Problem Statement
I’ve been using whatsapp since 2011. I keep in touch with most of my family and friends on that app. I am a part of many groups as well. But to reach out to one person in that big group of 40 people, is a very long and tedious task.
I have to click on the group name but not on the picture to see all the info.
Scroll down to see all the members of the group.
Search for the member you were looking to dm among those 40 others.
Click on their name to open up a menu.
Select the option ‘send message’ from the menu to reach out to them personally.
Key Outcomes & Success Metrics
This is part of a Daily UI challenge. The actual challenge is to create a chat app in under 24 hours. So, instead of creating a brand new chat app, I wanted to address a problem in one of the existing top chat applications.
My Responsibilities
This is part of a Daily UI challenge. The actual challenge is to create a chat app in under 24 hours. So, instead of creating a brand new chat app, I wanted to address a problem in one of the existing top chat applications.
Process
Discover & Define
We need to do some kind of research before finding a solution to any problem if not we will either end up solving the wrong problem or we will break what is already working. So, I went ahead and started talking to some people.
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This was enough for me to proceed further in my tight timeline. So with out wasting any more time, I went ahead with the next steps.
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Design
In an ideal scenario with more time and more research done, I would start with sketching and and try to include users with some methods like ‘thinking aloud’ or ‘participatory design’. I used Keynote to build these wireframes. One of my favorite and easy tool to build wireframes.
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Deliver / Implement
I went back to the users i spoke to previously and tested these wireframes with them. After deciding it’s worth moving forward, I went ahead and made high fidelity mockups with Sketch.
Outcomes & Lessons
I would have done a little more research given the time and resources.
I would have read more about why Whatsapp did not include that feature. Whether that was part of the feasibility matrix and was in the pipeline.
I would have done some competitive analysis to check if any other messaging apps have a similar problem and how did they address it. Would be helpful in sketching phase.
• To deliver the designs, we had to publish the hi-fi mockups on twitter with their hashtag within 24 hours. I managed to do that.
• Whatsapp has released this feature with its recent update in 2019. Here are some screenshots from the actual app.
