Slack is a communication software many companies and organizations use for internal communication. However, it’s very easy for new users to get confused and make mistakes.
When people see this page, their first impression of the app is usually not bad. It’s in general a nicely designed and developed application. The navigation bar with all chats and channels is placed on the left, with a darker background; and the main chat body is placed in the middle with white background to make it very readable. Commonly used icons, such as a gear for “setting” and an “i” in a circle for information, are used well.
So why many users get frustrated? I think it’s because the app’s lack of attention to details and research on users’ habits.
First of all, many new users don’t understand the concept of “workspace”, and they get even more confused when they need to add a “workspace” in their app. The “sign in to another workspace” option when you have only one workspace is “hidden” just like any other settings under the name of the current workspace with no obvious visual cue to indicate its importance and most new users will miss it.
Even the website for you to add workspaces isn’t clear if you aren’t familiar with their language. And only when you have two workspace or more, a separate navigation bar will show up on the far left for you to choose from.
Second, many details in the app aren’t thought through. For myself and many friends I interviewed, the plus icon next “Channels” should be for joining new channels, but it actually leads to the page for creating a new channel, which most users in a team don’t need to do.
Also on the left, the layout can make people think “Invite People” is part of the options for “Direct Message”. But the button actually leads you to invite someone new in the workspace.
I think the reason why Slack is designed this way is to promote the workspace and its system. The designers might want users to create more channels by putting the create channels feature at somewhere people might turn to when they want to join a channel; or they want you to get used to using workspace and having this idea of a virtual office space for different departments.
This is also the biggest constraints in its design, brand image. They want you to understand their relatively new concept that everything is stored in a workspace, every resources in different websites are linked , and you can edit what you can see instead of deleting or adding, except for sending your new channels and messages.
Another constraints, or more like reason, why slack is designed this way is audience. My professor in another class told me she used to be in charge of teaching new employees how to use slack in her old company. She said although many new users are confused, the app is mostly used in a professional setting where users are somewhat trained and tech support is directly available.
The app excels in efficiency and its ability to link to other applications, and is probably why it’s still widely used among companies. But it’s easy for new users and casual users to make mistakes, it needs to improve its learnability, memorability, and affordance by conducting more user research and laying out elements according to users’ mental model.
Fixing the design of Slack without changing its workspace system are only small changes, but small changes can greatly improve new user’s experience. For example, the workspace options should be displayed at all times on the far left to clearly indicate the workspace you are in and how to add more than one workspace.
And by changing the plus icon on the right of “Channels” from meaning creating a new channel to joining a channel can save many confused users.
Also, by changing phrases like “Invite People” to “Invite People to this workspace” would make the app a lot easier to use.
