iMessage Feature Add: Improving iMessage for better
planning and connecting with friends.
ROLE
Product Designer
The Friendship Fade: Can Technology Keep Us Connected?
Ever heard the saying, "You lose friends as you get older"? Unfortunately, it's true. Studies show that our social circles start shrinking around the age of 25. According to research published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, our friendships often fade as we transition from school to careers, relationships, and family life. The lack of daily interaction and shifting priorities make it harder to maintain these bonds, and before we know it, our best friends become strangers.
Let's dive into the untapped potential of iMessage, which its main purpose is for chatting, not necessarily planning. By adding new features and redesigning the app, we can transform iMessage into a powerful tool for making plans and staying connected with friends. Read on to discover how thoughtful design can bridge the gap between casual conversations and meaningful meetups, helping you keep your friendships strong no matter how busy life gets.
MAIN PROBLEM SPACE
iMessage Just Isn't Made
for Planning
What I thought the problem was...
Initially, I hypothesized that people struggled with the task of having to find a date that works for the majority of the group. I thought that to make this process more efficient to actually make a plan, an enhanced integrated calendar feature within iMessage could potentially alleviate this problem. Combining shared calendars with iMessage could encourage users to get together and makes it convenient for users to organize hangouts, events, and trips.
I wanted to understand if an enhanced integrated calendar feature in iMessage would solve a problem in iMessage users want solved.
Well, it turns out…
My research revealed that not everyone uses the Apple calendar. Some prefer Google Calendar, others mix various tools like to-do lists, work apps, or even mental notes. Therefore, an enhanced Apple calendar feature would only cater to a niche group
So what's the actual problem?
While great for casual conversations, iMessage in its current state is not
an effective way of planning/organizing with a group of people.
Its current purpose is meant for chatting.
When users are attempting to plan a get-together with their friends, two things happen:
1. Messages get lost amongst multiple conversations happening at once, especially when several people are responding to different conversations. Users have to scroll endlessly in order to find a particular message they’re searching for.
2. People just don’t respond, especially in group chats where they’re not addressed individually. This happens due to multiple reasons:
- People tend to read the message and forget to respond,
- it gets lost in a pool of their other unanswered texts,
- or it goes completely unread. Users find planning frustrating when their text messages go unanswered.
As the planner, they can’t solidify a date/time if people don’t respond. This sometimes ends up in plans falling through altogether.
Messages get lost
People just don't respond
PREVIEW OF SOLUTION
Transforming iMessage
for Social Planning
USER RESEARCH
Do Users Really Need a Built-In Calendar in iMessage?
Let’s back it up a bit. So, how did I find out this was the real problem? I wanted to understand whether or not an enhanced integrated calendar feature in iMessage would solve a problem that users want to be solved.
I conducted interviews to understand:
- How do people currently plan meetups and events?
- How do people currently use iMessage?
- Does a calendar app fit within iMessage? If so, how?
- How do people conceptualize meet-ups? Why do they do it and is it enough?
Competitor Analysis
Since I wrongly assumed users would benefit from a calendar/planning app...
I decided to research competitors who were in the planning and calendar app space.
Researching competitors Time Tree and Raft revealed that users appreciate having a central location for planning events, activities, and trips while managing work and family schedules. Popular features include memos, event update feeds, reminders, and group chats for easy planning and communication. However, users find unwanted ads and notifications frustrating, and both apps frequently crash or freeze. Raft users dislike having to pay to invite others to events or share calendars, which undermines the app's purpose. In contrast, Google Calendar, while different in its offerings, lacks social features and customization options like images and extensive color coding. Additionally, users commonly experience issues with the search function not working properly to find specific events and appointments.
USER RESEARCH
iPhone Users in their Mid-Late 20s
Due to the focus of this project of people at a certain age tend to lose friends, I focused on interviewing participants in their mid 20s. I found this topic particularly interesting because I myself am 27 and can relate to this strange period in my life where I don’t see my friends nearly as often as when we were just going to high school or college.
I ensured a range of technical proficiencies among participants, from tech-challenged to tech-savvy, to ensure new features would be accessible and widely accepted. Participants needed to currently use iMessage, a digital calendar, and their iPhone to plan events and meetups with friends.
iMessage & digital calendar users
Male & female in
their mid-late 20s
Range of technical proficiencies
Use iPhone to plan events & meetups
USER RESEARCH FINDINGS
Initial Insights: Why iMessage
Falls Short for Group Plans
4/5 participants use iMessage to plan with groups, but the constant back-and-forth leads to lost messages and difficulty keeping track of conversations.
“The same problem is creating a group conversation
using iMessage. You can't keep track of anything. It's just message after message. It's not like it's one
chunk, and people aren’t only responding to this.
They're saying other things in between.”
“You have to scroll all the way back to wherever that message was so it gets lost because it was texted a while ago.”
“So I would like pin certain messages and then unpin it
just so people know it's an important message. Especially if you're in a group chat with you know, 10 plus people.
There's a lot of messages that go around.”
5/5 participants are frustrated that their friends/family (people they’re trying to coordinate plants with) just don’t respond, especially in group chats.
“If people don't respond that's frustrating. If I do a group message, I can't tell who read it. When I do a group text message I don't know who actually saw it maybe people
missed it, but I don't know.”
“I will say in times of like trying to do group meetups,
with people I think the only problem is getting people
to, in a timely manner be able to text back.
