Blrt
Communication app
Company: Thinkun
Platform: Mobile app
Tasks: User Research, Prototyping, Design System
Year: 2019
Project Overview
Blrt is an innovative messaging app with the talk, point, draw tools on images or documents. The interactive file could be utilised for recording a verbal presentation and highlighting key points on the canvas. Given its powerful feature for more efficient in remote communication, the product is facing challenges to attract new users.
Our design goal is to increase news users’ interest in this app, helping them explore the features and develop the best practice of using the Blrt app in their industry for more efficient communication. Based on the findings from user research on the Blrt beginner, we redesign the onboarding journey, interaction of Blrt creation and the general UI with a new design system.
Identify User Pain Points
User Research
Conducting user research is the first step to understanding the users’ real needs. We both interview Blrt users and observe their behaviour while using the Blrt app.
Combining users’ subjective feedback and the objective insight from observation, we identify a series of critical issues they are struggling by categorising with affinity maps and then summarise findings into the persona - the agile communicators and their first using journey in Blrt.
Affinity map of user behaviour
Observation of user behaviour
Persona - The Agile Communicators
The agile communicators work small to medium businesses where require lots of back-and-forth conversations with clients or stakeholders remotely. They have a medium level of computer skills and they are comfortable with voice-record messages over text-based message. Instead of spending too much time on curating a proper presentation, they value the agility and mobility. They prefer a verbal presentation in a few minutes rather than making a formal keynote for hours.
Empathy is the key leading to efficient conversations. The agile communicators understand the difficulty of remote communication. Even it might be an informal conversation, they still care about the quality of the presentation. Using the right tool can assist their verbal presentation talking through a text-heavy doc or an image to ensure audiences are on the same page. They need a tool for marking or taking notes on the file temporally. Their goal is to use minimum efforts to make audiences (clients or stakeholders) get their points and save time for doing other important tasks.
User onboarding journey map
Design Strategy
Simplify The Onboarding Journey
To distinguish the Blrt app from other competitors, the core feature is moved ahead to be a part of the onboarding journey. Without 20+ steps to reach the unique part of the app, users can experience it and assess if the app meets their needs in the first place.
Introduce Customised Samples
“Users never know what they want.”
- Steve Jobs
It is a challenge to convince people to try the new things that they are unfamiliar with. They cannot imagine how this new tool brings benefit to their lives. Therefore, we define some potential groups and create customised samples in the onboarding journey to show them the scenarios of using the Blrt app in their industries. They can be inspired by the sample and try to make their first Blrt file then.
Add customised samples to the new user onboarding flow
Establish a UI System with Consistent Style
The interaction must be smooth when users switch tools during recording a Blrt file. Considering the Blrt canvas in the small mobile screen, the toolbar has to be compromised and designed with layers. The tool options are prioritised based on the use frequency.
Results and Next step
Our new design gets significant results. The completion rate of onboarding journey increase by 31% and the success rate of new account registration grows by 24%. However, there are still lots of users leave after watching tutorials and the number of DAU does not increase as we expected. So our next step is:
Attract More New Users
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Target more potential groups and make customised tutorials for them
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Iteration for the Blrt canvas design
Make Existing Users Stay
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Enhance the file management feature
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Develop professional features for advance users