Whatsapp: Designing Polls for Groups
UX research study to understand the need for polls in WhatsApp groups and propose wireframes/sketches.
UX Reserach
Finished in 2 weeks
10 mins read time
Overview
Designing an end-to-end solution for WhatsApp users to create polls in their groups.
For this exercise, I decided to use concepts and frameworks that I learnt from a few product books like Lean Product Playbook, Solving Product Design Exercises etc., Using these concepts, I created my own modified version of these frameworks (Lean Product Process + 5W1H).
Process
I split my process into two parts.
Research the product, its users, their needs & analyze competitor products.
Focus on a design process and come up with ideas, information architecture, wireframes, visuals, & metrics to test the designs.
User Research Process
Design Research Process
Demo
A short glimpse of the final poll creation userflow.
👉 Link to Figma Prototype
Primary & Secondary Research
WhatsApp’s Product Vision.
More than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. WhatsApp is free and offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones worldwide.
The need to build “Poll” option.
An online poll is a survey in which participants communicate responses via the Internet.
Since an online poll is also a form of communication, it aligns well with WhatsApp’s mission. However, I had to figure out if there is a real need for users to create polls.
So, I ran a poll on Instagram to test this hypothesis. 96 people voted, out of which 61% said they had felt the need to take “Polls” through their groups.
Target customer segment.
WhatsApp has 2 billion users in over 180 countries. Hence, we can have numerous customer segments based on their geography, age, occupation, gender, behaviour, tech usage etc. For the purpose of this research, I'm considering a user segment that closely matches the 96 people who voted on my Instagram poll.
Identify their unmet needs & underlying motivation.
To get a deeper understanding of their needs, I asked a few questions to the people who replied to my poll. Through their answers, I was able to get some good insights.
The following are the screenshots where people expressed a clear need to take polls through their groups.
Academic needs - Deadlines, Marks Split up, Exam Dates, etc.
Personal needs - Meetup dates & times, restaurants & food preferences, trip destinations, etc.
User Persona.
Based on the understanding of the user segments, I sketched a mini persona to give an overall idea about the user and their mindset.
Underlying Motivation.
There a quite a few invisible psychological factors why people might want to take others opinions or votes through polls.
Choice Overloading - When faced with too many options, the person responsible for making a choice might feel decision fatigue. When in doubt, they often let others decide.
Inclusive Decision Making - In a close group/community, people tend to make decisions collectively by including everyone. It gives a sense of belonging to everyone.
Group Think Effect - People strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group.
User Story.
Based on the user persona and some of their underlying motivations, I came up with a couple of user stories supporting the need for polls within WhatsApp.
Existing products with Poll Option.
Based on the user persona and some of their underlying motivations, I came up with a couple of user stories supporting the need for polls within WhatsApp.
Telegram
Design Process
Ideas for "Poll" option & Prioritization.
Some of the different types of "Poll" options are:
Multiple Choices (One or more than one options to choose)
Quiz Mode (Shows right or wrong answers after the vote)
Open-Ended Questions (Respondents can submit any text as answer)
Visible Votes (Reveal the percentage of votes after the user chooses an option)
Invisible & Anonymous Votes (Not reveal the vote percentage & name of voters)
Slider Ratings (To get an average number within a range)
Up-vote or Down-vote responses (Suitable for yes/no questions)
Nested Questions (Questions change based on responses like Typeform)
From the user persona and their respective user stories, I deduced that multiple choices, visible & invisible voting and up-down voting are relevant to the target user segment.
User Flow & Information Architecture.
For the user flow, I have gone with a poll where users can't change their options once voted. However, the poll creator can enable/disable the option to change votes in the poll configuration while creating one.
Wireframes.
Before starting to sketch the wireframes, I read about WhatsApp's design principles.
WhatsApp's Design Principles:
The interface should feel native to the device the person is using and should be simple.
User actions and animations should be quick to respond.
Features should provide obvious utility so they require little introduction.
High-fidelity Designs.
Metrics & Testing to validate the designs.
Based on this use case, once the wireframes are converted into high fidelity prototypes, some of the following metrics could be used to validate the design solution through usability testing with a few potential users.
Using the prototype, what are the:
Once the feature is shipped live, what are the:
Feedback & Iteration.
A/B testing could also be done on different variations of the design with a select few users to understand which version of the design gives the desired results. Users can also be asked about their experiences using the poll feature and their feedback for the same.
Based on the obtained metrics and user feedback, the designs can be further improved by iterating through the process again.
Improvements
Things that I could have done better.
Conduct more user interviews and ask more in-depth questions.
Sketch user flows for more edge cases like editing a poll, etc.
Make more detailed user persona and write more detailed user stories.
The End
Thank you for your time. Feel free to reach out if you have any feedback.
Always happy to have a chat. Feel free to reach out.
© 2023. Made with Framer & Nitro Cold Brew.
