How we re-designed Snapchat for the users, by the users
This is Project 3 of my journey in GA. UXI10 has not been an easy journey but one that is getting increasingly enjoyable as we are getting more familiar with the process of user-centric design.
We had one simple mission
Make Snapchat Tastier for the Users.
Step 1: Write down the ingredient list for our grocery shopping.
The step first was the hardest of them all. We weren’t familiar to Snapchat and we weren’t their target audience. I mean, I was, till they Instagram made stories and it was better than Snapchat.
For those of you who don’t know what Snapchat is, it’s an application which focuses on image-based personal messaging. It started as a platform where youngsters could send candid pictures to their friends and initiate casual conversation with one another. With it’s informal, unfiltered vibe, it grew very popular with teens across the world that gave them a platform to express themselves easily.
Normally, you would google if you didn’t know the ingredients, so that’s exactly what we did. What we got was a vague range that looked like this:
In essence, 89% of Singaporeans between the age of 11 to 24 has tried Snapchat before.
At this point, we went scrambling around our contact list to find out the current users of Snapchat and the ‘past’ users to find out what made them ‘move on’.
Step 2: Go to the grocery shopping (This is the hardest part because most grocery shops have insanely unjustified air-condition temperature)
We managed to find many users that were in-frequent users within the age range of 19 and above whereas we found that the most frequent, almost daily users were below the age of 19 in our sample size.
Meet Dutch Caramel!
Dutch Caramel encapsulates our first persona which is a young user who uses Snapchat as a mean to communicate. Think WhatsApp/Line/KaKao talk. Having a steak with a friend was important and our group wanted to focus our improvements on her experiences with Direct Messaging and how we could make it better.
Meet Vanilla!
Vanilla was our representation of our second persona which is a ‘older’ user who used to use Snapchat for stories function. Think Instagram ‘stories’. With Instagram being more popular, she didn’t care for Snapchat any longer but she uses it because she’s in a Snapchat group.
Step 3: Cutting our ingredients!! (What did we learn?!)
To focus on 3 main areas of Snapchat that makes our personas very happy in their nature of use.
- Viewing a story
- Personal messaging
- Discovering new content
Step 4: Adding the first ingredient, Veggies
How did we improve viewing a story?
We re-designed the layout as many users were complaining regarding the latest update being ‘confusing’.
So we brought it back! Stories on the right and chats on the left.
There were some other minor changes but you can talk a look yourself if you want! (link will be at the bottom of this story)
Step 5: Adding the second ingredient, Pieces of Meat
Many times, our users had a problem with sending a picture and then forgetting what they’ve sent. As simple as this sounds, why haven’t Snapchat added this function where you can view/save your own last sent Snap?!
Nothing says “ME” as much as the songs that we listen to. With the Shazam function being promoted, we implemented a song feature by your latest Shazam via Snapchat.
Step 6: Adding the final ingredient, diced onions
From our user interviews, we found that users often saved thousands of pictures on end with never having to go back to reminisce the happy ol’ days’.
So why not bring the reminisce to them, in a form of a weekly snap?
Step 7: Enjoying the final product, stirred fried meat with veggies and onions
You can look through our presentation deck here.
Reflections
Having had this P3 with Snapchat, a platform which I abandoned with the new implementation of stories on Instagram, I found it very interesting to study the social dynamics behind social media platforms. It went much more beyond “my friends use it”. Having said that, digging deeper just gets more uncomfortable for the interviewees so be prepared because…
How do you explain why you use WhatsApp/KaKao Talk/Line?
ANDDDDDD as a new User Experience Researcher, we did over 3 rounds of testing, each round levelling up our fidelity, and adjusting our prototype according to our feedback. No feedback, No improvement. In the end, we are just the designers, not the users.
Found it interesting?
Shoot me an email at jackchu.yw@gmail.com if you want to hear more!