It’s not that you are screening…
you are just too busy to keep track
My name is Mijal Lebel; I’m a freelance graphic designer (UX/UI) and a student in the advanced UI/UX Digital product design course lead by
Sagi Shrieber.
I wrote this Case Study about WhatsApp as part of the course, trying to think of a solution for a daily problem.
WhatsApp as a communication tool
With its entrance to the market in 2009, with over 1.5 billion of daily active users in 180 countries, WhatsApp is considered the first of the 7 most used messaging apps in the world (according to INC.com) including Facebook Messenger, Viber, and telegram.
The app made its undisputed status as a communication tool, filling the gap between a need for an immediate answer through direct means of communication (as a phone call) and between something not as urgent (like emails). WhatsApp is more instant. It makes sure the other person gets the message, but it has that understanding that it is not a case of life and death.
Making messaging and communication as easy as ever with online features, social media up-to-date features, and availability.
Game changing in human interaction
Entering the market as an online tool for communication, WhatsApp had its downfalls. Additional cues that gave users the ability to enhance their everyday communication (like “last seen” “online” “typing..” and the blue checkmarks as well) were also the cause of incorrectly interpretation of a delivery confirmation and as a statement itself, causing psychological damage in human interaction, affecting our social life .. Who is screening me? Why don’t they answer if they saw my message?
We all experienced it once; A relationship in struggle due to miscommunication, feeling rejected, isolated, even anxiety waiting for an unanswered message that has been read. We develop trust issues for a message that just might have been forgotten for all those times we’ve been screened and ghosted. These are all negative implications of basically not dealing with reality and bad implementation of user experience.
Additional cues that gave users the ability to enhance their everyday communication were also the cause of incorrect interpretation causing psychological damage in human interaction.
We can understand that though WhatsApp is a very comfortable and a status quo for communication, it needs to be handled delicately with all that concerns human interaction.
Lack of intonation, time issues, and the power of ghosting are things to consider while communicating.
Prioritizing
We all know Generation Y is addicted to being busy. We are in a constant search for our next fulfillment, constantly on the roll, with busy schedules. As part of FOMO, we are constantly connected to our phones, checking new messages (average for checking your WhatsApp messages is 23 times per day). But do we really have time to answer all of them? We priorities for what’s urgent and what can wait, knowing that an immediate answer is mostly not expected; otherwise they would have called.
Prioritizing in WhatsApp
Right now we have several features inside WhatsApp for prioritizing.
You can mark as unread with a quite prominent green mark which you aren’t likely to miss.
You can star a message, and have it saved on the side for later.
The missing messages
WhatsApp prioritizing features are all fine for times you are entirely “on it”, organizing and controlling your time.
But what about those instant moments of lack of attention that you miss to answer? Those brief moments of distraction, We all have them. I can imagine at least two scenarios in which I’m likely to miss a message.
- You get a bunch of messages at the same time. You were off the phone for a while, let it be a meeting or a yoga class or even just a “no phones on the table” coffee with friends. Once you get back to your phone you already got flooded with messages, some of them got under your screen fold. You end up answering those who are sight reachable and move on with your day leaving those hidden messages unattended.
2. You get a message; you read it hot from the oven because you want to know what it is about you are curious and want to understand the urgency of the matter. It’s your friend asking you at what time should you meet tomorrow. Then your colleague asks you something important about your presentation. You leave the message unconsciously/ distractedly because you already shot down that fire alert in your head letting you know it is not urgent. After all, it is just tomorrow, you can answer her a bit later.
It happens to be that a bit later you get into this long meeting which absolutely dries your memory. Then there’s yoga class, and groceries and your WhatsApp feed has already been filled with a bunch of other messages.
At the end of the day, your friend is kind of angry. She sees you are connected, and you ended up completely ignoring her. Now, she is your friend and might be a bit more understanding. But what about other situations which make you look less professional, less trustworthy?
Possible solutions
Here are a few ideas for getting those missing messages right back into the track. They are all based on prioritizing as a keyword.
- Nudge for unread messages
Do you know how Gmail reminds you of emails that haven’t been answered by a “reply” or “follow up” message? Well reminding for every message that has been read and not answered on WhatsApp can be quite disturbing. But reminding for those unread can be quite useful. You don’t need any disturbing popup notifications,
but as you enter the app, you will see at the top of your list the unread messages with a prominent remainder, that will appear one hour after receiving the message.
You can dismiss this feature through settings. Of course, this won’t apply to groups as the target of this feature is to help you get out of discomfort and not dive into endless conversations:)
2. FIFO
Those messages you didn’t replay (chances are 50–50) will be at the top of your feed, right after unread ones. Prioritize your feed with no need for action. Those messages ending up with you as the last word will go down after those with the other side as the previous word. That will increase the chances of you not missing out answering messages.
3. Filter
Adding the filter settings will boost to the top of your feed messages that haven’t been answered consisted with common question words. Basically, it is a filter consisting of words like “do,” “want,” “where,” “what,” “how,” “who,” and question marks. This will help to keep them from hiding.
Final result
Points to consider while building the solution:
- The average time expected to get an answer on a messaging communication tool
- Is time indicator a real factor in the daily use of WhatsApp? How many people actually look at the time the message arrived (put aside cases where you have to know the time). Is moving the chronological order of messages going to cause a chaos set of mind?
In conclusion
If we keep prioritizing in our head our day constantly, there shouldn’t be a reason for WhatsApp not to help us.
In my search to solve a subconscious problem, I had to think of an automated solution, one that doesn’t require the user to take action. Therefore I didn’t add any feature but changed the way of thinking of the program, helping it prioritize for more chances of success.
A simple rule implemented with obvious restraints to keep order and avoid a chaos set of mind. We don’t need to move the cheese too far. It’s the small ones that make the change:)
That’s all for now, hope you liked my case study.
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