"Whatsapp" feature logo

WhatsApp Productive Feature

Features design

The Mission

1

Help people be more productive and focused by making Whatsapp:

Less time consuming
Less distracting
Less addictive

Pain Points

2

Whatsapp makes it difficult to focus and be productive with it’s non-stop notifications and messages.
Whatsapp consumes tons of time, usually for no good reason.
Taking control of Whatsapp usage is almost impossible because lack of options the app offers.

User Surveys

3

User Persona

4

The Solution

!

In-app features that will help the user spend less time and attention on Whatsapp.

Instead of making the app more addictive and distractive, the "Productive Feature" will give people the control and conciousness on their time and focus.

The Features

Get notifications only from specific people/groups.

Classify the people in your chats and decide from whom of them to get notifications.

Publish your status on the chat screen.

Let people know what you’re doing.
It will make you more focused on your task and people will know why you’re not available.

See and be seen only by specific people.

Choose whom of your contacts can see you are online. You’ll be able to see only them as well.

Make your chats screen less stimulating.

Instead of getting sucked into the notifications in your chats screen, change it’s look to a productive mode and message a contact directly, without distractions on the way.

Lock your Whatsapp.

Sometimes distractions are just too strong.
Set a timer to lock the app. In addition, in order to make yourself committed, choose an amount you’re willing to donate in case you want to unlock it before.

Epilouge

These days, being productive and focused is harder than ever before.
Why? because our attention is worth money.

The tech companies are fighting for our attention in order to make profit.
Cognitive and psychology experts are doing everything they can to win our time and focus. It’s not a wonder we find ourselves scrolling and texting for hours, without control and conciousness.

According to recent researches, it takes 23 minutes in average to get your focus back after you got distracted.
Given the fact that distractions are stronger then ever, it’s not surprising that people are having hard time being productive and focused.

In my opinion, the term “user experience” should be looked in a wider way. The experience should include the mentality of the user during, before and after using the app.
The solution won’t come from the tech tycoons, I can assure you that. They don’t have interests to get you out of your phone, the opposite, the longer you scroll- the bigger their profit is.

The change will come from us, we need to find the solutions.