UX Deep Dive
Meetup for Whatsapp
May 2023
Project Details
My Role:
Product Designer
Project Duration:
2 Months
Team
Person 1 (Their Role)
Person 2 (Role 2)
Person 3 (Third person role)
Project Overview
During my time at university I was given a design brief to create a collaborative feature within the existing WhatsApp application that allowed users to better plan and make group decisions. There currently is no existing feature outside of "polls" which allow for this kind of collaboration. The result is a new feature I called Meetup which aims to bridge the gap between digital and physical collaboration.
This project was completed over a 12 week period with key milestones set by the university. I was personally in charge of research, design and strategy.
CONTEXT
Taking Whatsapp to the next level
The problem I tried to solve
WhatsApp has become a worldwide tool for communication but lacks the ability for users to collaborate; forcing them to rely on integrations or other software.
To be successful in this project, the solution would seamlessly offer users a new way to use WhatsApp, but not feel out of place in the current framework.
The result
After completing the design process, the end result was a new feature called Meetup. Meetup allows users to create an event, send an invite to their group chat where users can then input their availability. Meetup will then determine the optimal time for the event to take place and notify the host, who can then confirm. Once an event is created, an Event Hub is created where all messages, decisions and information is managed on one screen.
PROCESS
Whatsapp has more potential than ever
WhatsApp has become a worldwide tool for communication but lacks the ability for users to collaborate; forcing them to rely on integrations or other software. To be successful in this project, the solution would seamlessly offer users a new way to use WhatsApp, but not feel out of place in the current framework.
How I unleashed it
After completing the design process, the end result was a new feature called Meetup. Meetup allows users to create an event, send an invite to their group chat where users can then input their availability. Meetup will then determine the optimal time for the event to take place and notify the host, who can then confirm. Once an event is created, an Event Hub is created where all messages, decisions and information is managed on one screen.
Uncovering the problem
1
Working closely with users to solve OUR problem
Interviews were undertaken with existing Whatsapp users to undercover how they are currently using the service. I asked them specifically - what do you wish this app could do? Giving an open ended question to these users allowed them to run free with their imagination and create a collaborative problem solving environment.
Overall 15 interviews were conducted which lead to key information which was then used to generate personas
2
Identifying who we are building for
I was ultimately solving for 2 different types of users - Planners and attendees. People can absolutely be both but it was important to characterise each type of behaviour before I could build out a flow of how each event would take place. Personas were developed to understand how they might behave when encountering these issues.
3
Mapping out non-negotiables
Once I had all this information, I could start to understand what was going to be required from the feature to ultimately solve the problem I was solving for. I prioritised using an affinity map and categorised each into these sections: Users, Needs, Possible Ideas, Barriers.
Development
As mentioned earlier, I was designing for two polar opposite types of people. I wanted to workshop the way that each different person would interact with Meetup so I created user scenarios that were later used to develop the UI flow of the feature.
With this information workshopped, I could start to look at how this would translate into screens, actions and user feedback.
This is where I had my first drawback
I struggled during this process to understand how I was going to integrate the idea, backed up by research, into the existing framework of the app. It was crucial that the new features and user flow was familiar to the existing Whatsapp user base. To solve for this, I spent hours researching the current interaction flow used by Whatsapp as well as their design system. After a small detour back to the research phase, I decided that the flow would best fit within the existing options at the bottom of the chat screen and later become a non-intrusive banner once the event was created.
I created user flows around this idea, eager to test with users.
