Background

The intent was to redesign the User Experience of WhatsApp to be used as an enterprise collaboration tool for the airlines employees.

Define

My primary focus was to make WhatsApp not just a chat-based tool but a collaboration platform across the airline, which provides a unified place where you can receive major/minor updates, news, group info, announcements and calling features.

Design

Bottom Nav Bar

Here I have introduced a bottom navigation bar which holds actions like Calls, Group, & Updates. I have made this as a persistent navigation which would help users to always see the options upfront, even though they scrolls top-bottom.

Group Screen

This will show group of various departments. Here the different groups can collaborate with each other, discuss any matters, share updates, help others solving any queries and various other actions like sending a voice note, attaching images and a lot.

To make the interaction easily and quick, I introduced the right swipe scroll which revels more actions like attachment, group call, raise imp message.

On click of any of the group the users can read through the group chat. I have also introduced a hamburger menu on the top right which will hold:

• Calendar meet-up — It’s used for a quick stand-up meeting, emergency meet-up, or scheduled meet-up.
• Label Chat — We can have different labels for chat according to the colors segregation. These labels can be of Important Message, Done Message, Delayed, Arrived, and others. The labels can define accordingly to the groups.
• Live Automated Update — If you have any automatic pop-up message to be done, this will be most helpful. When someone types your name using “@” to particularly mark you, and you are in the middle of something, this feature will automatically send a message to notify them that you will get back in sometime.
• Migrate to other groups — This will help the user if they want to move to another department with the admin permission.

Update Screen

The update screen will show the news, announcements, and quick updates. This tab is open to all. The employees can visit this screen to take a glimpse of things happening around and among the airport.

Each cards holds a quick link icon which helps in forwarding the news among the groups or in-person. Web icon to see full news from web link like we have in Google, TOI, and other channels.

There are multiples news which can be filtered according to the topics and departments.

Call Screen

The call screens are segregated by toggle icon which is within the Person & Group.

Employees can either call to an individual. Or can do call group call by adding the members.

Here in the first screen when the employee clicks on any group they can see the top 6 group members they have contacted recently.

On the other hand if they click on ‘See all’ the list of group member gets displayed, which will allow them to choose and dial in.

In the third screen, Employees can Add Call to do call conference.

Do you sometime feels that it is hard to keep up with the latest design trends which sometimes leads to copy the design from some anonymous website or designers.

If you only focus on today’s technology and design trends, your knowledge would soon become outdated and which will lead to constantly follow the footsteps of other designers rather than being innovative and to be in your own style.

The time has come where you have to be innovative in your own style, stop the work of copying and start stealing the ideas and give it your touch of sign. When you will gain timeless knowledge, you will stand on the shoulders of history’s design giants. By doing so you will be with the latest trends in design & technology. You’ll also be able to actively draw upon the successes and failures of your design predecessors such that you create innovative products for the future.

Steve jobs has also believed in

Every great artist, every great designer, is influenced by what has been done before his/her time. It essentially means that if you want to be a great designer, it’s not enough to look at today’s trends and new innovations. In this video, Steve Jobs emphasizes this fact by quoting Pablo Picasso, who famously said: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

In the industry or design context, copying is unimaginative as it sounds.It can even lead to legal trouble. Stealing is not anywhere near bad-at least it’s not bad in a design sense. As Steve Jobs believe ‘Stealing’ requires your to modify the original item, design, or idea by adding your fresh, unique interpretation. “Give your own touch to the design you steal and make it an original one”

The HCD has been divided into three aspects

1. INSPIRATION
2. IDEATION
3. IMPLEMENTATION

The Inspiration phase consist of learning from the people you are designing for. User Personas is defined in this step where you will come to know about the thoughts the person has for their products.

The Ideation phase, you will start with what you learned from the user points, identify opportunity for the design and start with the prototyping the possible solution.

The Implementation phase is the step where you bring your solution to Life. With the Visuals, Graphics, Texts & Interactions where the user can actually feel the product.