C L I E N T
Business Messaging Outcomes
R O L E
Product Designer
T E A M
People Growth Team
Product Design Manager
Product Manager
Engineer
Product Designer
Content Desginer
Solutions Lead / Paige Cameron
Project Manager / Emma Khater
Thread responsiveness
O B J E C T I V E
Responsiveness indicators are one of the main growth levers on a business messaging thread. However, customers are uncertain if and when a business will respond in the chat. We want to improve responsiveness signals on the thread null state and in-thread state for businesses with varying response rates, to better set expectations with customers on their availability. We want to increase user thread initiation and user retention on the messaging platform.
A P P R O A C H
By narrowing down the signals to a few responsive and availability scenarios for businesses, we integrated cues to communicate expectations for different response rates. A responsiveness icon, 'replies in' subtext, contextual banner, 'Active' subtext, as well as 'Automated messages' subtext helped to set more transparency, and foster a trustworthy interaction when initiating a message.
DISCOVERY
ARCHETYPES
CONSIDERATIONS
How Might We
Add value to the existing responsive signals to help increase thread initiation
How Might We
Scale the signals to various response rates and business availability
How Might We
Set realistic expectations for customers and businesses to increase retention
CONCEPT ITERATIONS
Responsiveness by time of day
Bottom sheets
Responsiveness by average response rate and time
Banners
Responsiveness badging
Bot icons
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
1
Simplicity
To reduce cognitive load with multiple signals, and avoid redundancy with repeating content
2
Relevancy
To give additional context when a business is unavailable, and use visual cues strategically which aid in adding value
3
Scalability
To be consistent with patterns across API and Non-API enabled null states, and across scenarios
4
Transparency
To set realistic expectations with users about availability and response times
UI PRIORITIZATION
SCENARIOS
How responsive is this business?
-
Instantly
-
Very responsive (within minutes)
-
Responsive (within hours)
-
Slow to respond (days or more)
-
Not responsive
Is this business active or away?
-
Active
-
Away during typical active hours
Does this business use automation?
-
When replies are instant
CONDITIONS MATRIX
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
Active
Automated, instant replies
Null state
Slow to respond, replies in days
Null state
In-thread
Away
Responsive, Away
Null state
In-thread
REDLINING
