UPWORK ANDROID MESSENGER APP
Responsible for UX/interaction and visual design.
Upwork (formerly Elance-oDesk) has begun the process of building out their native mobile apps. They started by launching a native messaging app, which serves as a platform for communication between internal employees, as well as clients and freelancers.
The Challenge
As part of Upwork’s plan to transform their messaging center from email style to real-time chat, more functionalities have been added to provide users with an end-to-end chat experience. The mobile component became an integral part of this platform-wide change. As the web figures out how to implement all the new features, mobile has embarked on the same process of determining not only implementation, but also which functionalities help create a seamless experience for users.
Brainstorming
After performing extensive competitive analysis on various chat platforms, I carefully considered the type of functionalities and information most vital to a professional communication tool, as well as other important factors relevant to our platform, such as time zones.
Ideation
The design process often starts with rough pen-and-paper sketches, which helps to extract high-level concepts, rather than diving directly into the details. The exploration phase focused on main information and navigation architecture as well as potential flows within the app.
Competitive analysis as well as a careful examination of our own platform helped me to identify some features crucial to a professional chatroom, such as:
- Time zone considerations
- Presence
- Participant information
- Ability to upload and preview work
- Link to the original job post or applicant profile
Wireframes / Visual Spec
By applying Material Design as the general framework for the app, I was able to tackle wireframe and visual in the same pass. I particularly focused on feature parity with the web chat experience. I also considered ways to make the chat functionality an integral part of the applicant browsing and hiring experience by integrating job postings, invitations, and user profiles.
The Result
An Upwork Android messaging app offeres a full range of functionalities. Clients and freelancers can now communicate with each other from the interview process all the way through the job completions real-time.
