SNAPCHAT
USABILITY TESTING & REDESIGN
Easy to start. Efficient to master.
My Role
Led UX/UI design
UX researcher
Prototyper
Motion Designer
Skills Involved
User Research
Usability Testing
Prototyping
My Team
Dawna Zhang
Yiping Lin
Xuanzi Cao
Duration
10 weeks
The Challenge
Fragmented Conversations
& Limited Guidance
The Problem
Snapchat’s chat interface mixes multiple content types without clear hierarchy and provides limited onboarding, reducing clarity, usability, and increasing interaction errors.
our goals
Validate interaction complexity, cluttered information display, and learning barriers by gathering insights from new users (onboarding, learnability) and experienced users (efficiency, satisfaction).
Objectives of the Usability Testing
For Users
Retain existing users by enhancing their overall experience while attracting new users to join the platform.
Focus on improving the Chat features to strengthen engagement and user retention.
For Business
Drive sustainable revenue growth by increasing Snapchat+ subscriptions and improving user conversion rates.
Expand the user base and strengthen advertising and brand partnership opportunities.
Participant Recruitment Plan
Participant Breakdown by Age Group & Experience Level
We planed to recruit 16 participants representing a balanced mix of genders, age groups, and technology experience levels to ensure diverse perspectives. The group will include both novice and experienced users of mobile communication platforms, allowing us to observe distinct patterns in behavior, expectations, and challenges for a more complete understanding of user interaction.
Participant Recruitment Plan
Recruitment Strategy
We adopted a clear and friendly recruitment approach to attract participants who represent our target audience. A screening process will be conducted through a Google Form shared via digital link and QR code to ensure participants fit our criteria. This balanced composition allows us to gather diverse insights across different experience levels for a more comprehensive usability evaluation.
Testing Process & Metrics
Methodology
Quantitative Data
Task completion rate
Task completion time (per task)
Error encountered
Quiz success rate
System usability score
Qualitative Data
Screening form responses
Verbalization & Behavior
Post-task interview responses
Observed user frustrations and quick fixes
Study Process
Screening
Task Performance
Post-Test Questions
Quiz (Icon recognition)
SUS Questionnaire
Task Description
Task Tested
Data Analysis
Quantitative data
task completion time
On average, new users spent 43 seconds longer per task than experienced users.
Task click error counted
In task3, new users made 22 more click errors than experienced users. From here, everything makes sense.
Task Completion Rate
While the completion rate was high, many users, especially new users, completed tasks through indirect paths.
System Usability Scale (SUS)
New users rated Snapchat 43.44, which falls into not acceptable.
Key Insights
Issues to solve
Message List View
Multiple gestures (long-press, swipe) live in the same small area, each triggering a different action
No clear visual distinction between actions, causing hesitation and misclicks for first-time users
Chat Screen
Actions like "Save," "Reply," and "Forward" only appear after long-press or swipe, hidden from view by default
Icons lack text labels, making their function unclear
Lack of Onboarding
Minimal in-app guidance for gesture-based interactions
Users can't easily tell if a message has been saved, or how to reply with a Snap
Lack of UI Cues (Messaging List)
Unclear distinction between message states (sent vs. unsent, opened vs. unopened)
Media type icons (photo, video, text) are hard to tell apart at a glance
Overall Impact
Gesture-heavy design reduces intuitiveness compared to other messaging apps
Increases cognitive load and lowers user confidence during everyday use
What I learned from this project
Reflection
Measuring Learning, Not Just Performance
Looking back, we should have included icon recognition in both the pre- and post-test. Without it, we couldn’t clearly capture users’ initial understanding or see how much they learned after completing the tasks. This was a missed opportunity in our testing setup and a clear takeaway for improving future studies.
Tiered Tasks by User Expertise
In retrospect, our tasks were too basic for experienced Snapchat users, who finished them almost instantly. This meant we focused more on if users could complete tasks, rather than how they did them, limiting deeper insights. Introducing a “Same Tasks, Tiered Difficulty” approach earlier would have helped us capture a wider range of behaviors and better understand both beginners’ discoverability issues and experienced users’ efficiency needs.
Testing in Context, Not in Isolation
Adding realistic scenarios to our usability tasks helped surface deeper insights into how users handle multi-step actions, priorities, and real-world feature use. However, our post-test quiz focused too much on isolated icon recognition, measuring memorization rather than understanding. In hindsight, embedding the same real-life context into quiz questions would have better captured how users interpret system cues and decide what to do next.
Pilot Testing Prevents Bigger Problems
Running a pilot test helped us catch unclear instructions, technical issues, and timing problems before full testing. In addition, it's better to highlight the issue prediction in the script so the team can check whether the process is smooth and complete during the pilot testing.
redesign 1
Friends List Page:
Improving Message Access & Interaction
before
after
Added a Snap Message Preview
Users can quickly view all Snaps without relying on complex gestures.
Refined Timestamp System
Improved Message Indicators and Visual Clarity
Added unread message counts and explicit media labels (e.g., “Sticker,” “Snap,” “Chat”).
redesign 2
Chat Interface:
Simplified Gestures & Clearer Controls
Added a Save Message Button
Clear color-coding makes saved states instantly recognizable, while a separate button placement helps reduce accidental taps.
Optimize Voice Message Controls
before
after
redesign 3
make disappearing message rules clear & easy to manage
Disappearing message Notification
New user can get a notifiaction of the disappearing message when they first use chat function.
User can use“Setting” to change how long they want to keep all messages in chat, such as “After Viewing”,”24 Hours after Viewing”,”7 Days after Viewing”, or”Never”.
Visible Timer
User can see the “Setting”/”Set time” under their friends name.
A “Timer” next to the time of each message.
redesign 4
Introduce a “permanent Message” Mode for Important Conversations
Enable or Disable Permanent Messages
Turn Permanent Messages on or off to keep all messages indefinitely, with both users notified of any changes.
Auto-Saved Messages Indicator
In Permanent Mode, the Save button turns yellow to show messages stay in the chat.
Toggle Permanent Message Mode
Use the “Add” button to switch Permanent Messages on or off.
Swipe Up to Open
Toolbar Entry to Open
redesign 5
Introduce Interactive Onboarding
with Short Animations or Gesture Tutorials
Message Access Shortcut
Message Reopening
Quick Search
The tutorial teaches quick, gesture-based search using simple swipes and taps.
Turn Off Anytime
Users can turn off the tutorial anytime for full control while still navigating the chat confidently.
Quick Access: Swipe Right to Chat
A simple gesture that makes navigation faster and easier to learn.
Solution Overview
Simplify the learning process. Boost engagement.
To improve the user experience, we made messaging, snaps, and videos more organized, discoverable, and easier to manage while introducing guided onboarding to help new users navigate the interface with confidence.
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