GroupMe Polls & Forms

RoleProduct Designer

TimelineMay - July 2024

ToolsFigmaLottie Animations

SkillsPrototypingInteraction DesignStorytelling

GroupMe is a staple messaging app used by universities and local sports clubs to support communication in student organizations, clubs & sports, study groups, and Greek life; loved for its simplicity, big group privacy, and work-life separation.

Context

Revamping

GroupMe has been one of the most retentive consumer apps primarily serving the student population. However, since it’s original acquisition by Microsoft in 2011, the app has been due for a much needed revamp to better resonate with the Gen Z audience. With the advent of Covid and the feeling of social isolation left in its wake, students have felt the need for richer and more personalized online connections. And so...the vision is to make GroupMe the best communication and community app for students by focusing on college campuses.

My RoleI led the polls and forms feature in chat extensions; working alongside a principal designer with the goal of exploring how we can horizontally and vertically expand the capabilities of polls and forms to better serve the student/Gen-Z population.

What's the problem?

A Gap in GroupMe's Polling StoryThrough our research and vision planning, we've identified a broad spectrum of polling experiences. At one end of this spectrum, there's a vision for richer, more fun and expressive polling capabilities. On the other end, there is a user desire for more functionality to fulfill common sign up form scenarios. Currently, GM's polling system is limited to a basic text format. While users can ask a question and offer a set of options, this functionality is quite restricted.

What are the other kids doing?

A Gap in GroupMe's Polling StoryThrough our research and vision planning, we've identified a broad spectrum of polling experiences. At one end of this spectrum, there's a vision for richer, more fun and expressive polling capabilities. On the other end, there is a user desire for more functionality to fulfill common sign up form scenarios. Currently, GM's polling system is limited to a basic text format. While users can ask a question and offer a set of options, this functionality is quite restricted.

Emojis. Bold colors. Images.I explored some of the most popular messaging and social apps used by college students, analyzing trends and how they're used in context. Overall, I noticed that the most engaging and expressive polls are found in apps centered around stories. There's an authenticity to ephemeral content that feels more genuine and relatable. Its temporary nature creates a sense of urgency, encouraging participation since users know the content is short-lived. Emojis, bold colors, and personal images play a prominent role in these interactions.

What have people directly told us?

Sign Up FormsThe idea of a sign up form was initially brought to our attention by GroupMe users who are part of our user research forum community. When you think about student life there are many cases where a sign up form would be very useful like for an event that has limited volunteering slots. Some people have already asked for this feature and even provided suggestions into how we can expand it within the app.

What have people indirectly shown us?

GroupMe + Google Form + Sign Up GeniusGroupMe didn’t have any feature that fulfilled this need. So what were people doing instead? I took to X to see if there was any mention of sign up forms in general. What I found was that when asking people to sign up for an event, users also link a google form or signup genius link to gather information like volunteers, applications, or RSVPs. Its a fairly broad spectrum in terms of how its being used but there’s this constant pairing of GroupMe + a form.

What can we do?

Form a hypothesisPolls are often shared and used by our core demographic today in either Stories or chats. Chat polls have stayed mundane, while Story polls are fresh, easy, and delightful. By bringing lighter polls to chat, we aim to add more fun & utility to the app and, therefore, increase engagement and satisfaction. Integrating a sign-up feature directly into GroupMe would reduce reliance on third-party apps for collecting sign-up information and encourage increased use of GroupMe.

Align on the scopeSign Up Genius is specifically for organizing events and having people sign up for specific tasks or slots. On the other hand, Google Forms is used for more versatile scenarios like gathering information and feedback; and analyzing the responses. We determined that it isn't about re-building a full forms feature but moreso - how can we solve for that 80% use case within GroupMe?

