Overview

Title

Messenger Redesign

Summary 

A self-guided project motivated by frustration with the Messenger app. This was a "could I do this any better?" experiment. Because this is a personal project, it does not reflect nor account for the business and technical constraints.

Date

January 2018

Tools + Skills

Discovery research, heuristic analysis, rapid prototyping, Illustrator

Challenge

Users are getting distracted and lost on Messenger. Navigation and the affordance of different features is unclear.  Creating and finding messages is not streamlined and users struggle to determine the status of messages.

Process

I first identified the most pervasive pain points from App Store and Google Play reviews. Then, I observed a first time user and a returning user on the current Messenger app while being asked to perform specific tasks.

Based on findings from the online and in-person research, I created mockups and paper prototypes. These designs intended to resolve navigation, ambiguity issues and interface clutter.

Next, I asked users who had been interviewed previously to test some paper prototypes. I timed users as they completed a series of tasks. Additionally, I transcribed their reactions and comments. These results informed more finalized digital wireframes.