OVERVIEW

Challenge

Messaging and email are staples of working in the 21st century. Email is one such product that is used frequently, especially in a professional setting, but it is not a method of communication that everyone likes to use. Younger professionals, especially, prefer direct messaging apps to get important information delivered. The challenge for this project is to create an email product that more closely resembles a direct messaging app.

Goal

The goals of this project are:

To reduce the time spent emailing.

Allow users to get to inbox zero.

Having an email provider that is more casual.

Make email feel more conversational.

Role

This is a solo design project for Dribbble Education’s Product Design Bootcamp.

DESIGN PROCESS

The Steps

Research & Empathise

Market Research

For this project, I looked at the various email and direct messaging services, namely, Gmail, iMessage, Slack and Teams. Going forward I used Slack as my main source of inspiration due to the fact that it is a professionally used app that uses direct messaging.

Slack Pros

Can be separated into workspaces.

Has a section for mentions, channels, drafts and threads.

Can show the people you directly message.

The messaging area looks professional but has some text message features (like the ability to add emojis).

Slack Cons

Can be difficult to navigate.

User Research

To start the research process I sent out a form to three potential users to see what email or direct messaging tools they used professionally (or preferred). I looked at what features they liked and what features they didn’t like so I could get an understanding of why and how they used that service.

“It’s connected with other things like Google drive, calendar, and Meet. It’s nice to have an ecosystem where it’s all connected. I also like how it separates my inbox messages automatically.”

-Potential User

Furthermore, I looked into how much time people spent using email to determin if it was efficient or not. In the end, none of the people who took my surver spent less than 30 minutes on their email daily.

Furthermore, I looked into how much time people spent using email to determine if it was efficient or not. In the end, none of the people who took my survery spent less than 30 minutes on their email daily.

Email Survey Data

Young Professional Persona

Define the Problem

Pain Points

These are the main pain point that I saw when working on this project:

Email can be cluttered and it is hard to get to inbox zero.

Standard email is too formal and clunky.

Would like emails to be more conversational.

User Flows

Email Provider User Flow Sketch

Email Provider User Flow

Ideation

Visual Research: Colour

The colours I chose were meant to create the feeling of being inviting while still creating a sense of trust that this app is a professional option for individuals and companies.

Colour Style Guide

Visual Research: Typography

The typeface Poppins is used throughout the entire design. Its simple design and rounded look make the messages in the app easier to read.

Typography Style Guide

Iconography Style Guide

Visual Design

Prototype & Test

For the web: View Convo prototype here

For smartwatches: View Convo prototype here

Lessons Learned

When it came for this app’s design I wanted it to have a smartwatch component. That meant that I speant a lot of time researching the design of smartwatch UI (the Apple watch in particular) to understand what design principles are effective to use in that scenario because the screen is smaller.

Annotations

Convo Documentation

CONCLUSION

Summary

Outcome

The final product is the design of a clean email app that is easy to use and can be viewed on the web and on smartwatches. On my path to becoming a product designer, I have done a lot of self-study which meant I picked up a lot of information in disjointed pieces. However, this project gave me experience in designing a web app.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the challenge that designing a smartwatch posed. It gave me the opportunity to delve into emerging technology which is something that I have enjoyed for the past few years.