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Microsoft GroupMe 

Lifestyle Feature Integration 

USER EXPERIENCE     INTERACTION DESIGN   •   PRODUCT STRATEGY

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TEAM

Kaleen Chen

Maya Chen

Nima Sherpa 

And Me!

DURATION

2 days

ROLE

  • Ideation

  • User Research and Testing,

  • Wireframing,

  • Generating High Fidelity Mockups

  • Roadmap Proposal

PROJECT TYPE

Client Design Sprint

How might we increase the user adoption and retention of GroupMe in campus communities?

Prompt

INTRODUCING GROUPME

GroupMe is Microsoft's messaging application that makes it easy for members to form groups and create private chat rooms.

Project
Overview

PROBLEM INTRODUCTION

Microsoft reached out to Berkeley's Design and Business communities to brainstorm ideas to increase adoption and retention of their largest user base i.e campus communities that could lead to potential virality among the latter.

EXISTING DESIGNS

According to user research and competitive analysis, the existing design missed basic messaging features, very few options for personalisation and no unique features.

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No Unique Feature

Missing Basic Features

OUR SOLUTIONS

We proposed a 5 year growth plan that includes building of a GroupMe eco-system, with key partnerships with other companies addressing lifestyle needs of student communities, within the application itself.

This was proposed in addition to
baseline UX changes that would promote the user experience of the application..

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Multiple UI Improvements

Payment Integration

In-Chat Meet Up Scheduling


My
Design
Process

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Discover Phase

TARGET USER DEFINITION

Given in Prompt:  College students

We started with chalking out more details about given target user and created a user persona for further reference

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Research
Overview


Research
Outcome
 

PRIMARY RESEARCH

8 Contextual Interviews 

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Competitive Analysis 

Statistics Surveyed

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FROM PRIMARY RESEARCH

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Pain points in the user flow were identified.

Unmet needs were recognised

Unsaid wishes could be extrapolated

This gave us a user story to work with.

FROM SECONDARY RESEARCH

Benchmarking against 6 competitors gave us the following insights into user needs highlighted during user interviews that are met by the former:

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Provide options to personalisation

Have a large existing user base 

Have a large international connectivity 

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Easy to  delete messages

Are compatible with all formats for file sharing

Don't have adversitesments

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Are end-to-end encrypted

Have a powerful search feature

Allow easy organisation of groups & messages

Define
Phase

INSIGHT GENERATION

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Standard Baseline  Chat Features Need to be Incorportaed

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Delight Factors
Need to be Created

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A Unique Feature needs to be Developed

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More Options to Personalise the Application are Required

Project 
Refinement

Wellness

(Baseline Features)

A long shopping list of opportunities identified for the target market, could be prioritised and broadly placed in 3 buckets as follows:

Usability & Aesthetics

(Performance Satisfaction)

Lifestyle Integration

(Delight Factor)

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Existing User Retention &

Short Term Project Goals

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New User Adoption &

Long Term Project Goals

FEATURE BREAKDOWN

We had identified key features to include in the re-design for each of the defined buckets (as seen below).
This helped us refine our problem and frame the
final how might we statement.

Wellness

Group Moderation

End to End Encryption

Bullying Detection

Usability & Aesthetics

Robust file Transfer System

Option to Edit Messages

Barcode on Welcome Page

Robust Search Feature

Message Pinning and React

Lifestyle Integration

Peer to Peer Money Transfer

Event Planning

Bulk Ticket Booking

Student Organisation Discovery

Popular News Threads

Voice Message Feature

Different Emojis

Group Description 

Message Threads

PROBLEM RE-FRAMING

How might we drive up GroupMe's user retention and adoption by incremental changes and integration of key lifestyle activities to engage campus communities? 

Prototyping

WIREFRAMING

All the features were split into two major design points:
    Features that addressed usability
    Those that helped build the delight factor, introducing key lifestyle features

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Record and share class notes

Features for Improved Usability

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Integration of Key Lifestyle Features

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Development

HIGH FIDELITY FRAMES

We took our wireframes to Figma post some refinement and discussions as well as feedback from our Mentors from microsoft.

Features for Improved Usability

Navigation to check campus events

Barcode to share for building in person connections

Navigation to check campus news

Tab to switch between private and group chats

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Calendar to keep tab of student/user schedules

Intuitive slide to reveal group options

Easy to create new groups

Navigation to check publicly posted activities by contacts

Features for Lifestyle Integration

In chat time availability selection

Toolbar with all in chat tools integrating lifestyle features

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Shortcut to schedule common time availability

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In-chat money transfer feature

In-chat route planning shortcut

Shortcut to book group transportation

Proposed Roadmap 

To address resources available and feasibility we proposed a roadmap to incrementally implement features, based on priorities

What can be done today

Benchmarked features, absent in GroupMe but widely known as baseline, integrated into the platform is proposed as the first step towards creating the new GroupMe experience.

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What can be integrated in the next year

Creating a GroupMe ecosystem of lifestyle feature integrations within the platform.

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What can be integrated in the next 5 years

Creating a GroupMe ecosystem of lifestyle feature integrations within the platform.

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Rapid
Usability
Testing

We collectively collected the feedback of over 600 college students to test how much more likely they would be in using the re-designed application. Students were 

97%

Of the survey population found the re-designed interface more intuitive

74%

Were more likely to adopt GroupMe with the new features

58%

Preferred the utility features (meeting scheduling etc.) over social features (news postings)

Stakeholder Presentation

The re-design was extremely well received by Microsoft's team.

Questions they asked were regarding the users we tested and our testing methods.

They appreciated our diverse ways of testing through social media for rapid feedback and while this wasn't a competition, our design received a special mention during the closing ceremony.

Closing
Thoughts

WHAT DID I LEARN?

This was my first design sprint with a stakeholder involved and it sure was something! Every decision we made, specially since we were proposing an overhaul in the offering, had to be verified with numbers and well thought out logic and and I learnt to do that efficiently and in a very short amount of time.
I also learnt to propose design solutions in a way that it speaks to business and user goals such that even non-designers see value in what I propose.

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART?

Deciding how to integrate a delight factor, thinking about how design can be combined with marketing  to propose a "GroupMe Ecosystem" was something I'd personally never done before. This was the hardest part for me and was only posible due to the help of the mentors available during the sprint.

 

WHAT WOULD I DO WITH MORE TIME?

The next step would be to flesh out the interactions proposed for every new feature and external application integration and prototype the same. This would need a lot more time and iterative testing with users.

A Peek
Into Our Process

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Left to Right: Ramyani Roy (me!), Nima Sherpa, Kaleen Chen, Maya Chen

Meet The Team!

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