Snapchat Passion Project - Research |
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What is Snapchat and what is wrong with their platform?
In this day and age, social media has become an extension of our everyday lives. The ability to feel connected and intimate with our friends (or even strangers) seems to be a fundamental barometer for satisfaction in today’s society. Whatever happened to calling and seeing how your friend was doing? Or meeting a person for a very first time and having a sense of mystery about them? Today, with the collection of data and the availability of information on personal profiles, humans interact much differently than how they did a century ago. Personally, I prefer the conventional way of interacting with other humans - but I digress.
Today we tackle something that has brought great negative attention in terms of User Experience. We explore Snapchat’s redesign of their social media application.
If you have not heard of Snapchat before, it is a mobile application that allows its users to interact with other users in visual form through photos and videos. The idea is that a photo or a video that is sent will only last for a duration of time. This was intended to create a sense of urgency and a natural means of interacting with other users. Snapchat, to its core is focused on private interactions that keeps the user attached and looks to engage their users with delightful filters that can change how we interact through video.
In an attempt to generate more revenue by mistakenly selling out to a storm of advertising is something that certainly backfired. The #1 rule of UX design was broken.
Today we tackle something that has brought great negative attention in terms of User Experience. We explore Snapchat’s redesign of their social media application.
If you have not heard of Snapchat before, it is a mobile application that allows its users to interact with other users in visual form through photos and videos. The idea is that a photo or a video that is sent will only last for a duration of time. This was intended to create a sense of urgency and a natural means of interacting with other users. Snapchat, to its core is focused on private interactions that keeps the user attached and looks to engage their users with delightful filters that can change how we interact through video.
In an attempt to generate more revenue by mistakenly selling out to a storm of advertising is something that certainly backfired. The #1 rule of UX design was broken.
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If you did not already know... |
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That’s right, USER first! I can’t blame Snapchat though, it is a business entity and needs to prioritize revenue and its stakeholders. UX, however, must be the #1 priority.
I’m a graphs and numbers geek so here you go:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/snapchat-user-count/
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https://www.statista.com/chart/7951/snapchat-user-growth/
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As you can see, the user growth has been increasingly disappointing for Snapchat through 2016 and 2017. In the year 2018 through Q1-Q3, a decline was seen.
Study Objectives
The main objective of this study is to identify the user’s negative flow experiences and problems while being on this social media platform. What caused the decline in growth over the last few years. Is it a question of poor UX revisions? Or was it because it simply just did not hold up against its competitors?
We want to discover what factors contributed to the decline of growth for the last 4 years and eventually a decline in growth in the year 2018.
By the end of the study, we want to establish an understanding of the users of Snapchat, and recommend a solution to build growth based on collected data and analytics.
We want to discover what factors contributed to the decline of growth for the last 4 years and eventually a decline in growth in the year 2018.
By the end of the study, we want to establish an understanding of the users of Snapchat, and recommend a solution to build growth based on collected data and analytics.
Strategy & Methodology
Framework & Criteria
It is imperative that this research addresses both Quantitative and Qualitative insights that we can draw from the user interviews. For the purpose of this research, Guerrilla testing will be heavily relied upon as well as ethnographic field studies to observe the user’s natural use of the application.
It is imperative that this research addresses both Quantitative and Qualitative insights that we can draw from the user interviews. For the purpose of this research, Guerrilla testing will be heavily relied upon as well as ethnographic field studies to observe the user’s natural use of the application.
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I wanted to make sure that there were no leading questions. The goal is to identify experiences within the flow that was negative for the user.
Participants
The demographic will be of a sample size of 23
Breakdown of demographic:
I wanted to see if I can narrow down the target market by asking how relevant users found social media to be in today’s society. An age range of 16-52 was initially asked to rate how much society values social media from a scale of 1-10 (10 being highly valued). If the answers were at less than 3 and just did not know enough about social media and snapchat, I excluded them from the study.
