Hoohoo, redefining email as information gateway:
cross-channel collection and coordination
DESIGN FOR YAHOO MAIL ( 2022.2-2022.5 )
DATA NAVIGATION · INCLUSIVE DESIGN · GAMIFICATION · DESIGN SYSTEM
Multimodal engagement and collaboration.
Contextualized and Profile-driven suggestions
INTRODUCTION
Hoohoo is a cross-devices agent to help manage tasks under specific contexts, propose suggestions based on member profiles, and facilitate small groups' scheduling and coordination in and beyond emails.
UX TEAM
10 weeks, sponsored by: Yahoo Mail
CHALLENGE
Behaviors on email evolve beyond text-based communication, yet its interactions haven't adapted.
PROBLEM
When involving friends or family members in the planning and decision-making process, working moms always face tedious task management, back-and-forth coordination, and emotional irrecognition.
SOLUTION
An email-based chatbot navigates scattered information, invites light conversational interactions, and builds "groupmates" profiles to connect people to be more responsive and accountable.
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT: WHY YAHOO MAIL NEED HOOHOO
It brings new life to the email:
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Shift from a text-based communication tool to an intuitive information gateway.
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Connect email with other businesses (e.g. built-in shopping platforms, third-party checkout channels);
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Provide more personalized services based on vivid member profiles.
MY MAIN CONTRIBUTION IN DESIGN PROCESS
F R O M D I S C O V E R T O D E F I N E
MARKET RESEARCH FINDING
Roles of email, shift.
Gateway to balance all things
What's in inbox (records and resources) always happens outside of the inbox.
Backbone for small groups
Email becomes an entry point and a go-to place for small-group events.
Communication gap grows
People involved have different devices, levels of ability, and willingness to share their info.
Over half of working moms say they had more childcare and family-care responsibilities and difficulties handling those duties than dads during the pandemic.
Pew Research Center studies, 2021
Being responsible for most household duties and childcare remains major pain points for working mothers.
The Working Moms Report 2021, Breezy
PRIMARY RESEARCH
5 User interviews
How do families with kids deal with their households and tasks?
Actor map
What are roles and responsibilities of all the stakeholders?
Stakeholder job story
What are commom connections / interactions for family email?
P R O B L E M S T A T E M E N T
How might we help working moms navigate social connections and family responsibilities in a collaborative way with light and smart engagement but high impact?
VALUE PROPOSITION
User Jobs: (across cases)
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Event setup and preparation: Availability, topic, space.
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Event follow-ups: Share pics, reschedule, feedback.
Needs:
Functionally:
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Easier planning, tracing and synchronizing.
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Engage family members in contributing to the tasks.
Emotionally:
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Want to be more considerate for family well-being and recognized rather than complaints.
Pains:
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Gathering scattered information across channels.
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Coordinating back-and-forth across channel cost energy.
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Spending too much time double-checking.
Gain creators:
Functionally:
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An event-based tool with timeline to track.
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Lower the barrier to access and share email content.
Emotionally:
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Facilitate collaboration and celebrate success.
Pain relievers:
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Intelligently relevant info grab and derive.
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Minimize response effort: visualize tasks, avoid manual input, give personalized & contextualized suggestions.
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Strong, timely but non-distractive reminders.
Design principles.
Contextual multimodality
Easier collaboartion across contexts.
Light and engaging as Simplicity
Smart interactions with minimum information.
Technical inclusiveness
Accessibility for tech-savvy and non-tech.
Levels of transparency
Uncovering engagement
and intention friendly.
I D E A T I O N : S O L U T I O N S P A C E
BRAINSTORMING - HOVER TO SEE CUSTOMER BENEFITS
CONCEPTS EVALUATION
Matrix scoring
We cross-check the 3 solutions with principles.
✅ Chatbot shows all good performance.
Product / Market fit
✅ Turning point-to-point text-based information into action-oriented communication.
✅ Commercializing: Service connected 3rd platforms.
WINNER DIRECTION
Smart bot - Hoohoo
Why conversational interaction?
