CLIENT & ROLE
UX Designer
DURATION
Two week design sprint
TEAM
Nandini Navre
Kritika Arora
Jennifer Oriano
METHODS
Competitive analysis, usability test, survey, user personas and respective flows, journey maps, mid-fidelity to high-fidelity wireframes, clickable prototypes
TOOLS
Figma, Whimsical
The Challenge
WhatsApp started as an alternative to SMS. Our product now supports sending and receiving a variety of media: text, photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice calls. Some of your most personal moments are shared with WhatsApp, which is why we built end-to-end encryption into our app. Behind every product decision is our desire to let people communicate anywhere in the world without barriers.
Our team’s goal was to improve the onboarding flow, in-product messaging system and video conferencing experience for all the platform’s users - internal, brand teams and the end consumer, whilst also taking into account the business need to make the connection process more efficient and to allow seamless function discovery and further intuitive productivity needs on the platform.
The Process
Our first step was to identify the business goal and brand, users and possible problems with the stakeholders. Then, we conducted research on the existing WhatsApp mobile and Web applications and users to gain more insights. After having the needed information, we iterated on 2 rounds of design and delivered the final project.
User Research
Through user interviews and surveys, we identified three key problem areas for WhatsApp users:
Affinity Map
Organization
Differentiating work vs. personal
Confusion between entering chats
Scheduling
Differentiating Group vs Individual
"Lots of group notifications that interrupt when I'm at work or vice versa, when it's personal time, I would like a way to segregate personal vs. work"
"Auto mute or disappear ONLY work texts would be great after working hours because it ruins your mood when a work mate texts at 12am. Either that or two channels on WhatsApp: personal / work."
"I use WhatsApp for everything communication and planning! I would like calendar invites, reminders and a better way to make group decisions."
Collaboration
Multi-participant user calls
Decision making within a group
Multi-tasking
Handsfree capabilities
Voice-notes
Virtual Assistant
Based on the findings, we approached the redesign in three key steps: Information architecture, Core features, and Visual design & Prototyping
After the user survey, we saw the need to reorganize the application site map and user flow.
Sketches &
Idea Validation
Sought feedback by creating many sketches, wireframes and ran quick usability tests with random users. From these sessions, the users drove our design to a clean and organized layout.
The results played a part in our design exploration, as we decided to improve clearer separation and differentiation of personal and work chats with toggle tabs located at the top nav, colour coordinated group chats, and the ability to mute personal and work chats on and off for better work-life balance!
The Solution
Create links to invite friends, family and coworkers
to video calls or in-person meetings
Cast polls, get everyones vote and decide once and for all
Google Nest Hub Virtual Assistant integration for hands-free multi-tasking
Smoothly transition to Rooms video calls powered by Facebook
