TChat Contact Management Feature

Designing a feature for TChat users to manage contacts & led to a 92% reduce in time to add new contact

ROLE

Product Design Intern

TEAM

PM: Nelson Chen
Developer: Albert Wang

DURATION

8 weeks (Summer 2021)

Project Background

PROBLEM

Taiwanese small businesses use the app LINE for communication

LINE was design for day-to-day, general usage, not for the workplace.

SOLUTION

A go-to communication, task management, and customer relationship management app— TChat

Before I joined the startup, only the task management part of the app was built out, and the scope of my project was to design the customer management feature.

Evaluating Success

90%

of interviewees rated the new contact management flow as "easy to navigate"

30%↑

of interviewee rated the new contact management flow as "easy to navigate"

22 seconds

average time of adding a new local contact, 5 min less than original flow (92% ↓)

Research Synthesis & Competitive Landscape

Insight 01

Fragmented space

People rely on multiple tools in the fragmented problem space.

Insight 02

Steep learning curve

Team management apps have complex features & hard to learn.
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Insight 03

No work-life boundary

Productivity & communication apps have mixed work-life usage.
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User Interviews

Painpoint 01

Managing customers

Following up with customers is a cumbersome process.

Painpoint 02

Managing communication

Overwhelming chats between work and personal contacts annoying.

Painpoint 03

Managing tasks & projects

It takes a lot of back and forth to manage tasks on communication apps like LINE.

Problem Definition & Brainstorming

As a small business owner...

"I want to organize my contacts easily and keep track of customer information, so that I can follow up with customers easily and be productive."

Design Objectives

01. Simplicity

Help users easily organize & manage their TChat contacts

02. Flexibility

Allow users to add both TChat users and personal contacts

03. Familiarity

Design based on the patterns the user group is already familiar with

Build, Test, Iterate

After identifying the scope, I came up with user flow and wireframes to test with users. I then finalized the user flow and key screens. From there, I tested the mid-fidelity screens again.

Mid-Fidelity Feedbacks

01. People Tab

People are more familiar with LINE & iPhone Contacts layout pattern.

02. Profile Page

Single page layout is perceived as more intuitive; and notes are usually short, quick phrases.

03. New Contact

People want to add new local contact info on-the-go when they are out and meeting customers.

Final Design

The People Tab

01. Search bar: “search” was the primary action people go for

02. Tabs: people perceive tabs as more intuitive to organize contacts & groups
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03. Nested list: a design pattern borrowed from LINE

The Profile Page

01. Single page profile: people want to have an overview of the contact information at a glance

02. Clear action buttons: key actions people perform on the contact’s page

03. Notes: people usually just write short notes like what the contact likes, birthday, or team

The People Tab

01. Half bottom sheet: people usually meet new customers on the go, so they want a light-weight way to add contacts

02. Scan name card: Taiwanese small businesses still use name cards when meeting customers

Moving Forward...

If I am to continue work on TChat, I would run A/B testing to evaluate the design choices. In particular, I want to validate if allowing people to add local contacts improves the user retention and acquisition, as the current hypothesis is that people would be more willing to come back to the app and invite more users if they can add & keep notes of their contacts
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Learnings

01. Test with Intention

Based on previous experiences, I've learned to "test often, test early." This time, I realized it's also important to be intentional on what I want to get out of each testing sessions to drive the project forward effectively.

02. Always make design decisions with the end-user in mind

Throughout the rounds of testing and iterations, I've learned to be more intentional when I have an idea on what to design. Instead of being guided solely by my own intuition, It's important to ask myself a couple "why" to make sure the design decision is sound and impactful to users.

03. Don't get attached to the final design

Because a change in TChat's team and stakeholder plans, the design hasn't been implemented as of November 2021. Sometimes it's hard to not see your design being implemented after all the research and time you've put in. However, I've learned a lot as a designer during this project and will carry these lessons to the future projects I take on!
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TChat Contact Management Feature

Project Background

Final Design Preview

Evaluating Success

Research Synthesis & Competitive Landscape

User Interviews

Problem Definition & Brainstorming

Design Objectives

Build, Test, Iterate

Mid-Fidelity Feedbacks

Final Design

Before-After at a Glance

Moving Forward...

Learnings

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