Making Plans in a Group Chat
A problem worth solving, an attempt to address.
We use instant messaging (like WhatsApp) for all our communication needs today — from keeping in touch with friends and family, to gossiping with our best buds, and most of all for planning events, both small and large.
Most plans however, fail because someone did not respond in a group, because they could not find information about the plan or did not know who all are going. Social dynamics play a great role in success or failure of an event. For instance, it is motivating to see how many people are going and to be able refuse without awkwardness.
The existing solutions for group chats do not address these needs. Simply put, planning events today is a nightmare.
Before deep diving into this problem, let us zoom out and gather a lager perspective of things happening in the industry.
Let’s Zoom Out
Understanding the act of making a plan in physical life
Imagine a situation where 3 friends are chatting casually at one of the friends home. One of them asks if they should go for a movie show. They call up two more friends to ask if they would be interested as well. What are the chances that they actually went for the movie?
Probably 100%. And the reason for this physical presence of the most attendees.
Now, let us assume the same situation where one friend thinks about going for a movie and asks other over phone call or text. What are the chances that they actually went for a movie?
Now answer to this depends on various factors like, how far do they live from each other, is the location of theatre viable for all, is the timing suitable for all etc. The initiator in this case has to do a lot of to and fro to suit everyone. Clearly the probability would be less in this case than the previous one.
This was one example of a short term, vicinity dependent plan. There are bigger plans made over chats such as travel plans which are long term and location independent. These use cases involve higher complexities. And most resulting into this:
However, I’ve tried to list down all the possible use cases for planning over chats.
Use cases
- Travel Plan- Small Groups, Known People | Large Groups, Unknown People managed by an agent.
- Dine Out- Small Group, Known People |No Host
- Movie or an Event Plan- Small Group, Known People | No Host
- Shopping- Small Group, Known People | No Host
- Community Meet Up- Large gatherings, Unknown people | Host
- Get Together- Larger Group, Known People | Host
Design Constraints
Since major use cases cover Small Groups of Known People, solution would be proposed for the same looking at the optimisation . Also, success of a plan is subjected to non occurrence of any unforeseen event in the lives of the attendees. Hence, that shall be accounted for in the proposed solution
Research
Existing products and future trends
Mobile messengers such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat and other have become the preferred means of communication on mobile devices. WhatsApp has reached more than a billion of monthly active users, Facebook Messenger — 900 million, WeChat — almost 700 million (source: statista.com). Other popular apps are Hike, Snapchat, Kik, Google hangout, Skype and our very own traditional SMS.
Speculations for trends in 2017 are around:
- Chat bots
- AI
- Chat commerce and payments
- Customer service revolution
- Voice detection
- Spectacular wearables
- Monetisation of chatting
- Live video
- Enterprise messaging
- Social messaging
- Smart phone sales booming in emerging markets
Interestingly, Facebook Messenger’s AI ‘M’ already suggests features to use based on your conversations. Read the complete article here. Or just catch this video.
On similar lines, iOS create smart links whenever a day or time is mentioned, it is underlined and links to scheduling in your calendar. Find the screen shots below.
A user interacts with a chat bot via a mobile messenger (such as Facebook Messenger, Skype or WhatsApp), SMS, or website. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is typically embedded in a chat bot to help it better understand the context of the conversation. Read more about Trends driving the Chat bot.
Observations through User Interviews
- People generally make a separate group of invited ones if the group includes other who are in different location.
- There exists an awkwardness to say no so people generally say maybe which defeats the purpose for the host as one has to check again.
- Personal message always adds to social dynamics and increases the probability of attending the event.
Design Process
Hypotheses
WhatsApp is the primary dominating messenger with maximum reach hence shall design for the same. Assuming data connectivity to be stable and average smart phone to be of standard configuration.
Persona
Sara is a 28 year old industrial designer from New Delhi. She recently got married and moved to a new house. An ardent user of WhatsApp, Sara keeps in touch with her friends through this group.
Scenario (Use Case — 6. Get Together)
Sara wants to plan a house warming party. She lives in Delhi and is expecting 6 of her friends for the occasion. On 8th July, she asks in the group (flow point) about availability of all the folks. She gets 2 responses out of 6 (pressure point) — Arshad and Nitisha’s. Then the discussion diverts (Pressure point)from house warming to general meet ups.
On 13th July, one day before the house warming, Sara inquires for confirmation (pressure point), followed by location detail and time. This time, two different people confirm (Choke point), one was Arshad and other was Tawa.
This triggers Sara to send a personal text to Nitisha on 14th July, as she said yes previously (choke point). But since Nitisha was not doing well, she declined (Choke point). However, so as to be polite Nitisha asks if Harshit is coming (Pressure point) and she’ll try to join him if he comes.
Nobody except Sara, knows if the other 3 people ever read her messages (Pressure or Choke) on time or showed up for the party.
User Journeys
Clearly, there are two kinds of users involved in any such activity — the host and the invitee. Here is a concise user journey map of both the personas with their own flow points, pressure points and choke points.
Task Analysis
Scrutinising the scenario give us a detailed list of tasks which needs to be performed by both sets of users.
Tasks for the host or the initiator:
- Creation of a new event
- Wait for the responses
- Accommodate options for feasibility if possible
- Check again for confirmation
- Ask people over personal texts
- Update expiry of the event
Tasks for the invitee or the participant:
- Notice the plan, that is probably lost in random conversation.
- Reply if interested or choose to ignore.
- Confirm again if asked by the host.
- Propose a new date or time if possible.
Ideation & conceptualisation
Initial ideas were inspired from Outlook meeting planner. It gave an insight about what kind of options can be or should be provided to an invitee. While other ideas were around conference calls and video calls, which were not less chaotic than text messages in anyway.
Proposed Solution
Creating an event — An easy automated solution building upon the model of AI already in practice. Create plan would take the user through a short form and suggestions for invitee based on geolocations of the members of the group. Post that, the host could be asked to create a video to make plan personal to all.
Accepting or Declining an event — The first step to enter temporary group with intro video making it more persuasive hence focussing on social dynamics. Purposefully avoided ‘Decline’ so as to make sure the invitee is part of the group, which might eventually trigger him to join.
Modifying event details — This would be an easy task through setting button in temporary group, only with host. If an invitee wants to suggest a change of proposed date or time, it would require another flow.
Expiry of an event — This task would be automated with end of temporary group as soon as day of event passes by. This would reduce redundancy of groups. However, care needs be taken about the photos or videos of the event which would be posted by the members in the temporary event group.
Light-weight and effortless to use
Prototypes available for both the personas : Sara(Host) & Nitisha(Invitee)
Probable success metrics
Let us assume that in current scenario, there is an opportunity for ‘a’ number of plans to be made in group chats. Out of which ‘x’ are made. If this solution increases ‘x’ to ‘y’ number of plans that are made in a give time frame then this a success metric.
The other metric could be the number of participants who say ‘yes’ to the event. If it increases over time then it would be success metric for us.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. If you want to talk about UX/UI design, or just want to say hello, connect with me via Linkedin.