In total, there were 23 users that were interviewed that fell between 16 to 34 years old, had thought of themselves as tech savvy and had at least 2 modes of social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, etc.) that they use daily.
Narrowing the user research can give us a better idea of what demographic dropped off and specifically why they dropped off. This is an attempt to limit time with users that did not know social media and had no real insight on snapchat’s flow.
I wanted to see if I can narrow down the target market by asking how relevant users found social media to be in today’s society. An age range of 16-52 was initially asked to rate how much society values social media from a scale of 1-10 (10 being highly valued). If the answers were at less than 3 and just did not know enough about social media and snapchat, I excluded them from the study.
In total, there were 23 users that were interviewed that fell between 16 to 34 years old, had thought of themselves as tech savvy and had at least 2 modes of social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, etc.) that they use daily.
Narrowing the user research can give us a better idea of what demographic dropped off and specifically why they dropped off. This is an attempt to limit time with users that did not know social media and had no real insight on snapchat’s flow.
Interview(Guerrilla Testing)
Questions were structured in ways that were open ended. In developing the questioning, I had to ensure that the interview wasn’t being led. Most interviews were from friendly coffee shops all over Toronto. The interviews lasted about 15 minutes and consisted of questions that were meant to draw insight from the user. There were a total of 17 user interviews with some probing questions.
The line of questioning included the following (after some warm up questions of course!):
Why do people use social media applications?
What kind of social media do you use?
What do you like the most and the least about social media apps?
Why do people use Snapchat?
When was the last time you used Snapchat?
What was your experience with Snapchat?
What do you like the most and the least about Snapchat?
What kind of social media do you use?
What do you like the most and the least about social media apps?
Why do people use Snapchat?
When was the last time you used Snapchat?
What was your experience with Snapchat?
What do you like the most and the least about Snapchat?
Focus Group
I was fortunate enough to have a group of 8 Snapchat users and ex users to deep dive on to the issues that users are having with Snapchat.
For the purpose of this specific focus group. I was able to have the attention of Snapchat users and ex users (8 Participants - 2 Users/6 ex) that ranged from 18-24 years of age.
For the purpose of this specific focus group. I was able to have the attention of Snapchat users and ex users (8 Participants - 2 Users/6 ex) that ranged from 18-24 years of age.
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Format of the Focus Group:
1. Introduction of Product (Snapchat) and discussion boundaries 2. General Topics (General use, positives and negatives) -Discuss why Snapchat is so popular -Discuss why you think people use snapchat -Discuss why you use/used snapchat -Discuss the positives of Snapchat -Discuss negatives of Snapchat -Discuss possibilities of Growth and User decline 3. Specific Topics -Discuss Discovery Page -Discuss ease of friend add -Discuss ease of use 4. Summation of conversation and additional comments. |
Findings
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This was something that was extra that I had thrown in to get some more insights on Snapchat and troubles with its new features and flow.
Ironically, Instagram - a direct competitor of Snapchat, allowed me to easily send out a ‘Story’ or a public photo/video and easily get responses. |
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Some of the responses were enlightening…
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It was apparent that there were social media apps that had more exposure (more following, likes, comments, etc.). It seemed that Instagram did everything that Snapchat was doing and used it as an extension for their already massive audience. Snapchat became an app that was redundant for a lot of users.
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Adding an account/user you liked was not easy at all. *To be fair, this may have been because Snapchat wanted to run with the feature that took advantage of the idea that privacy is desirable.
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The idea really was just easily emulated and the audience housed the growth naturally.
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It also seems that the emojis and the filters are still a strong selling point for the user, but for how long?
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Users are finding ways to get around using filters… some prefer to post it on their insta stories instead.
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Interesting, there is definitely an issue here, and if Snapchat does not address this now, it could be trouble.
Ethnographic field studies
I had also asked the user to share their interaction with the app in accomplishing three main tasks from the homepage
I had also asked the user to share their interaction with the app in accomplishing three main tasks from the homepage
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1. Send a private photo or message to their friend
2. Add a friend 3. See a friend’s story |
5 Non-users (not part of 23): Mobile users that have not downloaded Snapchat for themselves. The goal was to try and see if they were able to navigate their way through a task without ever seeing the app.
