Making IF a more explorable experience

In case you haven’t heard, IF (by IFTTT) is a free service that allows users to link and automate various web services through a conditional “if this, then that” statement. This simple, yet powerful formula allows users to create “recipes” that do anything from “save starred Gmail messages to Evernote” to “tweet a funny GIF every Friday”.

Initial Impressions

I began using the mobile app a couple of years ago when I saw it recommended on Reddit, and loved the fact that the idea behind IF was so scalable and adaptable. There’s so much potential behind the simple idea that it seems to me almost like a truly universal remote control — capable of creating powerful links between not just mobile apps, but also household tech (as the field of IoT develops) — and making our lives easier and more productive.

However, I also rarely tune into the app unless I have a specific goal already in mind, and I suspect that others feel the same way about it.

So, while IF is powerful, I found it hard to realize all the possibilities when this is how the home page looks like upon first signing up and logging into the app:

Hmm…what can I do here?

Aside from the image carousel at top that automatically scrolls through a few different recipes, the first thing the user sees is mostly white space. Front and center is the activity feed, which gets populated after users add recipes, but which doesn’t exactly make for an inspiring recipe-creation process.

Usability Tests

Since I don’t work at IFTTT, I had to make a few assumptions off the bat about their product goals to help me figure out what to test for, namely:

• IF aims to increase productivity by automating as many routine actions as possible in its users’ lives.
• As IF expands more and more into IoT and household connectivity, its target user is shifting to a more general audience that includes homeowners and apartment-dwellers vs. just techie enthusiasts.
• A design that reduces friction in the initial learning curve of using IF and encourages users to see the possibilities in the app will have a positive impact on both IFTTT’s business goals and user needs.

Due to bullet #2, I thought it would be helpful to test IF’s usability among a random sample of people who at most only had a passing familiarity with the service. I then went ahead and conducted seven usability tests on strangers to try and uncover some pain points. Note: Since I own an Android phone, the tests and the redesign are both created with that environment in mind.

The tasks I gave to the users included having them create a recipe given a generic goal (“You want to be notified in the morning whenever it’s going to rain”), look for available channels, and modify a recipe. These were meant to gauge how easily people could utilize the core function of the app (creating “recipes”) as well as secondary functions (discovering “channels”).

“I would’ve expected a plus sign here.”

Synthesis & Ideation

After reviewing all the usability tests, I wrote down the main pain points of each user, and then sorted those out by category. The general trend behind these categories were:

• Problems with comprehension of recipe creation icon. The unconventional mortar-and-pestle icon was not initially recognized as something to tap to start creating a recipe. One user never tapped on the icon at all, and another found the recipe panel by accidentally swiping left on the home screen instead.
• Hidden visibility of the recipe creation process. Five out of the seven people I tested searched for existing recipes rather than created their own using the recipe bar, thereby validating my hypothesis that the current format hides the recipe-creation process and prevents users from feeling like they have the agency to create their original recipes. One user commented, after finding the pre-created recipe, “I doubt I could create this myself.”
• General comprehension issues. There was some uncertainty around the meaning of app-specific terms like “recipe” and “channel.”

All pain points, sorted by user. Light blue is having a hard time.

Pain points, sorted by category. Pardon the dirty whiteboard background (permanently sullied by the deaths of a thousand erased ideas).

Not only did these tests confirm my suspicions that most users found the act of creating their own recipes difficult, but they also guided my design by providing me with a couple of additional problems to solve. I ended up going into the redesign process with these three main design goals:

1. Establish recipe creation as the focal point of the app.
2. Clarify the connection between recipes and channels.
3. Create an experience that emphasizes the feeling of discovery and exploration.

Next, I sketched out a few different ideas of how the main screens in the app might look, always referring back to those goals when it came to making certain decisions.

In order to address the low-visibility issues of both the recipe creation function as well as the channels menu, I sorted out all the functions of the app into three categories and centralized these into tabs on a navigation bar.

I drew inspiration here from sandbox games, especially “alchemy”-type games, where people drag and drop elements together to see what they can create.

Not the prettiest design, but behaviorally addictive.

After I received some feedback on the new design, I was ready to move into Sketch and create a hi-fi version that I could prototype.

A comparison of the home page before (left) and after (right) my redesign:

Validation & Next Challenges

I quickly tested the redesign with five more people, two of whom had some familiarity with the original app. When given a recipe to try and create from scratch, all five had no trouble accomplishing the task with the newly surfaced recipe bar and drag-and-drop function.

While the consensus was that the recipe bar was easy to find and made the initial process feel accessible, two users did express the feeling that the home screen felt “busy.”

With more time, I would go through another round of designing and validation, while focusing on a new set of goals:

1. Reduce visual load on the home screen while maintaining accessibility of the recipe bar and channels. I have some different thoughts on how this might work — I think creating lo-fis to test might benefit me here in narrowing down my ideas.
2. Create a better system for organizing “My Recipes” and “Activity Feed” — these currently feel unrelated. One user mentioned that he would have preferred to see “My Recipes” on the front page.
3. Find a way to give users a few recommended recipes up front rather than leaving the process entirely manual for better inspiration. My new idea is for the home screen to make “smart” suggestions about recipes users can make based on the devices they have connected, although this might involve a different onboarding process than what currently exists.

Lots of lessons to be learned from just one round of redesign and validation! Stay tuned for future design solutions addressing these new challenges…

Note: Again, I don’t work for or represent IFTTT. I’m a product designer @Tradecraft merely practicing in my spare time. IFTTT is one of the products I use daily (whether or not I open the app, it’s working for me!) You can find them on Google Play or in the App Store.