SIGNAL

Follow the Ethical Brick Road

Together with one other UX Design student, I worked on a group conceptual project for the ethical messaging app - Signal. Signal is an open source, independent non-profit organisation.

Offering a more ethical alternative to WhatsApp and Facebook, Signal offers users end-to-end encryption as well as other in-app privacy features.

In a hurry? Click Go to Solution to see my final product and key learnings.

Go to Solution

NEW FEATURE & APP REDESIGN | 2 WEEKS

Elie-Pierre Bassil, Louise Aron (me)

THE BRIEF

Tasked with the opportunity to attract new users to the app through the creation of a community feature. The idea being to allow users to connect with like-minded people from all over the world, engage in valuable conversations.

MY ROLE

As a pair, we were a great team, regularly communicating with each other and making sure we met our deadlines, often with time to spare. For this project, I took a lead in Facilitation, Affinity Mapping, Personas, Presentation Synthesis and Development.

DELIVERABLES

• User & Competitor Research
• Personas & Scenarios
• User Journeys
• User Flows & Screen Flows
• Product Sketches & Wireframes

• Usability Tests
• High Fidelity Prototype
• Presentation

DISCOVER

When conducting the competitor analysis of this project, we wanted to take into account both the messaging and community based platforms/apps as we were keen to give Signal’s existing messaging platform a bit of a redesign with our new community-centred feature.

After the recent Facebook/WhatsApp security breach allegations, we see a significant business opportunity for Signal to target a market of people who want to connect and meet with people without an infringement on their privacy and data.

SURVEY BREAKDOWN

“For the majority of the above [apps/platforms], there’s very little that makes them unique. It’s just the number of friends you have, anchors you to a platform.”

“I want it to be secure, private and easy to use. I don't want all of the flashy bits and bobs, I just need it to be able to send messages and gifs.”

USER INTERVIEWS & INSIGHTS

We conducted 8 semi-structured interviews. Spanning an age range of 24-40. Our research showed us that communities are, on the whole, really important for users to be a part of. We noted three interesting splits in insights:

Some users are more active and want to participate and lead, others want to observe and learn remaining passive.

62% of participants were privacy-conscious, 38% of participants were unbothered by poor privacy regulations.

The majority of interviewees liked to monitor their screen time. The split came down to those who wanted forced screen breaks or limits and those who did not like this at all.

"Even though we are doing everything remotely, Slack feels like even though we are separated, we are kind of together."

"I actively use these communities to read and observe and sometimes ask questions."

"WhatsApp has limitations and I don't understand it's privacy thing but it doesn't feel really safe."

DEFINE

Personas

With these splits in the research, it seemed necessary to create a primary and secondary persona and therefore two different sets of problem statements.

Andrew the Go-getter, being the most active and extrovert character. He’s keen to create communities and get involved with new groups, as well as using screen breaks to keep himself productive. Michael, the Social Butterfly on the other hand, is slightly more introverted, he is more passive on group chats, however still likes to get involved.

Andrew needs a place to combine messaging his friends and family and to connect with his communities.

Andrew needs a way to manage his screen time so that he can be productive and present in his current tasks.

Andrew needs a way to efficiently read through and summarise the numerous notifications he receives.

Michael needs an app that combines live messaging with community features in a simple, private and secure way because he isn't having a satisfying experience with his current apps.

Michael needs to find an app that combines messaging and community features with great efficiency while having the peace of mind of privacy and safety because he is lost between all his apps.

Sketches

DEVELOP

We conducted two rounds of usability testing, one round on sketches and second round on the mid-fidelity wireframes.

Key iterations:

Removal of split screen

It wasn’t clear to users to have the split screen on the homepage and the rest of the screens had the chat/community tab at the top. We decided to stick with one clear design pattern, which was the tabbing.

Onboarding

At the beginning, we added onboarding to further explain the new feature. There was confusion amongst users between search and browse on communities page. It was clear from the research that the users needed that extra clarification and then it would be evident for them the next time.

Bringing attention to message summarisation

Users were not choosing to click on the notification icon that allowed them to see a summary of their messages. Therefore, we added a summary button below their notifications, so that it would be easier for users to see a summary of their missed messages. When users saw this feature, they found it valuable and unique, as this organisation element is missing from most messaging apps.

DELIVER

Click the play button to view the Hi-Fi prototype

Signal Solution

SOLUTION

This solution meets the brief by creating an ethical community feature that allows users to create, browse and join communities in-app alongside their personal messages.

Andrew would use the feature to create a community for his free coaching programme, and browse the new communities for his hobbies and passions he enjoys.
He would also take advantage of the message summarisation element added at the beginning of app journey, so he can receive quick updates from both his communities and his personal chats.
Michael on the other hand, would like the simplicity of the app and only join the groups he’s truly interested in.
The message summarisation element would also be key for him, so he does not have to spend too much time on the app and can receive a quick and easy update on the chats and communities he cares most about.

NEXT STEPS

If we were to continue working on this project, these are the next steps we would put into action:

Colour A/B testing
Add more information regarding admin background
Establish identity verification process
Improve and test screen time feature

KEY LEARNINGS

Focus on the MVP

This project taught me the importance of prioritisation. We derived lots of interesting solutions from our user insights that we had to remind ourselves to focus on the more essential features needed by the users.

There are never too many insights!

This project gathered an incredible number of insights that really shaped our project. At first, we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of insights, but we took it in our stride and created a very intricate and detailed affinity map.