At 6:10pm, I got this message:
So what happened was that the dinner time was changed from 6:30pm to 6pm and I missed that message!
I was so sorry, and also a bit mad at myself because I scrolled through messages the night before to find the time and location, thinking that I got it right. Scrolling through messages to find information was also a pain, especially with active group chats.
Going into this project, I was particularly interested in the direction of managing social plans with messaging apps.
My assumptions were:
1. Users make plans with family and friends through messaging apps.
2. Users have frustrations with managing social plans, especially with remembering the event details and keeping track of updates.
So the above was only my assumptions stemmed from my experience. I wonder if other users encountered the same problem as I did. I chatted with 2-3 friends and realized that I wasn't the only one.
To validate my hypothesized problem, I conducted interviews with 11 participants. I also asked them broader questions regarding how they plan meet ups with family and friends, and things they do before & during & after the event.
of participants don’t remember the details of the upcoming meetup (location, date, time)
of participants tried to scroll through messages to search for information
Interviews always surprise me. Participants did have difficulty finding event details, but they had different "creative" approaches that I had never thought about.
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Not just with finding event details, I learned that participants had other more frustrations with managing and organizing their social plans.
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After validating the problem from users, I wonder if other messaging apps already have a feature that tackles it. I conducted a competitive analysis to understand how the other 3 popular messaging apps are succeeding and falling short. I also did a feature sets comparison. They have overlapping features, but none of them do it all.
• Many users* switched from WhatsApp to Signal due to privacy concern
*Hey, I'm one of them!
• Messenger used to have a feature called 'plan' that reminds users before a plan begins. It is, however, no longer available.
• As no competitors fills in the gap, this is an important opportunity for Signal to increase its user retention rate and to pivot from its competitors.
Taking in all the information and insights gathered from research and interviews, I created a hypothesis:
If Signal offers a feature that helps with organizing events, users can manage their social calendar easier and happier.
Based on my research, I created a persona, Leo. I always came back to Leo as a reference when I was stuck with design decision later in the process.
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To help me further step into the users' shoes, I created a customer journey map. By visualizing their process, I felt like going through with the user, and it really helped me understand their process. I found out that painpoints mostly happend before the start of an event.
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I did a how-might-we exercise to brainstorm solutions, but I couldn't decide which one to focus on. I want to make sure that the solution is valuable to users, so I did a priority matrix to help me decide what solutions I would work on.
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From what I've seen in the customer journey map and this priority matrix, I decided that the solution will focus more on the pre-event time (planning stage) as users are the most unhappy in that stage, and its user value is high with lower time.
How might we enable a simpler event creation for friends and families so that they can organize and find info easily?
I worked on the flow of creating an event, updating an event, and finding info of an event.
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Before I started designing wireframes, I needed to look at the existing design system of Signal. I want to make sure that the new feature blends in well.
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I found out that Signal on Android and iOS look a lot different! From colour to structure to layout.
I checked other messaging apps. Messaging apps is probably one of the most different kind.
Thankfully, I didn't start my design based on my Android Signal.
I need to make sure that the new feature integrates with the existing Signal design system, including the structure and gesture. It was challenging to get a balance between being too similar to an existing screen that might causes confusion, and being too different that the users are not familiar with.
Since I am designing for the Signal iOS app, I also followed Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and used iOS components, especially with calendars, clocks, and maps, which are very different from the Android system.
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2. How to show event reminder on home screen?
I explored different ways to show events on the Signal home screen.
Choice: coloured event pills
Aligns with Signal and highlights the date without being too intrusive about it
Signal icons are light-weight. I spent time on creating an icon set that follows the current style because they impact the overall consistency and branding.
It’s time to validate my solution. I recruited 6 participants for usability testing. They were asked to complete 5 tasks:
1. Creating an event
2. Editing an event
3. Responding to an event
4. Finding event information
5. Notification
What participants liked:
1. Response button
When asked to respond to an event, users were not sure where to click at first. They didn't know it was a button because of its grey colour and text content.
2. Adding & changing location
a. After typing the address, users hesitated where to click to add the selected address.
b. When asked to change address, users' eyes were drawn to the center to find a solution. They did not think about the text field in the first place.
3. Showing updates of an event
Participants wants to know what kind of information has been updated. However, they are not curious about the original info.
Introducing
Signal
Events
Organize events easier
Create an event in seconds and get everyone on the same page.
Respond to an event
There are 3 response options: going, not going, maybe. The event is also added to your event calendar, exception for the 'not going' response.
Find event details easily
All details in one place. No more scrolling through messages or misunderstanding.
Pop-up notification
date pills in homescreen
sticky banner in group chat
Never forget an event again.
Different reminders dedicated to for an event.
• new feature engagement rate
• the number of events created
• the frequency of events
• the rate of invitees responding to an event
• Signal retention rate
• Adding a feature to an existing product was harder than I thought. I had to work with many constraints from existing Signal design system and the iOS system.
• The balance between highlighting the new feature and without being too intrusive
courtneyywong@gmail.com
2022 © Courtney Wong