Whatsapp: Designing Polls for Groups
UX research study to understand the need for polls in WhatsApp groups and propose wireframes/sketches.
UX Reserach
Finished in 2 weeks
10 mins read time
Overview
Designing an end-to-end solution for WhatsApp users to create polls in their groups.
For this exercise, I decided to use concepts and frameworks that I learnt from a few product books like Lean Product Playbook, Solving Product Design Exercises etc., Using these concepts, I created my own modified version of these frameworks (Lean Product Process + 5W1H).
Process
I split my process into two parts.
Research the product, its users, their needs & analyze competitor products.
Focus on a design process and come up with ideas, information architecture, wireframes, visuals, & metrics to test the designs.
User Research Process
Design Research Process
Demo
A short glimpse of the final poll creation userflow.
👉 Link to Figma Prototype
Primary & Secondary Research
WhatsApp’s Product Vision.
More than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. WhatsApp is free and offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones worldwide.
The need to build “Poll” option.
An online poll is a survey in which participants communicate responses via the Internet.
Since an online poll is also a form of communication, it aligns well with WhatsApp’s mission. However, I had to figure out if there is a real need for users to create polls.
So, I ran a poll on Instagram to test this hypothesis. 96 people voted, out of which 61% said they had felt the need to take “Polls” through their groups.
Target customer segment.
WhatsApp has 2 billion users in over 180 countries. Hence, we can have numerous customer segments based on their geography, age, occupation, gender, behaviour, tech usage etc. For the purpose of this research, I'm considering a user segment that closely matches the 96 people who voted on my Instagram poll.
Identify their unmet needs & underlying motivation.
To get a deeper understanding of their needs, I asked a few questions to the people who replied to my poll. Through their answers, I was able to get some good insights.
The following are the screenshots where people expressed a clear need to take polls through their groups.
Academic needs - Deadlines, Marks Split up, Exam Dates, etc.
Personal needs - Meetup dates & times, restaurants & food preferences, trip destinations, etc.
User Persona.
Based on the understanding of the user segments, I sketched a mini persona to give an overall idea about the user and their mindset.
Underlying Motivation.
There a quite a few invisible psychological factors why people might want to take others opinions or votes through polls.
Choice Overloading - When faced with too many options, the person responsible for making a choice might feel decision fatigue. When in doubt, they often let others decide.
Inclusive Decision Making - In a close group/community, people tend to make decisions collectively by including everyone. It gives a sense of belonging to everyone.
Group Think Effect - People strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group.
User Story.
Based on the user persona and some of their underlying motivations, I came up with a couple of user stories supporting the need for polls within WhatsApp.
Existing products with Poll Option.
Based on the user persona and some of their underlying motivations, I came up with a couple of user stories supporting the need for polls within WhatsApp.
Telegram
Design Process
Ideas for "Poll" option & Prioritization.
Some of the different types of "Poll" options are:
Multiple Choices (One or more than one options to choose)
Quiz Mode (Shows right or wrong answers after the vote)
Open-Ended Questions (Respondents can submit any text as answer)
Visible Votes (Reveal the percentage of votes after the user chooses an option)
Invisible & Anonymous Votes (Not reveal the vote percentage & name of voters)
Slider Ratings (To get an average number within a range)
Up-vote or Down-vote responses (Suitable for yes/no questions)
Nested Questions (Questions change based on responses like Typeform)
From the user persona and their respective user stories, I deduced that multiple choices, visible & invisible voting and up-down voting are relevant to the target user segment.
User Flow & Information Architecture.
For the user flow, I have gone with a poll where users can't change their options once voted. However, the poll creator can enable/disable the option to change votes in the poll configuration while creating one.
Wireframes.
Before starting to sketch the wireframes, I read about WhatsApp's design principles.
WhatsApp's Design Principles:
The interface should feel native to the device the person is using and should be simple.
User actions and animations should be quick to respond.
Features should provide obvious utility so they require little introduction.
High-fidelity Designs.
Metrics & Testing to validate the designs.
Based on this use case, once the wireframes are converted into high fidelity prototypes, some of the following metrics could be used to validate the design solution through usability testing with a few potential users.
Using the prototype, what are the:
Once the feature is shipped live, what are the:
Feedback & Iteration.
A/B testing could also be done on different variations of the design with a select few users to understand which version of the design gives the desired results. Users can also be asked about their experiences using the poll feature and their feedback for the same.
Based on the obtained metrics and user feedback, the designs can be further improved by iterating through the process again.
Improvements
Things that I could have done better.
Conduct more user interviews and ask more in-depth questions.
Sketch user flows for more edge cases like editing a poll, etc.
Make more detailed user persona and write more detailed user stories.
The End
Thank you for your time. Feel free to reach out if you have any feedback.
Always happy to have a chat. Feel free to reach out.
© 2023. Made with Framer & Nitro Cold Brew.
