Usability, Accessibility, and Ethics

The usability in the ease to use the interface. The accessibility is the ease of every interaction for people with disabilities. Ethics are the values that a product, service or the company carries as a brand. The product could be appealing, but if the user is not able to use it, then it loses its usability.

WhatsApp allows the sending of text messages, voice calls, video calls, images, documents, user location and voice notes. The service uses the user’s cell phone number to run on a mobile device and desktop computer.

Usability:

There are five categories of usability heuristics: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction. Learnability in WhatApp is very easy because it has a very clear interface. It is easy to understand and use the features. When a user wants to use the app, they have to save a contact in their contact list and their contact information will automatically be added to the WhatsApp contact list. This feature makes messaging easy for the user which satisfies the learnability category. WhatsApp is efficient because it delivers the message in one click. If the user receives a voice note, the message is displayed with the speaker icon, making it understandable. The memorability category is achieved by the Archive chat feature. The messages, pictures, video and voice notes can be sores in WhappApp archive section.

When it comes to minimizing errors, Whatsapp gives its user an option to delete recently sent messages. This reduces the frustration of the user and gives the satisfaction of having control of the messages he by accident sends.

The whole interface is designed in six colors which makes it simple to find the right feature. The bolded heading text helps with easy recognition of the current page. The gray highlighted search bar right below it allows the user to find the contacts and group easily. The blue color is used for displaying time and number of messages received. The missed calls are shown in red and the messages sent are shown in gray and green. These distinct color identifications are easily understandable.

Accessibility

The voice over feature can be integrated with WhatsApp. This gives an edge to the visually impaired person to be an independent user.

Dark Patterns

Dark patterns are tricks used in websites and apps that make you buy or sign up for things you didn’t mean to.

As the extensive WhatApp user, I don’t see any dark patterns while using the app, but found the hidden dark pattern when downloading the app. There’s a surprisingly hidden option related to sharing your account information with the Facebook group of companies. The user has the option to opt-out, but the default setting is set to share. I know first-hand that most users will agree without reading. I would classify this as a dark pattern since it’s effectively hiding options regarding your privacy.