How would users communicate in this scenario?
Many users wanted a way to send short and quick messages. A user mentioned: ‘It would be nice if WhatsApp can suggest me ‘on the go’ responses like my smart watch does’. In lieu of this, decided to Introduce personalized message suggestions for each conversation
I also learned that while driving, users don’t prefer to type messages, and that they would instead resort to calling, or sending voice messages. Some users mentioned that they would like sending ‘voice to text’ messages too. Hence, I decided to prototype calling, typing, and voice to text messages. Which mode of communication would users choose? I was about to find out from my evaluation sessions.
How to find frequent contacts quickly?
Although enlarged UI size enhanced readability, it signifcantly reduced the information displayed. This was especially an issue on the Chats view where the screen can fit in only 4-5 recent chats. Using the search bar to search contacts involves a lot of cognitive load and time. How will a user access frequent contacts with ease? To solve this, I added a Favorites section on the Chats view similar to the Calls view. This section would list frequent contacts which are usually contacted when the user is in transit.
How to build willingness to use WhatsApp Car View?
Users were unsure whether they would be willing to use their phone while the car was driving. A major concern was that they wanted to know when they needed to take over. Usually Level 3 cars notify drivers to take over on the car dashboard. What if users missed this notification? To tackle this problem, I decided to introduce a pop-up to notify users when their car needed them to take control.
I added a ‘Turn off Car View’ option in the overflow menu incase a user wanted to turn off the car view in certain circumstances.
How to make an intuitive switch from WhatsApp to WhatsApp Car View?
As users would be using WhatsApp when they’re not driving, they would need an intuitive switch to the WhatsApp car view. Therefore, I needed to make sure that the UI for the Car vIew wasn’t too different for the users to reorient themselves on switching to this view.
Users wanted to see the profile picture of their contacts in the chats view as they are accustomed to identify contacts based on profile picture on WhatsApp. Hence, I reverted to display contacts’ profile picture for the chats log. Morevover, users wanted to see a glimpse of exchanged messages in the chats view for context. Therefore, I changed my design to show a glimpse of exchanged messages.