HeyChat
HeyChat is an messaging app that suggests interest groups based on your conversations.
Seeking inspiration
In 2024, I wanted to improve my portfolio, so I decided to work on some personal projects. One brief caught my eye: "Create a messaging app that integrates interest groups." I thought this was an interesting concept as I have never seen it before. Since the brief already had a finalised idea, I had to approach the project in reverse by going back to first understand why and how the app could work to help design a practical solution.
Forming new connections is hard, so people tend to stick to their current social circles. This often leads them to use traditional messaging apps, which can feel restrictive and repetitive.
Problem
HeyChat improves the social experience by analysing users' conversations and notifying them about custom interest groups. This allows effortless exploration, joining discussions, sharing messages, attending meet-ups, and quickly form lasting friendships.
Solution
Understanding how people seek information and there social interactions
Discover
Feelings to meeting/connecting with like-minded people.
General attitudes towards interest groups
Approach to finding information about their interests
How they connect with their social circle
Interviewed individuals to understand how they discover information related to their interests and approach to meeting new people.
After synthesising results these are the
interview takeaways:
Using the interview insights, lead to looking into other apps that assisted in gatherings and making connections.
Exploring how apps encourage inclusivity and easy participation
Created a table of features to understand how competitors promote community-building and encourage connections.
I explored popular messaging apps, focusing on features that enhance chat communication and examined apps designed to unite people through social networking and shared interests.
Notable features that could be used to encourage connections:
Significant findings from research summaries
The current market offers standard features
The research suggests that traditional messaging apps have basic features and limitations for community building. While users recognise the benefits of interest groups and and meet-ups, many, due to time and energy constraints, often resort to using multiple platforms for their interests and connections. As a result, their connections are typically limited to online interactions.
The solution - uniquely go beyond basic conversation
Informed by gathered insights, a messaging app featuring fast integration of interest-based groups, providing an intuitive and personalised user experience, and enabling users to connect uniquely with others who share similar interests on one platform, has the potential to establish a sense of community and promote consistent, meaningful interactions among its users.
Working out how to integrate interest groups into a messaging app
Define
Exploring different layouts for the suggested group integration
Before outlining the User Journey and User Flow, I wanted to understand the core features and functionality of the suggested group integration through sketching and crafting low-fidelity wireframes. The strongest concepts were user-tested, and feedback indicated that idea 3 was the preferred choice
Understanding who would use the app and what what touch points would they take
Created the User Journey to better understand the users story, actions and emotions at specific touch points, to help create an optimised experience.
Strategising routes for specific user goals
Crafted a redacted user flow demonstrating different routes and actions the user could take. This helped me to know what screens to design.
Designing the digital experience
Initially sketches were hand drawn, a total of 30+ mid-fidelity wireframes were created
Crafting the user interface
Deliver
Colour
To define the visual style, I started with words like "Connect, Vibrant, Engaging, Knowledgeable, and Creative" to create three visual reference boards for the app. The Blue board was selected because the colour blue is associated with feelings of trust and confidence, which are qualities I want the app to convey.
Typography
Inter’s large x height makes the font easy to read on many different screen sizes.
The typeface was also used to create the app icon.
Grid
Validating the user experience and accessibility with user testing
I validated my project with users, by assigning them the task to: Find an interest group > Become a member > Connect with a user
Implementing user feedback to improve elements that caused confused interactions
In total 6 screen were improved, a few examples below:
HeyChat the future of messaging
Final design
How the app works
Tailor-made for you
During conversations, HeyChat detects keywords and recommends relevant interest groups. An arrow will pulse to indicate the accessibility of these groups.
Join vibrant communities
Users can effortlessly discover vibrant communities, join exciting groups, explore upcoming meet-ups and intriguing topics of interest. Inside chat rooms and lively comment threads, they have the opportunity to actively engage, pose thought-provoking questions, and exchange diverse perspectives.
Effortlessly connect
Users have the ability to establish meaningful connections and learn more about fellow users by exploring their profile pages and sending connection requests.
To Measure the Success of the App, I Would Track:
This project enhanced my understanding of user testing and the value of iterative design. By analysing user feedback, I was able to refine my designs, making them more intuitive and user-friendly.
What I learned
Initially, animating specific transitions in Figma was a significant challenge for me. However, by exploring various tutorials and practicing consistently, I was able to develop the skills needed to create smoother and more effective animations.
Challenges
Future improvements
Given more time or resources, I would focus on adding personalised groups to the home screen for a more tailored user experience. Additionally, I would expand the interest group menu to a full-screen layout for better navigation and improve the messaging interaction style within groups to enhance communication flow.