Taking what we know about our users, Eden was created to represent our target audience. To guide design decisions, I kept this persona in mind to stay focused on our users wants and needs.

As a social butterfly, Eden is often involved in group chats to take part in planning and event organising. Group polls is a feature he will benefit from as it’s a easy way for him to do so, in addition, the feature can help him do this all in one app.

From user interviews, we learned that polls would be a great solution to make planning and decision making easier. Within the task flow and user flow, I added a new step for poll creation where users can access and create a poll within WhatsApp.

Before I start building out wireframes, I sketched out potential designs for how the poll feature might look and what the set up might be.

As I was sketching, I considered WhatsApp’s current design to decide where the new feature might sit and how it would be accessed in a way that makes most sense for users to find and use.

For prototype testing, users were tasked to locate, create and utilise the poll within a WhatsApp group chat.

• Test the ease of use regarding the navigation and flow of the design.
• Test how users locate new feature within the app and how they use the new functionality.
• Observe how quickly and easily users can create and use a poll.
• Observe any areas of hesitation, confusion, difficulty.

• Poll creation
• Poll voting

• Users are going to look for the feature in order to access and create a poll.
• User are going to create a poll by filling out the relevant information and set specific poll requirements.
• Users are going to add a new option.
• Users are going to vote and un-vote within the poll.
• Users are going to view the results.

Note: This prototype includes the priority revisions that were made after the usability tests.

• All participants agreed the new feature was clear, simple to use and easy to follow.
• Participants liked the implementation of the feature - it fits with WhatsApp’s (iOS) design and makes sense.
• One user felt the poll feature is helpful as it allows you to collect definitive answers from group participants without having to sift through messages.
• A few commented that the poll subject could be more distinctive once published within the group chat as it is for the poll question.
• One user said it would be useful to have the option to pin the poll to the top of the chat feed so that it doesn’t become lost as messages come through - this could be implemented as part of WhatsApp’s feature roadmap.

Updated votes message within chat feed

Participants noted that having the voting options with the majority percentage votes and how many votes are against each response in text alone presents a bland and boring feel. More effort is required upon the user to analyse each vote and the result.

Now, a coloured bar has been added to visually show which vote has the majority. It makes it easier and quicker for users to register the winning vote.

Updated results screen

Participants have said listing participant names present a cluttered look and by having images instead, it will look visually appealing and easier to digest when analysing the responses.

Profile icons have been used instead of detailing the names of voters in the results view as it would result in a long list of text especially if WhatsApp allows 500 users in a group chat.