Say-Less
I set out to understand millennials' relationship with digital communication. Specifically, how digital tools are used to communicate with peers and relatives. With this in mind, I began by conducting 1 on 1 interviews with young professionals between the ages of 23 and 30 during their lunch breaks.
In my conversations with this demographic, I began to find common themes amongst them:
- Digitally they communicate via messenger apps such as iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
- The main Facebook and Instagram apps are used for entertainment and keeping up with news
- Emojis, gif and stickers are often used in conversation with friends and family
- They do prefer iMessage and WhatsApp as they feel cleaner and more sleek
- They use gifs in lieu of emojis/stickers when the latter are not able to easily and quickly communicate the right message
- They create custom stickers on their phones but seldom use them because they’re of sub-standard quality
- Their custom stickers sometimes use specific friends’’ faces for group chat banter and are therefore limiting
Realisation
Throughout the interview process, I realised that my candidates ranged in age, ethnicity and profession. The most prominent and common theme amongst my candidates was their current city of residence, London. As such, I understood that the city of London would play an integral part in my response. With this in mind, I set out to understand my candidates’ experience with London.
London’s status as a multi-cultural melting pot was a recurrent theme. Our distinctive police force and the ever-abuzz festivals, concerts and sporting events were another recurrent point. Our off-licence and fast food shops surfaced as staple pre and post night out institutions.
Armed with this knowledge I went away and created a single personna in order to focus my efforts into solving one user’s problems.
Low-Fidelity Tests
From this point onwards, I set out to test some initial ideas for stickers with low fidelity sketches. This first involved compiling a list of iconic images, places and phrases which would resonate with Ryan. With a preliminary list compiled, I sketched out some of these elements to test the recognition with my target audience
I then took to social media to gauge the recognition potential of the icons with my target audience. Instagram Stories proved very effective for this.
Sticker Design
Using the feedback gathered from my audience, I set about designing the stickers using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
High-Fidelity Tests
Based on my research, packaging the stickers as an add-on pack for messaging services such as iMessage and WhatsApp were the logical choice for ease of usability with my audience. Having settled on starting with iMessage, I created the app using Xcode and set about testing the app with a select group of users through Apple’s TestFlight function. This aided with streamlining and bug-fixing on various devices.
Packaging
Having researched, tested, designed, re-tested and successfully gotten the app approved by Apple, the next step was the packaging of it.
I called the app Say-Less because stickers evidently allowed my audience to say more with less.
My biggest challenge was that the app was to be released during the unprecedented worldwide outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. In March 2020, Europe was the coronavirus Epicenter. Moods were low as a mounting death toll, social distancing, quarantine and self isolation hit the economy and our way of life like a ton of bricks.
However, this did mean that my target audience would now be more plugged into the digital world. Looking at March 2020, VOD saw a 54% increase YoY in the UK, whilst network providers such as 02 had reportedly been increasing their capacity in order to deal the increased demand.
My plan was simple: reactive and empathetic copy and social media posts alongside the strong branding and identity of the app.
Outcome
The first and second photos from the left were part of the initial release post. The copy accompanying the post immediately acknowledged the reader’s quarantined status, whilst offering the distraction of a new sticker pack. The third photo was a post in response to the breaking news of the prime minister contracting the virus. The fourth photo is a screenshot of the sticker pack in the App Store.
You can donwload Say-Less on the app store via this link: Say-Less