Form a hypothesisPolls are often shared and used by our core demographic today in either Stories or chats. Chat polls have stayed mundane, while Story polls are fresh, easy, and delightful. By bringing lighter polls to chat, we aim to add more fun & utility to the app and, therefore, increase engagement and satisfaction. Integrating a sign-up feature directly into GroupMe would reduce reliance on third-party apps for collecting sign-up information and encourage increased use of GroupMe.

A core GroupMe OKR is to grow NPS to 40 across all platforms. Thus, we can measure success by determining whether these new polls and forms contribute to an increase or decrease to the NPS.

Breaking It DownSince this was an exploratory project, I had autonomy to delve into various creative directions with few limitations. However, recognizing the trends I found in the user research towards incorporating fun and customizable elements like images and emojis, we concentrated on developing poll types that integrated these features. In the end, we decided on 2 poll types that ranged from functional to expressive, testing a comprehensive coverage of user needs and preferences.

Design Considerations

1. Sign up form: what information to highlight?

Initially, I included both avatars and the number of slots for each option. However, based on user feedback, users prefer having more space to write text instead of seeing who else has signed up. Perhaps, that info can be shown in the detailed voter view. Recommended: Option 3

Option 1Show slots

Option 2Highlight the avatars

Option 3More text space

2. React poll: optimize for mobile real estate?

Designing for mobile means less real estate to work with. Although option 1 prompts the user on how to vote, I ultimately went for option 2 with the modification of making the buttons feel more interactive by increasing the ‘3D effects’. Recommended: Option 2

Option 1Guide users

Option 2Rely on contextual cues

3. Layout: current in-app patterns vs new?

A design consideration I had was: Should the layout follow current in-app patterns for familiarity and consistency, or introduce new, innovative layouts to push the user experience forward? With encouragement from the principal designer I was collaborating with, I leaned towards a more innovative approach and ultimately decided to move forward with the second option. Recommended: Option 2

Option 1Aligned with current in-app patterns

Option 2More modern and playful

PrototypingI created prototypes for the E2E flow of all poll types for various reasons:

Testing and validation to gather user feedback

Animation: Mobile apps rely heavily on touch interactions. Animations provide visual feedback that makes these interactions feel more responsive and intuitive

Identify usability issues and make necessary adjustments

Facilitate better communication with stakeholders in order to align on user scenarios

Design Considerations

Final Designs

GroupMe polls & forms

Closing the gap - more expressive, dynamic and functional polls & forms.

Entry PointThe entry point uses a carousel to provide context on what the poll/sign up forms would look like and what it can be used for.

Playful & personalizable polls directly in chatsBringing the playfulness and personability of story polls to create richer, more engaging community chats.

Seamless in-chat sign-up processSign up forms embedded into the GroupMe chat experience; ensuring the seamless management and collection of community members for volunteer positions, event roles and general sign ups.

Image Poll and Rating PollOn top of the React Poll and Sign Up Form, I also explored two other poll types on the expressive end of the spectrum.

What's Next?

Testing---

Building the Building BlocksThis dynamic exploratory project culminated in a pitch to the larger GroupMe team. It sparked incredible enthusiasm, perfectly aligning with the team’s broader revamp efforts. Next up, we dove into the details, tackling more granular components like an emoji picker to be used across the app, theme picker with a theme management system (GMTMS), and a juicier poll voting state.

Expanding on Sign Up FormsSign up forms required more in-depth exploration. How would it fit in with the GroupMe Events feature? The current iteration only has slots and the associated quantity. Would sign up creators want more functionality? These are all questions to explore and test with our user research community in the next iteration.

What did I learn?

Make Thoughtful ImprovementsAt a startup, almost everything you develop adds significant value because you're often starting from scratch. But at GroupMe, I was building upon layers of existing work and future plans that would impact other teams and features. I realized that applying a much higher level of thoughtfulness is crucial for designing within more matured products.

Connect design rationale to business outcomesDeveloping business literacy allows us to speak the language of other departments, enabling us to present our work in a way that non-designers can understand, appreciate, and fully support.

Build mindfully.