C L I E N T
Messenger
T E A M
​People Growth Team
​
Product Design Manager
Product Manager
Engineer
Product Designer
Content Desginer
Solutions Lead
Project Manager
R O L E
Product Designer
​
WHAT I DID
Stakeholder management + IC work​
Leading productive meetings
Delivering presentations to the core and wider team
Product framework and scoping
Rapid iterations and concepting
Defining design principles
Fostering cross-collaboration between teams
Design documentation and ENG hand-off
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
Most SMBs don't receive enough user initiated threads...and only 30% of businesses that get an initial message receive value from messaging
Few users wanted a live chat with a human being
Some users expected an automatic reply confirming receipt of the message
Most users expected a response time within 24 hours
CURRENT UX
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
Bot icons
EXPERIENCE 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?
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Instantly
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Very responsive (within minutes)
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Responsive (within hours)
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Slow to respond (days or more)
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Not responsive
Is this business active or away?
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Active
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Away during typical active hours
Does this business use automation?
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When replies are instant
CONDITIONS MATRIX
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
Active
Automated, Instant replies
Very Responsive, Replies in minutes
Null state
In-thread
Responsive,
Replies in hours
​
Null state
In-thread
Slow to respond,
Replies in days
​
Null state
In-thread
Not responsive
Away
Very Responsive,
Away
Null state
In-thread
Slow to respond,
Away
Null state
In-thread
REDLINING
SUCCESS METRICS
Key metrics to be measured:
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Number of threads initiated
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User retention rate
Counter metrics to be measured:
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Number of unanswered threads across scenarios
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Click-through rate to other channels
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Key learnings working on this Thread Responsiveness project:
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Having clear goals and next steps enabled productive meetings with multiple stakeholders and to manage expectations​
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Establishing trust and transparency were key for a messaging app to ensure credibility of the platform and foster valuable conversations
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Creating a conditions matrix helped to clearly communicate with the Engineers what signals to trigger based on the responsiveness scenarios