Case study: Delete for everyone, does this feature meet its purpose?
Delete for Everyone is a simple feature offered by WhatsApp which lets the user to delete the text if the sender has accidentally texted a wrong person or if the sender made an error in the text. But, does this feature really satisfy the the users need to delete a message?
The Problem
“This message was deleted” — This particular feedback appears every time a user deletes a message and that too inside the chat, exposing the senders cover.
- So why does WhatsApp notifies a recipient who haven’t even seen the deleted message with such a feedback ?
- So does this particular feature fails the purpose of sender deleting a message ?
WhatsApp being the fast and easy way to text I assumed that majority of users use the Application to text friends, keep in touch with family members, relatives , close friends , neighbour etc. So if this is the case, the sender would have an emotional connection to most of the recipients. Getting notified when someone deleted a message can create curiosity especially when the recipient knows who exactly deleted the message.
A little research
It was a week ago this thought hit me and I was trying to figure out why WhatsApp shows this particular feedback and thinking how can we make this experience better. I had talked to some designers to understand why exactly WhatsApp shows this feedback and I got some interesting assumptions. Transparency being the most heard response there were other assumptions like privacy policy, legal reasons, Business Strategy which triggers the the receiver to text back and engage in conversations etc.
More research
I decided to understand what the users feel about this feature and how comfortable they are. I did a survey about the existing feature and find that:
I also talked to some users and got responses like:
User 1: “I don’t like the that behavior since it beats the purpose. You delete because you don’t want someone to see or know” “There should not be any such feedback once message is deleted”
User 2: “With the current feedback it gives some wrong indication to the user”
Better Solution ?
From the research, It was understandable that users wish to wipe out the entire message, leaving no trace behind if the user has not seen the message. In order to achieve this there are some limitations. we can’t entirely delete the message which was seen by the recipient without giving a particular feedback.
I redesigned this feature with the insights from the research and this is how it works.
- If the recipient haven't seen the message, there will be an option to unsend the message and completely erase it without exposing the sender.
- If the recipient has seen the message, there should be a feedback to both users, since recipient can be more vulnerable user in this case.
And about the curiosity factor, from talking to users I understand, one reason why the recipient get curios to these deleted messages is because WhatsApp revels who send the message , thus receiver could ask “what it was ?” The Sender is not completely protected, I designed a notification feedback which doesn't expose the name of the sender and protecting the user.
This feature is a suggestion for the existing problem and there can be better solutions, I would love to get feedbacks and feel free to share your suggestions, your thoughts and views with me . Thank You !
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