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Contributions:
Designer: sketched, wire-framed, & created the hi-fi prototype
Researcher: user interviews, data analysis
Duration:
5 weeks
Inspired by the implicated social rules around read receipts in messaging, my teammate and I designed a new type of receipt for the iMessage architecture called the “Glanced” receipt. This feature allows the user to preview a new message without sending a read receipt right away, while still communicating some information to the sender of the message.
We came up with a new "Glanced" receipt in iMessage for users with read receipts on. This modifications allows users to preview an incoming message without triggering a read receipt right away. We found in our research that users already purposefully preview messages without sending a read receipt for numerous reasons, and designed specifically with this behavior in mind. Previewing an incoming message sends a "Glanced" receipt to the sender until the user decides to fully read and engage with a message. We played with different visual representations and the constraints around the receipt without disrupting the existing iMessage systems.
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We did a literature review on 10 published research articles around read receipts, their impact on the communication and the emotional well-being of users.
We sent out a short-survey about participants online communication habits and attitudes around read receipts. We got responses from 24 participants between the ages 20-35, with all of the participants using online communication for work, school, and/or social life.
The most revealing insight was that most of the participants found ways to get around sending a read receipt but still read the message.
We conducted 5 user interviews with iMessage users, 3 users with read receipts on and 2 off. Our small interview pool allowed us to review each interview and find the pain points. we created user personas to solidify our research findings.
I created user personas and empathy maps based on all our interview transcripts and findings to guide our design. The two types of arching personas were one user very comfortable with read-receipts while another who is unnerved by them.
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I sketched the frames below to give us an idea before we jumped into digital prototyping. The sketches were based on our research and initial brainstorming sessions.
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We showed the sketches to some of our interview participants, as well as my industry mentor Chris Myles, to get feedback before we moved to a higher fidelity. Due to the time constraints of the project, we chose to get feedback early in the design cycle to be able to have the best end prototype.
Our initial idea included a timer starting with the glancing action, which would be indicated by the color of the glanced notification. Our participants were worried that a timer might add to the anxieties around communication. We found the feedback extremely valuable, and strayed away from the idea of a timer attached to this receipt.
I created User Flows of our two main uses cases to guide our design: 1- Glancing at a message and 2- receiving a Glanced receipt.
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We created a high-fidelity prototype on Figma adhering to the iMessage visual language. We wanted to show how the different visual representations might look in the real environment. This fidelity also allowed us to try a dynamic notification.