Whatsapp: Designing Polls for Groups
UX research study to understand the need for polls in WhatsApp groups and propose wireframes/sketches.
UX Reserach
Finished in 2 weeks
10 mins read time
Overview
Designing an end-to-end solution for WhatsApp users to create polls in their groups.
For this exercise, I decided to use concepts and frameworks that I learnt from a few product books like Lean Product Playbook, Solving Product Design Exercises etc., Using these concepts, I created my own modified version of these frameworks (Lean Product Process + 5W1H).
Process
I split my process into two parts.
Research the product, its users, their needs & analyze competitor products.
Focus on a design process and come up with ideas, information architecture, wireframes, visuals, & metrics to test the designs.
User Research Process
Design Research Process
Demo
A short glimpse of the final poll creation userflow.
👉 Link to Figma Prototype
Primary & Secondary Research
WhatsApp’s Product Vision.
More than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. WhatsApp is free and offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones worldwide.
The need to build “Poll” option.
An online poll is a survey in which participants communicate responses via the Internet.
Since an online poll is also a form of communication, it aligns well with WhatsApp’s mission. However, I had to figure out if there is a real need for users to create polls.
So, I ran a poll on Instagram to test this hypothesis. 96 people voted, out of which 61% said they had felt the need to take “Polls” through their groups.
Target customer segment.
WhatsApp has 2 billion users in over 180 countries. Hence, we can have numerous customer segments based on their geography, age, occupation, gender, behaviour, tech usage etc. For the purpose of this research, I'm considering a user segment that closely matches the 96 people who voted on my Instagram poll.
Identify their unmet needs & underlying motivation.
To get a deeper understanding of their needs, I asked a few questions to the people who replied to my poll. Through their answers, I was able to get some good insights.
The following are the screenshots where people expressed a clear need to take polls through their groups.
Academic needs - Deadlines, Marks Split up, Exam Dates, etc.
Personal needs - Meetup dates & times, restaurants & food preferences, trip destinations, etc.
User Persona.
Based on the understanding of the user segments, I sketched a mini persona to give an overall idea about the user and their mindset.
Underlying Motivation.
There a quite a few invisible psychological factors why people might want to take others opinions or votes through polls.
Choice Overloading - When faced with too many options, the person responsible for making a choice might feel decision fatigue. When in doubt, they often let others decide.
Inclusive Decision Making - In a close group/community, people tend to make decisions collectively by including everyone. It gives a sense of belonging to everyone.
Group Think Effect - People strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group.
User Story.
Based on the user persona and some of their underlying motivations, I came up with a couple of user stories supporting the need for polls within WhatsApp.
Existing products with Poll Option.
Based on the user persona and some of their underlying motivations, I came up with a couple of user stories supporting the need for polls within WhatsApp.
Telegram
Design Process
Ideas for "Poll" option & Prioritization.
Some of the different types of "Poll" options are:
Multiple Choices (One or more than one options to choose)
Quiz Mode (Shows right or wrong answers after the vote)
Open-Ended Questions (Respondents can submit any text as answer)
Visible Votes (Reveal the percentage of votes after the user chooses an option)
Invisible & Anonymous Votes (Not reveal the vote percentage & name of voters)
Slider Ratings (To get an average number within a range)
Up-vote or Down-vote responses (Suitable for yes/no questions)
Nested Questions (Questions change based on responses like Typeform)
From the user persona and their respective user stories, I deduced that multiple choices, visible & invisible voting and up-down voting are relevant to the target user segment.
User Flow & Information Architecture.
For the user flow, I have gone with a poll where users can't change their options once voted. However, the poll creator can enable/disable the option to change votes in the poll configuration while creating one.
Wireframes.
Before starting to sketch the wireframes, I read about WhatsApp's design principles.
WhatsApp's Design Principles:
The interface should feel native to the device the person is using and should be simple.
User actions and animations should be quick to respond.
Features should provide obvious utility so they require little introduction.
High-fidelity Designs.
Metrics & Testing to validate the designs.
Based on this use case, once the wireframes are converted into high fidelity prototypes, some of the following metrics could be used to validate the design solution through usability testing with a few potential users.
Using the prototype, what are the:
Once the feature is shipped live, what are the:
Feedback & Iteration.
A/B testing could also be done on different variations of the design with a select few users to understand which version of the design gives the desired results. Users can also be asked about their experiences using the poll feature and their feedback for the same.
Based on the obtained metrics and user feedback, the designs can be further improved by iterating through the process again.
Improvements
Things that I could have done better.
Conduct more user interviews and ask more in-depth questions.
Sketch user flows for more edge cases like editing a poll, etc.
Make more detailed user persona and write more detailed user stories.
The End
Thank you for your time. Feel free to reach out if you have any feedback.
Always happy to have a chat. Feel free to reach out.
© 2023. Made with Framer & Nitro Cold Brew.