How to Slack smarter? — a UX case study
Re-design of Slack’s Mobile App
This is a study of the possibility of a redesigned Slack.
(Not an actual revamp of the mobile app, though I wished it was.) ((Don’t get me wrong, Slack is an amazing app, but good things don’t last unless you keep improving them, so… (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞))
Slack is largely used for our online communication here in school. Lecturers use it to disseminate information and share study resources with the class, and occasionally tries to conduct friendly discussions on the latest UX scoop. And we, students, will do our best to absorb it all in.
However, one common behaviour I’ve noticed is that people tend to switch over to a more preferred communication app like WhatsApp or Telegram once project groupings have been assigned. It seemed that comfort and familiarity are important aspects when it comes to product consumption but what is it about Slack that makes it so foreign to use?
If Slack is as amazing as the articles say it is, why are people jumping ship? Let’s find out.
Phase One: Understanding the Product
Slack (short for Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge) started out as an internal communication tool used in the development of an online game, Glitch. It then evolved into a collaboration hub that allows teams to connect more effectively. The data and applications on Slack powers productivity for its consumers all around the world.
Slack’s App Directory deserves brownie points
As a collaboration hub, Slack brings people, information and tools together. Many of the tools and services consumers use have dedicated apps built for Slack. These apps make it possible to route the work they do in those tools through their workspaces. When you don’t have to switch back and forth between multiple tools, you can work more efficiently and quickly.
With the App Directory, Slack is more than just a workspace communication tool. It thrives on the apps and integrations to ensure the growth of its ecosystem.
Staying true to its roots
Arising from a gaming background, Slack is built around basic coding such as utilising slash commands for shortcuts and modifiers to conduct advanced searches. It gives users the freedom to work around the boundaries and customise their own experience with Slack.
The favourite co-worker
Adopting the colour scheme of a video game sets Slack apart from the mass of regular-looking enterprise collaboration products. The bubbly and fun user interface (UI), thoughtful interactions and personalised microcopies contributed to Slack’s unique “personality”.
But if Slack is so cool, why don’t my classmates like using it?
We conducted heuristic evaluation to identify usability problems with the UI design of the mobile app. With this, we addressed the surface issues before breaking down the biggest question mark of the day. The evaluation was done in reference to Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
The adaptation of the vertical navigation menu is not as effective when it comes to organisation of channels and direct messages. They are separated only by a small divider and it looks very messy and cluttered.
We had trouble looking for certain group chats as some disappeared after being inactive for too long and we did not know where to go to retrieve them.
Recognition rather than recall
A good UI design should minimise cognitive workload by making objects, actions and options visible. There are many useful features in the app but it required time to explore in order to find where these features were hidden.
We tried looking for information on the App Directory but we were redirected out of the app and into a web browser. It shifted our orientation and we had to try and pick up where we left off.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
As much as Slack was created for the mass audience, the use of accelerators were predominant throughout the mobile app. I conducted a simple search for a document, however being a novice user, I had to learn to apply modifiers in order to use the search bar.
This presented me a learning curve to overcome and in turn, it compromised my work efficiency. I suddenly felt reluctant to continue using the app because I was spending more time trying to figure out how to make the search bar work. It seemed to me that the system favoured the power users over the novice and this began to build a barrier between the app and users themselves.
Was this how my classmates felt while using Slack too?
Asides from heuristic evaluation, we also conducted competitor analysis using the LEMErS framework. The framework assessed the usability of the user interfaces and how easy they were to use. With this, we identified the good parts to keep/emphasise, and the bad parts that gave users trouble.
Phase Two: Understanding the Users
So, the biggest question mark of the day — Was it simply a UI issue? Or was there a bigger underlying problem?
To see things from a different perspective, we ran 9 user interviews to see what the users have to say about Slack’s mobile app. The scope of the interview was centred around consumers’ online communication behaviour, what they look for in a workspace communication app and their experience with Slack.
What did our users had to say?
I don’t know if its me but I feel stupid using Slack
I will end up googling everything I don’t know about Slack
A good app should be intuitive enough to not make the users feel and behave this way, so we analysed the problem further.
The interviews were synthesised through affinity mapping. The recurring themes identified helped organised the data and we discovered that regardless of the communication apps of preference, it all came down to four main insights:
1. Efficiency is Key
Users want to ensure that whatever they invest time in, delivers on its promise of efficiency. They expect navigating between channels and chats, and searching for any particular document to be a breeze for any communication app.
