Slack — UX Case Study

Published in

UX Diaries

6 min readSep 7, 2020

Slack is a channel-based messaging platform. With Slack, people can work together more effectively, connect all their software tools and services, and find the information that they need to do their best work — all within a secure, enterprise-grade environment.

Phase 1: Understanding the Platform

The Brief

Slack is where work happens. It brings together people, applications, and data. Slack is replacing e-mail around the world. It provides a messaging platform that integrates with a wide range of communication services.

Competitor Analysis

We researched Slack’s direct competitors and key players in the personal communication and social networking space. Then based on the popularity and usage of these platforms in India, we decided to compare Slack with three messaging platforms — Trello, Teams, and Flock.
The basis on which we decided to compare Slack was completely based on its User Experience. The following table shows a comparison of Slack with its competitors on a certain basis:

Phase 2: Understanding the Users

Understanding different Focus Groups

To see things from a different perspective and understand Slack's different users, we ran 8 interviews including New Users, Intermediate Users, and Advanced Users to see what they have to say about Slack.
The scope of the interview was centred around:

consumers’ online communication behaviour
what they look for in a workspace communication app
their experience with Slack

The 8 users were as follows :

2 — Advanced Users
2 — Intermediate Users
4 — New Users

The main points which came into consideration after interviews were:

1. Simplicity
Being a communication platform, users appreciate simplicity in terms of the interface of the app.

2. Efficiency
Users expect navigating between channels and chats and searching for any particular document to be a breeze for any communication app.

3. Intuitiveness
When an app is flexible enough for users to organize things to their preference they are more likely to use the app just for its intuitiveness.

4. Lack of knowledge of features
Based on the pool, only 5 out of 8 interviewees knew about the plug-ins in Slack, and only 3 out of the 5 knew how to use them.

User Persona

After understanding the users and different focus groups, we followed consecutive characteristics of users and made two different User Personas — A New User and An Intermediate to an Advanced User.

Analyzing the Needs of the User

While studying Slack from a user perspective, we established some significant points which are mentioned below :

Users find Slack difficult to understand and follow Slack’s workspace.
Slack has tool integrations that make the workspace very efficient but New Users are unable to understand useful features like this.
Slack’s website has too many terms which are confusing for users at first.

Phase 3: Understanding the Existing Interface

To understand Slack's existing interface, we divided Slack interface into two broad categories — The Website and The Workspace.

The Website

The header of the Landing page is confusing for most users. The terms used are also difficult to understand at first.
To enter into an existing workspace, the website provides the ‘Launch Slack’ tab which takes the user either to an existing workspace or the user can further create a new workspace. This process of signing in can be simplified for users.
The number of clicks for Slack’s Website can be reduced making it more efficient and simple for users.

The Workspace

The overall workspace is perverse for a New User at first.
There are many useful features in the app but it requires time to explore to find where these features are hidden.
Integrating apps, tools, or services requires time to understand.
The sidebar is very text-heavy and difficult to navigate through.
The main nav or the Search Bar is also very cluttered.

Phase 4: Understanding the Solution Areas

As identified above, there are three areas in which we can work and help make Slack, a better app for users.

How to educate users on the ins and outs of Slack?
How to improve the user interface to simplify Slack’s key features?
How to simplify Slack as a Messaging Platform?

After ideating several possible solutions, we prioritized the features using the MoSCoW method. In this revamp, we focused on the features highlighted.
We bifurcated the key solution features into 4 different columns:

So, here are some suggested new features with the problem area that could be included in the UI of Slack to make it User friendly:

How to educate users on the ins and outs of Slack?

Dedicated tab for all plug-ins :
allow users to explore and download directly within the website, instead of redirecting them elsewhere.
Use of Slash commands :
The Slash command is unique to Slack so the button is more prominently highlighted to grasp attention and increase usage frequency.

How to improve the user interface to simplify Slack’s key features?

Suggestions :
Instructions on how-to’s and suggestions as the user are progressing on Slack.
Simplify the Search bar :
The search bar can be simplified to reduce the workload on new users.
Video tour :
A brief video/tour of Slack for New Users.

How to simplify Slack as a Messaging Platform?

Rearranging Workspace :
Rearranging the workspace of Slack and simplifying the interactions for the user will result in an efficient workflow.
Dividing workspace into different areas :
Distributing the workspace according to the category will simplify the workflow and will be user-friendly. The workspace can be divided into areas like —
1. Sidebar: Where channels, direct messages, apps, etc.
2. Chat Room: For text boxes, messages, details, etc.
3. My Profile: For profile details, settings, files shared, etc.
4. Search Bar: For quick access to specific locations or tabs.

Phase 5: The Structure

Affinity Map

Information Hierarchy

Deciding on the Platform

Based on the research, customer, and other stakeholders, we decided to choose Slack Website for Desktop to be redesigned.
The other platforms on which Slack can be used are:

Slack App — Desktop
Slack App — Mobile
Slack Website — Desktop
Slack Website — Mobile

The website Slack for Desktop is the platform that is used the most by Users. The website of Slack takes the user to their Workspace. Therefore, we decided to redesign Slack right from its website working ahead to the individual workspace.