messenger
This was my capstone project as part of the Ivey Product Society Fellowship. Facebook Messenger is one of my most used products, so I explored ways to better organize my messages.
TEAM
Sabrina Wen
MY ROLE
UX/UI Design
Product Strategy
User Research
TOOLS
Figma
Miro
TIMELINE
January 2022 — May 2022
01 | THE CHALLENGE
How might we improve productivity while on the app?
How might we improve the organization of messages and content sent?
02 | SOLUTION
Adding a tagging system to organize messages and billboard to view tags
journey down to discover the process ▾
03 | MISSION ALGINMENT
not just a messaging app
As part of Meta’s cross-app communication, Messenger differentiates itself as a shared place to customize and express what’s on your mind and share content and experiences. For my product, I focused on the pillars of customization and expression. With over 126 million users just in North America alone, the goal is to boost stickiness and retention of the product for current users by providing a message organization feature that can enhance the user experience.
04 | PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
user interviews
I conducted four discovery user interviews with Messenger users to understand how they use the app and any pain points they may experience.
Key takeaways:
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Messenger offers an optimized space to communicate and coordinate but not to DO work. Any new features should be designed in a way that is easier to use and follow the app's current simple UI.
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The root problem is related to the disorganization of messages. This leads to further challenges such as harder to make decisions with missing pieces of information, harder to plan with information getting lost, and difficult to coordinate with larger groups
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Messenger is flooded with different chats with everything in one place, making it hard to keep track and differentiate conversations
target audience
The primary audience are users who are active in small (3-6 members) to medium (6-20 members) to large (20+ members) group chats. User groups can range in age, from teenagers to millennials, however post-secondary students like Tommy are the primary users.
The primary audience are users who are active in small (3-6 members) to medium (6-20 members) to large (20+ members) group chats. User groups can range in age, from teenagers to millennials, however post-secondary students like Tommy are the primary users.
The second audience is Messenger itself with the goal of improving the user experience and reducing feelings of being overwhelmed or frustrated. This includes streamlining the process to find important or urgent messages, so users can focus on prioritized work, maximizing productive communication for the user while using the app, and improving stickiness of product.
current experience
Users currently have the option to access files, media, and links on the mobile version; however, the limitation to the feature is that users are unable to further categorize messages into actionable prompts (ie. tasks, events etc).
05 | SOLUTION DETAILS
value proposition
By providing users with a method to organize messages, they will experience increased convenience, effectiveness and efficiency when communicating in groups.
key features
Message Tagging System
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Users can categorize messages by adding custom tags when sending the message
Billboard
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Similar to "pinned" messages, users can view a compilation of all tags that can be edited (delete unnecessary tags, reorder tags) on the Billboard
prototype
06 | REFLECTION & NEXT STEPS
be bold and ambitious
At the end of the project, I had the opportunity to showcase my work during the Annual Ivey Product Fellowship Review Day. I presented to a panel comprising of experienced product managers, fellow peers, and mentors, including a Meta product manager. The feedback I received was invaluable, particularly their emphasis on being more bold and ambitious in leveraging technologies to create a personalized user experience. Considering Meta’s prominent position in pioneering emerging technologies, why not think bigger? For example, instead of relying on manual user input for message organization, AI could be employed to autonomously sort messages based on their content. This current state is a good V1, but has a lot of room for exploration in order to align with Meta's technological capabilities.
07 | KEY LEARNINGS
advocating for the user
As much as I had the chance to work on mobile designs skills in Figma, my biggest takeaway was practicing how to advocate for the user and pinpoint their root problem. This led me to learn about concepts such as “jobs to be done” and various frameworks that helped me analyze user pain points more effectively.