radio buttons. Using standardized text styles, colors, and spacing ensures that all forms look consistent and feel intuitive, reducing cognitive load on users.

  • Modals and Dialogs: Modals were designed with proper elevation styles to give them prominence on the screen. The standardized corner radius and shadow effects make dialogs visually distinct, helping users recognize important messages or actions.

By applying these styles across various components, we achieved a unified look and feel for Convay. This structured approach improves user experience, making interactions more predictable and intuitive, while also making it easier for developers to implement consistent designs.

Participant Experience

In Convay Webinar, we designed the participant experience to ensure ease of use and seamless interaction for users attending large events or conferences. The interface is crafted to facilitate an efficient flow from passive observation to active participation, based on permissions granted by the host.


When participants first join a webinar, they enter a Participant Viewing Mode where they can view other attendees but are restricted from direct interaction. This initial setup ensures that large meetings remain organized, with participants primarily listening and observing the session.


If a participant wishes to speak, they can select the Request to Talk Button, which sends a notification to the host, signaling their intent to engage in the discussion. Once the request is sent, participants see a Request Sent Confirmation screen, giving them reassurance that their request is being processed. This feedback mechanism reduces uncertainty for users waiting for approval.


Upon approval from the host, participants encounter a Request Approval Loading Screen that informs them they are being admitted as a speaker. This smooth transition reduces any potential delay or confusion, ensuring a cohesive experience. Finally, participants are taken to the Active Speaker View, allowing them to interact freely, contributing to the discussion or presentation.


The carefully designed participant flow in Convay Webinar not only keeps large events organized but also empowers attendees to interact effectively without disrupting the session's structure. By integrating real-time feedback and clear status updates, the participant experience is both user-friendly and intuitively responsive.

Participant Viewing Mode – Displays the default view for participants in a webinar. They can see other participants but cannot interact directly unless granted permission.


Request to Talk Button – Highlights the option for participants to request permission to speak, initiating interaction with the host.

Request Sent Confirmation – Shows the confirmation that a participant's request to speak has been successfully sent to the host.

Request Approval Loading Screen – Displays a loading screen with a message indicating the host has granted the request, preparing the participant to join the discussion.

Active Speaker View – Displays the view after the participant’s request has been accepted, allowing them to participate actively.

Backend Optimization for Large Events

Designing for up to 5,000+ participants meant we had to think beyond UI, we needed to ensure the experience remained smooth, even at scale. This required thoughtful backend segmentation to balance performance, permissions, and responsiveness.


Dual Meeting Architecture

We worked with developers to create two separate interaction layers:

  • Host & Speaker Layer: where all meeting controls live — moderation tools, attendee management, permissions, etc.

  • Viewer Layer: for general participants in listen/view-only mode.

This approach reduced server strain by keeping resource-heavy features (like media streams and controls) exclusive to speakers, while minimizing load for passive attendees.


Smart Transitions

When a participant's request to speak is approved, they are seamlessly elevated to the host/speaker layer in real time. This invisible shift ensures no lag, no reloading, and no UX break.


"It just felt like I was suddenly part of the conversation."
— Internal test user


Optimized for Future Growth

This infrastructure wasn’t just built for now—it was a strategic foundation for scaling to 10,000+ attendees. The same system powered SIDSSA 2025, where thousands joined real-time multilingual sessions without a hitch.

Challenges and Solutions

Building for massive-scale events introduced unique design and technical hurdles. Here’s how we solved them:


  • Challenge: Managing Speaker Requests Without Chaos

    With thousands of attendees, allowing everyone to speak freely was unrealistic, but we didn’t want to block participation either.

    Solution: We introduced a “Request to Talk” flow with clear UI feedback at every step — request sent, pending, approved. A dual-tab structure ("Wants to Talk" and "Allowed to Talk") helped hosts moderate requests calmly and confidently, without missing active participants.

    “Now I can focus on who's speaking and who’s waiting.

    No more messy back-and-forth.”

    — Internal host tester

  • Challenge: Keeping Host Controls Simple

    Moderating large events often leads to overwhelming UI. Too many attendees, too little control.

    Solution: We structured host tools into segmented views, like the Attendee List, Role Filters, and Permission Actions, reducing cognitive overload. The result was a clean, contextual control panel that scaled smoothly with crowd size.

  • Challenge : Real-Time Transitions Without Delay

    Users expect instant response, especially during live events. But transitioning roles (viewer to speaker) mid-session can introduce lag.

    Solution: We worked with the dev team to enable a real-time backend transition. Once approved, a participant seamlessly moved to the speaker role without disruption, no reloads, no waiting.

Outcome and Impact

The Convay Webinar feature unlocked new capabilities for large-scale collaboration:


  • Scalability to 10,000+ users enabled the platform to support international events, including high-profile summits like SIDSSA 2025 in South Africa.

  • 80% faster moderation (estimated) through redesigned host controls and segmented attendee views.

  • Seamless interaction at scale, with over 1,000+ internal test participants reporting smooth transitions between speaker and viewer modes.

  • Improved engagement: “Request to Talk” features increased speaker participation without disrupting flow.

  • Helped position Convay as a credible alternative to Zoom or Teams for governments and organizations needing more tailored webinar tools.


These results strengthened Convay’s value proposition and opened doors for high-impact deployments across continents.

Takeaways

Designing Convay Webinar taught me what it really means to design at scale, not just in terms of users, but complexity. From host dashboards to backend transitions, every decision had to balance control with clarity. One of the most rewarding challenges was ensuring that a speaker request from a single attendee could ripple through a system serving thousands, and still feel seamless.


This project strengthened my ability to design under real-world constraints: balancing user experience, technical architecture, and stakeholder expectations. I learned how to build systems that don’t just function under pressure, they adapt.


“Good design isn’t just about making things work,

it’s about making complexity invisible.”


This belief shaped how I approached Convay Webinar. I left the project with a deeper respect for infrastructure-backed UX, and the confidence to take on even more demanding, high-scale challenges ahead.


It reminded me that good design isn't just what users see, it's what they never have to worry about.


“If 5,000 users don’t feel the complexity,

I’ve done my job right.”