Natural way
Pursue Intent-Based instead of Command-based outcome.
Convenience
Quickly ask questions, or perform tasks without complex navigation.
Delight
Personalized responses, contextual advice, and a touch of personality.
Scalability
Handle simultaneous interactions & process for multiple users.
C O N C E P T D E V E L O P M E N T
TASK ANALYSIS
Challenge:
We identified common use cases, which are so different that we have to use different service workflows to meet users' JTBD. So if we scale the product, we will need an "army" of hoohoo, which is implementally challenging.
Solution:
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Looking horizontally, we started to see some patterns across Routines, Impromptu, and Gathering events.
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We layered information and interaction, including setup, logistics, and follow-up; some basic features based on competitive product analysis.
Pattern distilling
Feature gathering
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
F L O W S A N D W I R E F R A M E S
USER INPUT - SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
Paper prototype for Wizard of Oz.
"Hey, hoohoo!"
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What are user intents?
Conversational Flow iteration.
User flow - happy path
WIREFRAMES
D E L I V E R A B L E S - U S E C A S E S
USE CASE # 1
Auto-filled event cards as simpler but more engaging invites
Based on user input, Hoohoo starts an event card and fills in the name, guest, and place, with available time slots. It also auto-generated and sends invitation posters (in-email) or text messages (out-email ecosystem).
User feedbacks
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“Scheduling is a huge pain point.”
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“Hoohoo messages may be considered spam. ”
Design consideration
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Propose time windows based on the calendar.
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SMS introduces Hoohoo at first to gain trust.
USE CASE # 2
Guest profile helping customize your preparation checklist
After collecting info of guests, hoohoo generates profiles and highlights the commonalities, which will be auto-added to the checklist. Guest profile sustainably becomes richer as more events they join.
User feedbacks
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Remember guest preferences / restrictions.
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Foreign parents are anxious to host social events because of cultural differences.
Design consideration
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Generate checklists based on guest profiles.
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Provide follow-up prompts on local activities and gift ideas.
USE CASE # 3
Progress bar and sizzles to provide enough context and motivation
Preparation checklists are not done at one time but are scattered in fragmented experiences, even with multitasks. So quickly catching up with the previous context boost their motivations.
User feedbacks
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Know where they are, where they go next.
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Privacy - Benefit balance.
Design consideration
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Visibility of the current stage in event flow.
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Allow data authorization and sync.
USE CASE # 4
Multimodality replaces online doc to engage members in (meal) planning
Group members can add ingredients on TV; kids can drag meals and snacks on iPads under hoohoo's guidance. Then a shopping list with member view and grocery-type view will be generated.
User feedbacks
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Kids mode will need additional guidance.
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How can I buy groceries on list seamlessly?
Design consideration
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Engage with questions and voice interaction.
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Built-in cart and check out in 3rd channel.
CONTEXTUAL MULTIMODALITY
One-step multi-setup
Users authorize permissions in the initial setup. Close devices can receive popup queries for syncing data.
TECHNICAL INCLUSIVENESS
Bumping road: get rid of frustration
When there are page errors, hoohoo provides the option to ask for help from close contacts.
VISUAL STYLES
I M P A C T
Conducted ~5 pitches, gaining lots of buy-ins in the Yahoo Mail team.
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"At the end of your use cases, there are moments showing people use it for the next time. It means there could be a good product-market fit."
- Josh Jacobson, (product manager @ Yahoo Mail)
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Next step: Evaluate the product idea based on the HEART framework.
T A K E A W A Y
What are the challenges of Conversational UX in practice?
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Prompts: Things the bot says for every possible scenario
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Training Data: Groups of things users say, clustered by similarity
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Context: It can radically change the scenario, utterances, and expectations
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Interaction limitations: low discoverability and serial/linear interactions
How to improve design's universal adaptiveness to use cases?
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Perform horizontal commonality/pattern extraction from each scenario's user tasks.
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Analyse user intent at the entry point (arouse) to determine the data dependency and process initiated.
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Kano model shows adding more customized UX sizzle at the delighter level can improve user loyalty.