Developing GroupBuy Community Chat to allow buyers and hosts to communicate in a safe and convenient way.
Overview
The TreeDots Community Chat is a place where Hosts (CP Owners) and users (buyers) who buy on the TreeDots app can talk to each other. Users still don't like how the chat features don't meet their needs when chatting to Hosts, so many Hosts and buyers use other messaging apps. Actually, all communication or information exchange outside of the TreeDots app is not our part of the role if something undesirable event happens, but it is more important to us to prevent that from happening, we think this feature is very important for users and the host to keep information exchange safe for both parties.
My Role
Sr. UIUX Designer
My Team
Maria Popravko (PM), Naomi Abano (APM)
Identifying Problems
We talked to Hosts and asked users to fill out questionnaires to find out how important the chat function is to them. In simple terms, we ask: Does having a chat with the Host influence their decisions?
64% said they would use chat before buying a product, thus influencing their buying decision."
Based on that data, we follow up on the reasons why they value chat. The majority reason is people want to know if the seller (host) is responsive or not, they want more information about a product that doesn't have a full description, or there's a problem with the transaction.
Formulating Solutions
This chat feature will be based on the Group Buy system, which requires buyers to join or deal together to buy several items at the same time at a Collection Point. We have to think about two users: the buyer and the host (owner of Collection Point). Then, based on what users wanted, we made some basic rules, which are:
- . Users can only do 1:1 chat with the Host (Direct Message)
- Users can discuss/chat with other users in the community chat
To implement the selected basic rules, we divide users into two categories based on the sort of chat they will be engaging in: private and community. This will make it easier for the user to find the person they want to talk/chat to on the Chat Inbox page.
Another thing that needs to be pointed out is that the user can only see the chat history of Hosts or Communities that he has already talked to or joined on the Inbox page. So that chat history doesn't pile up on the Inbox page. What happens if a user wants to chat with a different host? So users can start by looking for the host on the page for the collection point.
Another thing that needs to be pointed out is that the user can only see the chat history of Hosts or Communities that he has already talked to or joined on the Inbox page. So that chat history doesn't pile up on the Inbox page. What happens if a user wants to chat with a different host? So users can start by looking for the host on the page for the collection point.
Design Result
The main goal of this project is to figure out how to get users to switch to using the chat feature from within our app. We know that users choose to use another messaging app because they are already familiar with the app. We heard that users almost always communicate through the app, so one way to design the chat feature is to make it look and feel as much like the app they usually use as possible. It looks simple, but it's not. Because that means we have to find the limits of what we can design so that it doesn't look more than 50% like what our users are used to, and we also have to keep changing our design style. Please know that our users are not people who pick up new technologies and features easily. Usually, they are middle-age adult. After doing some research and finding out what chat features they usually use, we wrote them down and turned them into designs as below:
Let’s Work Together - Let’s Work Together - Let’s Work Together - Let’s Work Together - Let’s Work Together -
I'm available for freelance as a Product Designer or Webflow Developer. Furthermore, a collaborative effort of any kind.
