Case study: WhatsApp usage by Gen X in India

Vaishnav Ramayan

Published in

Bootcamp

7 min readOct 12, 2020

What is GenX ? 🤔

Gen X was born between 1965 and 1980 and are currently between 40–55 years old.

Mission 🚩

To check and validate usage patterns of how the majority of the Indian older generation uses WhatsApp on daily basis.

Context 🧭

This research was an assignment project I did as a part of the 10kdesigners masterclass with a duration of 7 days.

In the last couple of years, WhatsApp usage in India has boomed. Very likely that someone in family — parents, relatives, grandparents etc use WhatsApp a lot.

They use it to keep in touch with family, relatives, close friends, extended network of friends, people in the neighbourhood, businesses etc.
They use it for different purposes: Entertainment, communication, information, buying and selling, discovery, maintaining relationships etc
This is a fairly new development and it wasn’t the case 5 years ago. Some of them might be using it a lot more than you do.

My Process 🏄🏻‍♂️

Performing secondary research to find valuable findings to drive my initial research.
Drafting questions using pen and paper for User Surveys and Interviews.
Performing user interviews and surveys using tools like google forms and zoom.
Attempting to structure the unstructured data using research methodologies i.e User Personas and User Journey maps.
Making a list of Insights derived from the research.

Secondary Research 📚

I started off googling and finding statistics about WhatsApp so that I can validate my assumptions on basis of reading blogs, articles, and reliable statistics which were already available on the Internet.

Research Findings

WhatsApp was downloaded 96 million times in February 2020. WhatsApp is available in more than 180 countries and 60 different languages. With 340 million users, India is WhatsApp’s biggest market. More than 65 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp every day. — Top 10 WhatsApp Statistics You Should Know [NEW DATA]
200 million people from India use WhatsApp.This country is one of the largest markets for WhatsApp, with over 200 million people using the app. For comparison, there are around 20 million Americans using WhatsApp, with projections that this number will reach 24.6 million by 2020 — WhatsApp Statistics to Know What’s up in 2020–99firms
Share of active WhatsApp users across India in 2018, by age group

Comparison of Rural and Urban whatsApp active users.

Most Indians take WhatsApp Information seriously on the other hand they are also scared of scams.

Comparison of Rural and Urban whatsApp active users.

Older Indians Drive Millennials Crazy On WhatsApp.

“ I’m emotionally invested in WhatsApp. I was hurt because you ignored me there. “
“My father refuses to drive these days because he needs to look into his phone all the time.”
“My job is to forward good content.”

Source: BuzzFeed

Primary Research 🤝

Firstly, started off with User Survey via Google Forms for Older Generation and Instagram Poll for Younger Generation.
Secondly, approached my mom and dad with User Interviews.

User Surveys

This what Older Generation had say about their usage on daily basis.

What is your Age ?

What is your occupation ?

How long have you been using WhatsApp ?

How many hours do you spend using WhatsApp everyday ?

Whats your favourite features ? (Select as many)

How often do you emojis while chatting ?

Did you ever mute any of the group on your WhatsApp ?

What content consumes most of your time on WhatsApp ?

If you any content interesting, how many group do you forward it ?

How often do you receive fake messages ?

Do you feel low when someone sees your message and ignores (doesn’t reply)?

How often do you change Display Picture ?

Do you prefer talking to your close ones in your mother tongue on chat ?

How often do you upload status ?

Instagram Poll

This what Younger Generation had to say about their Parents.

142 Responses

User Interview

Before you take a look at user interview, I thought I would give some background context about my Parents. Hence added a sub-category, user persona.

How long have you been using smart phones ?

Dad 👴 : I have been using smart phone since 9 Years.

Mom 👵 : I have been using smart phone since 3 years.

When did you start using WhatsApp ?

Dad 👴 : I have been using WhatsApp since a 6 years now.

Mom 👵 : I have been using WhatsApp since a year now.

How did you discover WhatsApp ?

Dad 👴 : From a friend of mine.

Mom 👵 : Everybody around me were talking and using it. Out of curiosity I downloaded it.

What was your motivation to download WhatsApp ?

Dad 👴 : Voice message feature.

Mom 👵 : To get work related updates from my colleagues.

What are you doing on WhatsApp these days ?

Dad 👴 : Official and friends group messages

Mom 👵 : Watching and sharing devotional content. Evaluating students assignment and we do virtual Pooja too on video calls.

How many hours do you spend now and before lockdown ?

Dad 👴 : 2 hours before and now, i see no change.

Mom 👵 : Covid situation definitely affected my usage. I was using WhatsApp for 3 hours/day before,Now I evaluate assignments etc and some how these days I use WhatsApp 5 hours+ per day.

Do you check others WhatsApp Status regularly ?

Dad 👴 : No, I don’t check regularly.

Mom 👵 : Yes, I make sure I check them everyday.

When did you change your last DP ?

Dad 👴 : 5 years back.

Mom 👵 : 1 month ago.

When someone close seenzones you, do you feel bad ?

Dad 👴 : No I don’t feel bad

Mom 👵 : Offcourse, I do.

What are your thoughts on Spam & Fake Messages ?

Dad 👴 : Irresponsible and careless.

Mom 👵 : Fake messages waste a lot of my time pondering over the issue and spam is one of the worst things about WhatsApp.

How productive are you on WhatsApp on a scale of 10 ?

Dad 👴 : 6/10.

Mom 👵 : For me devotional content is sort of productive stuff, so its 9/10.

What are few things you don’t like about WhatsApp ?

Dad 👴 : Does not have filters to avoid receiving unsolicited videos and messages or downgrade/report abuse to have that message is being discouraged to be further circulated or to reduce for better health of society.

Mom 👵 :