SMS Organiser
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
How often do we visit our SMS inbox? We often do visit for some or other reason, not because we want to, but because we have to. This project was to build a organised SMS inbox.
THE DESEIGN CHALLENGE
Going through SMS inbox has always been a pain as it is filled with mostly unwanted promotional SMS and thus we miss out on crucial information. The challenge was to filter out clutter and surface the right information at the right time without userintervention.
THE BIGGEST HURDLE
In the present day, SMS is not a medium that majority user cares for. Pushing this idea to the stakeholders and aligning the thought process was a good hurdle that we overcame.
THE IMPACT
Yes indeed, the team pitched the idea in Microsoft Hackathon 2015 and won in the outstanding category and got funding. The mobile app started as a garage project and was successfully opened for public with 100K+ downloads till date.
It has also been featured as the best SMS app in the country by numerous articles and blogs.
USER STORY
THINKING OUT LOUD
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Why do people us SMS app
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What do people look for in SMS inbox?
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When do people use SMS ?
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How can we make the SMS inbox better?
3 steps of my design solution
ORGANISE
The first step was to organise the SMS landscape so that it is optimised for our star persona.
In our case, we chose Information workers as the main persona as they are the ones who are most indulged with transactions and covers a great number in terms of SMS engagement and is the most impacted market segment.
SET PRIORITY
Understanding our star persona was really important to ease them through their pain points. The step involved user interviews, their daily interaction with transactions. And how often they have faced issues with respect to SMS.
How can we think of a good interaction model for the type of SMS we have.
SHOWCASE
A very important step was to implement the solutions we thought of which might be a probable easing experience for our persona. Most of it involved showcasing the right SMS at the right place.
"What if? SMS may not be in form of SMS "
Understanding SMS landscape in India
We looked into the messages which a typical Indian user gets in his SMS inbox and tried to categorize into different broad sections viz., task-related, personal, promotional, notifications and spams.
SMS Landscape
We identified each of the above-mentioned categories varies in terms of volume and also the priority with respect for different users, and we realized the need to draw an overall priority map of each of the categories based on focus group discussion and interviews.
The priority order map we derived based on user feedback with their respective SMS app usage.
Priority order
high
low
The UI and user flow story
We started with different app IA structure and eliminated each by the pros and cons
Deciding the screen layout
Here our goal was to come down to the most optimal view for the user wrt SMS viewing and taking action after viewing
One view
Pros
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Every category is on one canvas.
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Easy access to each categories
Cons
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All category on one canvas limits real estate.
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Non-scalable when the categories increases.
Two tabs approach
Pros
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Contextual SMS gets visibility.
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Promotion and other SMS gets separate secondary canvas.
Cons
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User might not realise that there is something extra for them in the app
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Chances of missing promotional SMS or transactional SMS
Individual tab for categories
Pros
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Very Straight forward.
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Easy navigation.
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No confusion
Cons
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User might not understand what message turns into cards.
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All SMS can have the similar expectation from user
How did we clear clutter inside inbox?
Identifying the clutter
We identified each individual SMS which was adding to this clutter and was finding a way to minimize them by smartly grouping them.
Single thread for one provider
When we looked at the bank SMS there were different categories of SMS which use to come from the same bank with different numbers. These messages include
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Important notification such as balance info, notices, etc.
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Promotion offers.
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Transaction details
With ML models we could identify this SMS from one entity by separate id and clubbed them as a single sender.
Simpler Task Flow
Receiving OTP over SMS for authorization in various financial and online activities is one of the observed repeated activities of our star persona.
The simple task of authorization includes
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Opening the SMS app
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Browse through the cluttered list of SMS
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Open the SMS
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Copy the code
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Go back to the primary app
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Paste the OTP
Our experience reduced the task to just 2 simple steps
Prioritised information
SMS which had a task associated were converted to beautiful information cards with actions. In addition, we parsed the content and intelligently showcased it only when it was relevant..
Designing the card structure
A train ticket
A movie ticket
A credit card bill
Card behavior
First entry when the card is relevant
On lockscreen
Home page mini view
Active card inside app
Home page
Expired card
Reminder
Reminders
The App: Key Screens
Microsoft SMS Organizer- Commercial ad
Microsoft SMS Organizer – Never Miss An Update
Key Learnings
As a designer, this project was a good opportunity to get an overall experience of designing a product right from scratch. The team was doing this project as a part-time and we made it to a full-fledged product which users are using and claiming to be one of the best in the country.
Another learning was, working alongside PM and developers in the very initial stage of my career made me understand how business and design go hand in hand.
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