The product design team had a process pain point regarding in-app communication. With no UX writers on the team, product designers had to make ad hoc judgment calls with each new request from product or marketing to promote things in the app. This resulted in inconsistency of copy and component use across the project; there was no centralized strategy, process, or guidance for how to handle different types of information in a contextually appropriate way.

I volunteered to lead an exploration of communication surfaces, and deliver best practices for designers to use in making decisions in the future.

From previous research, I had several hypotheses and objectives that made me interested in this work. I believed that people were tuning out and ignoring or not seeing important messages, some of which required action. Software developers are particularly sensitive to anything that feels like “marketing” in their workspace; we needed to avoid any non-critical messages interrupting tasks. We needed to develop a hierarchy of importance; we needed to avoid annoying users or cheapening the experience with too much promotion. Imagine banners, modals, pop-ups, and icons promoting marketing events, critical billing information, and new features to try all at once.

We also needed to develop an opinion on different ways that messages should appear across our brand properties – what are the right format(s) and channel(s) for different kinds of messages? Just because a team wants to promote their thing in-app, it might not be the right channel, and we needed to give designers rationale they could lean on in those conversations.

Here is the overall process I took:

• Led a team activity to brainstorm and agree on a definition of in-app communication surfaces.
• Literature review: A timeboxed review of industry and academic research on best practices for communication surfaces; share for review.
• Compile a list of attributes and purposes of different messages – what are the axes we need to consider in this hierarchy?
• Craft initial recommendations for how messages should be presented; share for review.
• Lead a team audit of current in-app communication components – note which ones uphold or violate recommendations.
• Make recommendations for current components that should be changed or retired
• Make recommendations for components designers should consider exploring
• Document and make findings widely available.

See results