GroupMe Concept: Designing Efficient Group Sharing
Like many college students, I am in many clubs on campus. from Acapella groups to business clubs, group chats are an essential part of effective communication and keeping everyone in the loop. We use GroupMe to accommodate every phone user, even those who still have flip phones.
GroupMe simplifies the communication for users who have different operating systems for their phones and laptop can still access the group chat using one device.
But it becomes hard to use because:
- Users need to manually add each member for them to join
- The process is not user-friendly and hard to navigate
GroupMe is not user-friendly
Going into this, my original hypothesis was: if GroupMe made its features easier to navigate, users would be more comfortable with using the platform. With this, I set out to understand other people's experience with the application.
User Research
After interviewing three people, I found that the common ground between them was the difficulty with the user design of GroupMe — specifically, they can only manually add each member to a group chat, and the process of group sharing/joining is not user-friendly and hard to navigate.
Being able to find how the user’s text was displayed versus how it was displayed for everyone else is a major pain point for my interviewees, as they were often frustrated with not knowing where they were when communication in a larger group setting.
Another major concern was the lack of functionality for the platform, as it only serves as a rudimentary communication platform with no way of replying, adding files, searching within chats, etc that other platforms have.
Market Research — examining what other platforms are doing right
One contender for GroupMe is WeChat, the most widely used messaging apps in China. It is the only platform that allows you to create group chats with up to 500 people and use this app without any yearly membership fee.
You can have the ability to video/audio chat across many users, and even transfer/make purchases with the app if you link it to your bank account, replacing the need to bring a wallet or even a bank card.
What can GroupMe change?
Through user and market research, I discovered this.
Users would like a universal, professional communication platform, but they need more functionality and flexibility in GroupMe’s features, as well as a more user-friendly design/navigation.
To pinpoint exactly which feature GroupMe should improve, I did some brainstorming with other frustrated GroupMe users (aka my friends).
Solution Spaces
Together, we came up with three solution spaces to my original problem.
- Improving/adding text features — I chose this solution space because there were many features that would give users more freedom in communicating with others. (Some ideas: Reactions to messages, reply to messages in a large group, add files into a group chat)
- Improving visuals/user interface — I chose this because the visuals of the app was not appealing enough and could have a much better aesthetic which would give users more incentive to use this app. (Some ideas: be able to right justify own message and left justify all others, rounding the messages to break up “blockiness”, add search bar to find specific images, files, messages, or people)
- Increase engagement — I chose this because GroupMe is not as often checked and there could be more efficient ways for users to navigate this app to attract more traffic on the app. (Some ideas: QR codes/access codes for users to join groups on their own without being needed to be invited)
Making group sharing so much easier
Through feedback and brainstorming, I decided to focus on the last solution space, which is to implement the feature of QR codes/access codes for users to join groups on their own without being needed to be invited.
The implementation of this feature makes it unique to other communication apps in that it simplifies the way users can join groups as well as group creators from manually adding each member, which is often something that other platforms do not have.
Drawing out my solutions
I have also considered some additional features that are small but essential to improve efficiency and user experience in group creating and sharing. For example, users should be able to scan QR code saved to Images as well, as scanning may be used with two users (where one holds the QR code and the other scans to join) but will be difficult for a singular user.
Creating a method to facilitate sharing groups
I chose this flow because it encapsulates what I want to achieve with this feature, which is ease of access in sharing the group as well as decrease redundancy of adding group members for the group creator.
In comparison to my other flows, it has a clear QR code that people can immediately scan on their phone if they are close to the group creator, and is also able to be shared via more common applications as well.
Looking at the flip-side — how will users join the groups?
Making the process EVEN easier
Since most of my research has been about how to improve user experience by increasing efficiency in group creation as well as group sharing. I wanted to explore and focus on bettering the feature so that it has a more prominent role in the app, as well as making it easier to access and clearer to use. Specifically, I added flows that help users share and join groups even faster.
Final interaction for group joining and sharing
The final interaction includes all the criteria that I identified in the beginning and solves one of the key pain points for users of GroupMe. Here are the final features that I implemented:
- Share a group by swiping left on a group to immediately display the sharing QR code
- Adding a share button under the QR code that leads to other methods of sharing, which declutters the page and simplifies the user experience
- Using join groups by scanning a physical QR code through the camera on Groupme. Or access saved QR codes in camera roll!
Conclusion
GroupMe still has many features that need to be improved upon, but exploring how to effectively streamline the user experience for group sharing is a great way for GroupMe to make the user experience more fluid and easier to access.
This was my very first project regarding product design and UI/UX for Intro to Digital Product Design. Despite the initial learning curve, I feel I have learned a lot about how to design and implement features that feel intuitive to users because they are so simple to use.
I am a sophomore at Cornell majoring in Applied Economics and Management and Information Science. I am interested in pursueing a career in project management and hope to continue to focus on product design and programming in the futue.
