ChatSnacks 

Project type: B2C App iOS Native. Social Media CHat app for Superfans.

Role & Responsibilities: Senior Product Designer. Full end-to-end UX process; research, strategy, wireframing, website design, user experience, prototyping, testing and validation.

Tools: Sketch, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite.

Date: 2014

The ChatSnacks IOS app was designed to create fun anonymous chatrooms for people belonging to the same fandoms. Users connected through a social account and were only allowed into fandoms that they followed on social media, ensuring relevant chats and friendships. During the chat users could tap and give likes, share pictures and play games to gain points. Each chat lasted 5 minutes and was then 'munched' and destroyed and the user who had gained the most points was crowned king of the chat. Fast anonymous fun with like-minded fans.

Download my UX process - ChatSnacks Case Study

This products brief from Starcount that fell under the main company manifesto/promise. “Putting Fans First” – the product team needed to create a product that engaged fans of music groups and pop culture.

Research and Workshops

Fan interviews:

We interviewed many fans on phone calls and in group user sessions to discover what their current habits were in social media channels around their fandoms, what products they used and what their experience was like. We discovered that many fans were subject to online bullying and that due to the social networks open system, this was not helped or policed.

Desk research:

We monitored Twitter and other social media applications in fandoms such as One Direction and gathered many examples of online bullying and examples of ‘haters’. We also looked at social chat apps and platforms that were on the rise in popularity, like Telegraph. 

Key Insights:

Fans loved to meet and make new friends on Twitter and in real life at gigs and events. But many found the ’trolling and bullying’ nature of social media a difficult environment.  

We also identified that ‘Chat’ was a growing platform used by millennials in preference of social networks.

Exploration

Product Vision and Development

Product Vision - Our aim was to create a safe and fun place for fans to meet and chat to like-minded peers.

From user needs - to user story workshops - We took the user needs and started to plot the user journeys. These user journeys defined the needs and outcomes required. 

Key Product Ideas

Real fans only: Social credit check - make sure fans really were fans of a particular fandom. We used social connect to check if a fan really was connected and engaging with the band/singer - to ensure that only real fans could enter a chatroom.

Anonymous: By giving all users a fun and anonymous identity we allows fans to have more fun.

Fast: The chat only lasted for 5 minutes and then it was gone. This kept it fast and frivolous. 

Wireframes and Clickable prototypes in (prototype tool)

With these user stories and product ideas we then worked on various wireframes and prototypes using POP and InVision. 

In this stage we would test out different approaches to key navigation, orientation and UI ideas.

Each of these prototypes would then be used in fan workshop sessions and we would talk through the user journey and gain response and feedback.

Design

Interface design and UI 

With the final click-able wireframe being validated we started to work on the interface and UI design. At each phase we would test the new UI designs and gain feedback on the usability.

Quality Assurance  

Super fans and beta testers: We contacted and on boarded 20 key superfans from the One Direction fan base and we launched a first version on IOS. The launch was extremely successful and we were featured in the App Store.

Feedback

On going testing, in app feedback and feedback from Twitter:

We then continued to iterate and test new features. We built a feedback function into the app. We also kept a strong social media presence on Twitter and engaged with all our fans and took note of all feedback. Taking it into account as we developed and released new features.