7 Users: 7 users that are still using the application, they will be more familiar with navigating through the app.
16 No longer a user: There are users that have deleted the app and are now inactive users. The sample size varies from 3 weeks removed from the app to 2 years.
7 Users: 7 users that are still using the application, they will be more familiar with navigating through the app.
16 No longer a user: There are users that have deleted the app and are now inactive users. The sample size varies from 3 weeks removed from the app to 2 years.
Send a private photo or message to their friend
Add a friend
See a friend's story
It definitely felt like there was a little bit of frustration from the users when asked to perform certain tasks. New users will certainly have to go through a discovery phase, clicking interactions with ‘trial and error’.
Interesting Insights
What people use Snapchat for
- Private, intimate messaging that has a temporary nature.
- Updated Filter Use.
- Stories for POV of peers.
- Snapchat's new layout was very confusing to use.
- Besides new filters, Snapchat has not added any considerable amount of features.
- Did not improve 'add friend' flow.
Talk about contradictory...
The findings were interesting. The core that uses Snapchat currently or have previously used it loved the fact that it was exclusive and was infatuated with the expiring nature of the app. That ultimately is what attracted users to Snapchat. However, users that have dropped off from using Snapchat said that it simply was not enough compared to other social media platforms out there. In a sense, Snapchat’s platform no longer offered something that had a competitive advantage. Instead, it resisted to evolve into something that was going to incorporate photos and saved memories - eventually into personal branding. When it did, it was rushed and quite frankly too late. Its competitors saw something that could have been easily emulated and did. This forced Snapchat to emulate its competitors but drew away from its true form and main offering - which was to exclusively send messages to peers that expired shortly after.
Certainly there are other factors that Snapchat must consider, business objectives, revenue through advertising or other means. That can be advocated for in another analysis. In UX however, when the User is sacrificed for such goals, the ramifications are catastrophic.
Certainly there are other factors that Snapchat must consider, business objectives, revenue through advertising or other means. That can be advocated for in another analysis. In UX however, when the User is sacrificed for such goals, the ramifications are catastrophic.
Recommendations
What I am about to offer is shocking. It is something that exudes humility but shows that with many things, identity is something that should be valued. My suggestion is to go back to the old days and simplify the user experience to build a community that wants to send shadow or temporary messages to an exclusive group of friends. Revert back to what has worked before and capitalize. Certainly if Snapchat were able to strike without much delay when Instagram stole their model, they may have had a chance. This recommendation is to go back to the roots and make the user experience very simple to use - with no selling out. Something that just works and will give users the chance to use something that is familiar.
Something out of this world...but might be an interesting feature...
A redesign of the old platform, but with a little twist. This is something that addresses what has worked before but also addresses something innovative that users and organizations can get behind. The users have spoken. It is a POV feature that will include a Snap or a video clip that shows a Point of view of a celebrity, or an athlete during a game. It may be a cheap little gimmick that will allow Snapchat to punch first and gain (or regain) market share. This is how it would look:
Working off of the idea that live stories offer, the POV feature will only allow the viewing of a specific event from the point of view of whoever they are following. It could be a hockey game, football game, even a concert. There are endless ways to share experiences through the eyes of Snapchat. Now there are certainly many things that go into this venture, sponsors, vendors, content creators will need to be aligned monetarily in order to gain some value. Now of course there will be the question of how we are able to implement and record POV experiences. Wearable technology is advancing and it is making it possible for users to be creative with how they record. Certainly taking a look at something in this direction could work.
All in all, Snapchat’s app isn’t that it is bad, it is because it has lost what users loved in the first place — something that is easy to use.
All in all, Snapchat’s app isn’t that it is bad, it is because it has lost what users loved in the first place — something that is easy to use.