Our team of three designers were contracted by Thready Inc. through General Assembly to investigate the apparent usability issues of the social messaging app. Taking on the challenge, our team identified pain points in the interactions that prevents meeting the metric.
user adoption and conversion
lead user researcher
lead designer
project lead
client project
iOS application redesign
oct - nov 2019 — from testing to designing
problem
Messages get buried
Text messaging is fun until messages get buried and become impossible to find. Thready was created to reimagine texting by storing topics in a chain of threads so texts will never be buried again. However, the app is experiencing a low sign up conversion from users.
solution
Optimize user adaption to new features
To streamline the onboarding experience and repurpose existing features to help ease user adoption.
research
Learning about messaging behaviors
Because social networking and messaging is so popularized, our team curated a questionnaire to survey users’ messaging habits and gauge user interest. Our team received 26 web responses.
Issues in the current flow
From gathering insights to user messaging habits, we validated broader themes through a series of task analyzes.
How Might We compell users to adapt to the use of and sign up for the app?
ideate
Repurposing features into a new flow
After 16 usability tests and 5 interations, our team revised the flow. Pen and paper in hand, we went off to sketch. I curated a storyline for the feature onboarding experience.
make a good first impression
Users expressed privacy concerns where they felt violated by the abrupt permissions in the sign-up process, wanted to understand why they were asked, and what benefits they’d gain. Opening up a new app is the same as making a good first impression. Our tactic to resolve the issues is to maintain transparency.
consider what is intuitive
The current landing page mimics the UI of the iOS messenger app. Yet, our tests indicated users were often confused about how to navigate between pages because the app has more features compared to a standard iOS messenger. To strengthen the landing page layout, we ideated on a navigation system that’ll be intuitive and eliminate learning errors.
grouping is important
Another conflict we realized was many users misinterpreted where and how to access their chat settings because of the thread feature Thready uniquely adds to the messaging experience. Distinguishing a level of hierarchy between chat settings eases a general feeling of complication on users when operating the chatroom.
visual design
Playing with colors
Now that we built a voice, we want users to be able to visualize Thready and give the app personality.
summary
Condense the cognitive load
A minimal aesthetic does not equate to a simple interface but rather, an app is considered simple when users find its functional use intuitive. While Thready had a minimalistic interface, users found the features complicated. The initial flow introduced the application to the user through a series of one-time instructions. The distinction between chats vs threads was a new concept that are unfamiliar to the user. Dissecting the application allowed me to appreciate the use of conventional affordances and signifiers in communicating an action to users.