I feel like people just sometimes just don't respond.”
DEFINE
Reframing Insights into Opportunities
in a User-Centric Way
POV 1
"I get lost finding messages in group chats where multiple conversations are happening at once."
HMW 1
How might we help users search for
specific phrases in iMessage?
POV 2
"It’s really annoying when people don’t respond and I don’t have a way to follow up."
HMW 2
How might we help users follow up
with non-respondents?
To make communicating more efficient, users need a reliable way to navigate through group chats and find specific phrases, a need that isn’t met by iMessage’s current interface. In terms of design direction, users want iMessage to be more intuitive in following an ongoing conversation.
Users need a way to follow up with those who don’t respond. Users want the people they’re texting to respond in a timely manner so they can move forward in the planning process. They find it annoying to have to follow-up themselves and text those who didn’t respond individually. When considering design, this means we must create a streamlined and efficient way to remind people to respond and consider automation to take the manual process out of following up.
RAPID IDEATION
Harnessing the Power of Crazy 8's
I decided doing Crazy 8s exercise would be the best activity to quickly generate ideas without letting overthinking get in the way. Just to get some initial ideas out where “no idea is a bad idea” thinking is involved. I set a timer for 8 minutes and came up with 8 different ideas and spent about one minute per idea, sketching out rough ideas with a pen. I repeated this exercise to attempt to generate more ideas.
I found this exercise effective but a bit challenging to complete in such a short time period. However, directly after the exercise, it sparked even more ideas. I came up with about 20 ideas from this exercise alone, which lead me to the next step on deciding on which idea to expand on.
LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Initial Sketches
After synthesizing the research, I decided that I would focus on the second HMW (How might we help users follow up with non-respondents?) due to time constraints. This was the more pressing issue that more users needed to be solved.
USABILITY TESTING (ROUND 1)
Validating Early Designs: Insights from Paper Prototype Testing
To ensure my initial designs were on the right track, I conducted a quick "gut check" by creating a paper prototype and testing it with two users.
During the test, I asked users to complete specific tasks and rate the ease of doing so on a scale from 1 (extremely easy) to 5 (extremely difficult). Both users rated it a 2, indicating relative ease but highlighting some room for improvement. The primary issue was locating the new feature, with one user suggesting an additional access method beyond swiping. To address this, I plan to implement a press-and-hold action, consistent with existing iMessage interactions.
Another user provided valuable feedback on enhancing the feature's functionality by allowing messages to be scheduled for future dates and times, such as texting someone outside of work hours. This insight will be explored further through A/B testing with mid-fidelity prototypes to refine both the follow-up and message scheduling features. This iterative process will help ensure the feature aligns with user needs and expectations.
UI ADDENDUM
Guiding New Features:
The Power of a UI Addendum
A UI addendum provides detailed guidance for integrating new features into this existing app. It ensures consistency with the current design, provides developer guidelines, and acts as a reference for future updates.
Slide to send later contact card
Used to access the new “send later” feature. It should only be used on the home screen of iMessage.
- Contact card: 393px x 76px with a corner radius of 0
- Button dimensions: 82px x 76px
- Icons: height of 35px.
- Avatar image: 45px x 45px
Slide to edit send later message
Used to edit already scheduled messages for “send later” feature. Users can edit date/time of scheduled mesage and the message itself. Specs are the same as the previous card:
- Contact card: 393px x 76px with a corner radius of 0
- Button dimensions: 82px x 76px
- Icons: height of 35px.
- Avatar image: 45px x 45px
MID FIDELITY WIREFLOWS
Forming the Overall Structure and Functionality
I created mid-fi wireframes to focus on the overall structure and functionality of the product.
I was able to explore and test different design ideas and concepts and get feedback without investing too much time
or resources.
USABILITY TESTING (ROUND 2)
Verifying Users' Ideas from Round 1 of Testing
The goal of usability testing was to get valuable user feedback on the effectiveness of my product and what could be improved and iterated on to create a better user experience. Each participant went through different task scenarios.
I came up with the following research objectives for usability testing:
- Verify need for the “schedule for later “ feature
- Verify that these task flows help people accomplish their goal
- Identify any issues with accessibility
Users went through 3 task flows:
1. Follow up
2. Schedule for later
3. Confirm scheduled message
TEST RESULTS
Integrating Instructions and Greater Flexibility
Revision #1: Notify users of the new feature and provide instructions on how to use the new feature.
The most pressing and common issue found during testing was that users didn't know how to access the feature to begin with so I added instructions on how to use the new feature. The rest of the flow was straightforward for users.
Revision #2: Allow users to edit the date and time of the scheduled message, edit the message itself, or remove the message altogether.
Users also wanted a way to edit an already scheduled message. What if they changed their mind?
REFLECTION
Closing Thoughts
Working with existing patterns
When creating a new feature that seamlessly integrates into the existing app, I had to make sure to implement the same design patterns and interactions that iMessage users were already familiar with. This included the visual design of the added components as well as the animations and interactions itself.
What I think is a good idea vs. what the user really needs
I had hypothesized what could be a potential solution before interviewing users. My hypothesis and what users' pain points and needs when it came to iMessage turned out to be drastically different. I learned that it's good to be aware of biases, assumptions, and personal opinions before starting any design project.
Interested? Let's Work Together!