2. Keeping your Hannah Montana life secret
Separating personal and professional life is a common behaviour, in achieving a comfortable work-life balance, amongst the users. Many tend to use separate communication apps or even a separate phone in order to set these boundaries. They recognise that the balance is important keep them, for a lack of a better word, sane.
3. The Locus of Control
Users are more inclined to use a product when they are presented with a sense of control, and that they get to have a say in how they want to use it. When an app is flexible enough for users to organise things to their preference, or simply control the number of photos they can upload, they are more likely to use the app just for its intuitiveness.
4. I don’t know what I don’t know
Based on the pool, only 5 out of 9 interviewees knew about the plug-ins in Slack and 2 out of the 5 knew how to use them. If no one knows how good your product is, is your product really good then? But luckily for Slack, users admit they’re willing to learn about the nuts and bolts as long as they don’t need to spend too much time on the learning part.
With these existing research and synthesis, we drew up two personas.
25-year-old Tina is considered a novice user of Slack even though her reliance on the app is relatively high given her job scope. Her basic knowledge of Slack is sufficient to get her by but hinders her work efficiency. She is willing to be educated on the workarounds of the app if she has time to spare.
Jonas is a 38-year-old entrepreneur. He uses Slack mainly to disseminate information and receive updates from his teams. His biggest pain point is locating and managing his chats and channels within the app.
Phase Three: Prioritising and Prototyping
Now, the answer to the biggest question mark of the day — The overarching issue.
With an app as amazing as Slack, it is a pity that the lack of product knowledge and intuitiveness of the app are the causes of its downfall.
Users are unable to fully experience Slack’s potential if they don’t know how to use the app properly in the first place. Moreover, the lack of user empathy, as seen in its counter intuitiveness, shortchanged the app’s capabilities too.
The Game Plan
As identified above, there are two areas in which we can help make Slack a better app.
1. How to educate users on the ins and outs of Slack quickly?
2. How to improve the user interface without compromising its integrity?
After ideating on several possible solutions, we prioritised the features using the MoSCoW method according to feasibility and impact. In this revamp, we focused on the features highlighted in green.
Usability tests were conducted with Mid-Fi wireframes and we took away one very important insight — Even though users mentioned they wanted to learn, it didn’t necessarily mean they wanted the information in bulk.
Our primary focus was driven by the fact that we wanted to provide easy access to information for the users. It didn’t occur to us that we might be overloading them with too much. Bite-sizes were more than enough.
So, here are some iterations for the next phase –
- Simplify the search bar further as there is no need for first tier filter given that it is already catered to individual panels.
- Instructions on how to use plug-ins to be added under the “Downloaded Apps” tab as users were unsure of the next steps.
Our Final Interactive Hi-Fi Prototype
Here are the key changes we implemented in the re-design –
1. How to educate users on the ins and outs of Slack quickly?
- Dedicated tab for all plug-ins allows users to explore and download directly within the mobile app, instead of redirecting them elsewhere.
- Instructions on how-to’s are readily available upon request with progressive disclosure.
- Slash command is unique to Slack so the button is more prominently highlighted to grasp attention and hopefully increase usage frequency.
2. How to improve the user interface without compromising its integrity?
- The conventional messaging app layout is adopted for familiarity. Users can easily toggle between tabs using the bottom navigation bar.
- Channels and chats are separated into different tabs, and arranged in chronological order to facilitate better efficiency and organisation.
- Search bar is simplified to reduce cognitive workload on novice users while power users are free to utilise the modifiers as they wish.
Usability Test Results
With eager hearts, we conducted usability tests on our newest prototype.
The users were put through a series of tasks using the prototype and Slack’s current interface. All tasks were completed within a shorter period of time with our re-design, which translated to better efficiency for the users overall!
Moving Forward
Given another opportunity in the future, I would love to continue exploring deeper into the needs of the business and users, testing broader with a bigger pool and re-iterating better to ensure that the other features are made possible too.
I see so much potential with Slack’s mobile app and I think it just simply needs a few nudges in the right direction. With our re-design, I hope we were able to break down the barriers between the app and its users so that Slack can fulfil their promise of efficiency.
If you’re interested, feel free to interact with our prototype!
Sending love to my teammates Keh Linette and Min for pouring their hearts and souls into this project. I’m inspired by your tenacity and perseverance to do even better and go even further.
Thank you so much for reading :)
