Snapchat
Snapchat is a mobile photo editing app created by Snap Inc.
What I Did
Created and sent out surveys to 44 participants, conducted market research, and created the final 55 page report.
Goals
Conduct market research to determine usability issues in Snapchat from online reviews and ratings and my own experiences using the app. Surveys were used to find further issues.
Results
The main issues found were visibility and discover-ability of features as well as feedback issues with unsent snaps.
Recommendation
Making a more in-depth tutorial that covers all the features in the app.
Role |
Sole Researcher |
For |
Academic Project |
Date |
Sep 2016 – Dec 2016 |
Type |
Heuristic Evaluation |
Methods |
Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis, Survey, Market Research, Usability Principles, Levels of Severity |
Tools |
Snapchat Mobile App, Surveys |
Project Link |
drive.google.com/file/d/0B0HhmL9NYEVhMWVmdFNpVFZ1ZkE/view?usp=sharing |
For this project I was given the app Snapchat to perform a heuristic evaluation on. The primary things I was asked to do were to:
Perform market research on the app’s usability issues from online reviews and ratings, as well as my own experiences using it.
Create a survey to query participants on usability issues they encountered during their experiences with the app.
Create a heuristic evaluation determining what the issues found during the query and create suggestions on how to fix them.
Market Research
I started by going through reviews of Snapchat online and my own experiences looking at the app. I focused only on issues reported that related to usability. And at this stage for our my look at the app, I thought about what was confusing immediately to use as a basis for starting my heuristic evaluation.
User Research
Question: Which of the following actions do you KNOW HOW TO perform in Snapchat? (choose all that apply)
A survey was created to determine usability issues from any type of Snapchat user (e.g. used it once to uses it every day). The main goals of the survey were to determine:
Regularly used actions.
If the users knew about certain features in Snapchat.
Recognition of the 13 Snapchat Friend Emojis.
Ease-of-use.
Issues they have with Snapchat.
(Left: Hard-to-find “My Eyes Only” feature) (Right: Poor interface for snaps failing to send, as well as confusing Friend Emojis)
The main issues I found in Snapchat had to do with:
The app has too many features that the majority of users accidentally stumble upon or know about already but never actually use.
Because of the users’ enjoyment of filters, how to enable them should be made more clear in the tutorial, and the interface should give better clues as to how to activate them.
Snaps that fail to send should have a better interface for deciding whether to cancel them for good or try to send them in a few more minutes.
Friend Emojis are slightly confusing as to what each one symbolizes.
