WhatsApp status: Additional Feature — UX case study

User Researcher

Prototyper

UI Designer

Figma

Brief: This new feature enables WhatsApp users to easily share status updates with multiple groups, eliminating the need to select contacts individually each time.

🏃🏻‍♂️For people who are in a hurry! You can watch this prototype!

📌Problem Statement

The current version of WhatsApp status works in a manner where if a user wants to share their status to their friends and relatives, they must have to select the contacts to whom they want to share with. It provides with three options, namely.

1. My Contacts — shares to all your saved contacts.

2. My contacts except… — share with all of your contacts except for the ones you choose not to share with.

3. Only share with… — shares only with the contacts you choose to share with.

Options available in the current version of WhatsApp

Imagine that I need to share important information forwarded by my college on my status. This information should only be visible to my collegemates (Consider that I have over 150+ collegemates contacts). Once more, I will have to navigate to the WhatsApp Status Privacy settings and choose all my college mates while excluding all other contacts.

The following day, I need to post the photos from the trip I took with my girlfriend on my status, and I only want my college friends to see them (Consider that I have over 100+ friends contacts). So, I will go to the WhatsApp Status Privacy settings and opt out all the contacts who do not wish to view my status. These actions will be occurred in numerous situations, which will undoubtedly lead to frustration for the users.

So, I conducted a small research within my friends and family circle to determine whether they are also experiencing this issue or if it’s just me.

🔎Research

Before, starting my research, I had prepared a set of questions to ask myself.

Am I the only one facing this issue?

If not, how do others feel about this feature in the current version?

Will my proposed solution provide adequate justification for all age groups of WhatsApp users?

How might the suggested solution impact the app’s functionality?

Therefore, I approached some of my friends and professors to conduct user interviews and gathered their perspectives on this matter. For each of them, I crafted a user persona by comprehending their pain points and fundamental needs.

👨‍🦰User Personas

User Persona of Darunya S - App Developer

User Persona of Muthuvel Pandian — College Professor

User Persona of Madhumitha — Content Creator

💡My Proposed Solution

Having analyzed all the user feedback, I have crafted a preliminary sketch for the proposed solution. The solution entails providing users with the option to create categories or status groups based on their audience, enabling them to share their statuses with a single click.

I have created a user flow for this solution without effecting the current flow of the application. As per Jakob’s law,

Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

What if I have created an entirely separate flow for this? — Users will need time to understand the new flow and become familiar with it. However, incorporating a small feature into the existing flow will not impact the application’s usage.

🗺️User Flow

User flow of the Solution

📝Low Fidelity Wireframe

Wireframes for the proposed solution

📱Final Screens

Screen 1

Screen 2–4: Creating a category flow.

Screen 4 — Choose the category to post status.

Creating a category is very simple for the users, as the process flows similarly to creating a new group on WhatsApp. Since users are already familiar with creating groups, they can easily create categories independently, without requiring any assistance or guidance. Even a tutorial is unnecessary to teach them.

🎨Final Designs in a gallery view

Gallery View of all the screens.

A question might be asked regarding the ‘Creating a category flow’.

The question will be “The users have to select the participants for every category they want to create right? Will this not take time or frustrates the users?”

My answer is “yes”. Users need to select their participants before creating a category. Imagine that choosing the group of participants only once before posting statuses is much easier than selecting participants every single time.

🚀Result

The questions which I have asked to myself during my research process is now got cleared with this proposed solution.

Question 1: Am I the only one facing this issue?

Answer: No, most of the users face this same issue but in different scenarios.

Question 2: How do others feel about this feature in the current version?

Answer: By analyzing user personas and conducting user interviews, we can comprehend the users’ pain points and core needs.

Question 3: Will my proposed solution provide adequate justification for all age groups of WhatsApp users?

Answer: Yes, this solution will help people of all age groups who share their statuses regularly and have a large set of audience.

Question 4: How might the suggested solution impact the app’s functionality?

Answer: Since I have designed the flow of this feature without affecting the existing workflow, the functionality will not exhibit significant differences. Users can utilize this feature without encountering difficulties or requiring assistance.

Inconclusion, this case study presents an innovative concept feature for WhatsApp status updates, streamlining the process of sharing with multiple groups. By addressing the common frustration of selecting contacts individually, the proposed solution introduces a user-friendly categorization system. Through thorough user research and thoughtful design, the solution maintains familiarity while enhancing efficiency. With a clear user flow and intuitive interface, users of all age groups can seamlessly manage their status sharing, ultimately enhancing their experience without disrupting the app’s functionality.