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Gabriel Garcia
  1. Overview
  2. The problem
  3. The redesign
  4. Testing

Class project

WhatsApp Redesign

WhatsApp is how I keep in touch with family abroad, and years of using it left me with three frustrations. For a UX class I took them from interviews to tested screens, as three new features.

Role
Researcher and designer, UX class project
Timeline
2024
Scope
Research, UX and UI, desktop and phone

The problem

I started from my own frustrations and checked them against other people’s. Three interviews and a survey, sorted into an affinity diagram, kept pointing at the same three problems.

  1. 01

    Old messages are hard to find

    Search only went by file type or phrase.

  2. 02

    Busy groups drown out people

    Large group chats were hard to follow without muting everyone.

  3. 03

    Important chats get buried

    Only three chats could be pinned above the busier ones.

Survey
Seven pie charts of survey responses about WhatsApp use, covering how often people use it, how easy it is to search past messages, how useful the search results are, satisfaction with group chat features, difficulty of managing group chats, effectiveness of the mute function, and satisfaction with notification options.
Affinity diagram
An affinity diagram of green, blue and pink sticky notes grouping research findings into themes such as customization, search functionality, notification control and missing features.

The redesign

Each problem became one feature, designed for the desktop app and the phone together.

Search by person and date

I added filters for who sent a message and when, and they stack, so one search can ask for Adam’s messages from January.

Desktop
The desktop search carrying two filters at once, a date range and a name chip reading Adam, returning Adam Ross and Adam Cowens dated between 01/11/24 and 01/27/24.
Phone
Three dark-mode phone screens: a Chats list divided into Favorites and Regular, a Filter Options panel, and a search narrowed to named contacts shown as removable chips.

Favorites instead of three pins

I split the chat list into Favorites and Regular. A chat joins Favorites from its menu or from the contact’s info page, and all three testers found it quick.

Five phone screens for the favorite system: the list split into Favorites and Regular, a row swiped open, its menu with Favorite, an empty chat, and a contact page with a Favorite Contact toggle.

Priority in group chats

People told me large groups were hard to manage. Messages from the members you pick now show up first, in notifications and in the chat, so you can follow a busy group without muting it.

Desktop
The desktop group card for Main Family Chat listing every member with a checkbox to prioritize, and Mute Non-Priority Chats last.
Phone
Three phone screens: the family group chat, its Contact Info with a Prioritize Chats row, and the list of members to prioritize.

Testing

My three testers found it clunky to type whole names and dates into the filters. So the final search suggests chats as you type and lets you pick dates from a calendar.

Testers only understood prioritizing once I explained it, so the setting now has a line describing what it does.

Wireframe, tested
Two dark-mode phone wireframes of search: a row of filter chips above the keyboard, and the matching message results.
Final
The final desktop search part-typed as “Sa”, already suggesting Sarah Marks, Sasha Addams, Samuel Moreno and the Sangria Party group.

Typed filters became suggestions as you type.