GroupMe Announcements Concept

Creating an announcements feature to help users access important messages

Introduction

A day in the life of a GroupMe user.

How might GroupMe help users more easily find important messages?

Navigating through a GroupMe chat is tough.

User research — understanding why GroupMe feels so chaotic.

Insights captured from user research.

Key Research Insights

  1. People dislike the wild and disorganized nature of the group chat.
  2. People often frustratingly scroll through the chat to find messages.
  3. People appreciate the fun and social environment GroupMe fosters.

People want to stay up to date with their group.

People Problem

People want to keep track of group logistics, but they have to spend a lot of time scrolling to find important messages.

Market Research — How other products help users stay up to date.

How Slack and Microsoft help people access important messages.

Brainstorming — how might we improve access to important messages?

Creating Announcements in GroupMe

Exploring Different Announcement Interactions

Different medium-fidelity announcement interactions.

Determining the Announcement Interaction

Initial User Flow for Creating Announcements

User flow for creating an announcement.

Testing the Pinned Announcement

  1. Compose an announcement
  2. View an announcement
  3. Access previous announcements
Tasks I asked participants to complete as part of user testing.

Testing Results

  1. The entry point for composing announcements needed to better align with users’ mental models.

Iterating from Testing: Revising the User Flow

Revised user flow for creating announcements.

Understanding GroupMe’s Visual Design

Visual design kit for GroupMe.

Iterating from Testing: Making the Announcement More Distinct

Visual design explorations for pinned announcements.

Deliberating Different Visual Design Approaches

Final Announcement Design

Final Announcement Design

What happens when there are multiple announcements?

Handling multiple announcements.

Final Interaction for Creating and Viewing Announcements

Final interaction flow for GroupMe Announcements

Final Prototype

Final Prototype for GroupMe Announcements. Made with Origami Studio.
  1. Creating an announcement
  2. Discovering an announcement
  3. Dismissing announcements
  4. Accessing previous announcements.

Reflection

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