Secure call: an outcome of generative research

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Opening

I will discuss our new feature called “Secure Call” in this note. It is my favorite project and I am proud of the work I have done on it. Moreover, it is a good example of an excellent generative research project which has resulted in a feature. From problem to solution, I will walk you through the entire process. Let us begin by discussing Divar.

Context

Divar is a classified ads platform with over 35 million monthly active users who buy and sell goods, cars, real estate, and even post and find jobs and services.

I am a UX researcher in the Goods vertical, which includes various categories of goods and commodities from electronic devices to home and kitchen gadgets.

First steps

Before beginning the new OKR in June 2021, Zohreh Ghasemi (my team mate) and I conducted a research project to identify our users’ problems on both (supply and demand) sides. The purpose of this study was to prioritize these problems based on the journey of selling and buying goods. There were both qualitative and quantitative phases to this study. The two main questions we had were as follows:

1. At each stage of the user’s journey, what is the problem they are experiencing?
2. What is the frequency of these problems?

The supply side journey consists of the following steps:

1. Making a decision to sell products
2. Selling channels they use
3. The process of submitting and publishing an advertisement
4. Communicating with potential buyers
5. Finalizing the deal.

To have a holistic view of our users, we have chosen these steps in a way that can be applied both on the demand and supply sides.

Based on my analysis and review of the results, I found that 28% of our supply users experienced harassment during their interaction with potential buyers, which annoyed them. I was shocked by this number. It is true that we have heard of these problems from time to time, but we did not realize their extent. This was the beginning of my research concerning harassment in Divar.

Phase 1:

Harassment is a complicated concept and has a variety of social implications, as well as being a taboo in our culture. There is also a great deal of trauma and pain associated with talking about this subject. It is therefore natural to expect the rate to be higher, and our users are reluctant to report it for a variety of reasons. It is reasonable for the victims to be unaware of the abuse they are experiencing, since there is no agreement about it’s extent. This is the reason I decided not to approach the victims directly, and instead I began my research by analyzing the call center data. I have reviewed the harassment reports for the last 30 days and listened to the audio recordings. Furthermore, I used the posts information (with the assistance of our Data Analyst) to examine the prevalence of harassment across different categories. I found that harassment is more prevalent in goods categories, and the majority of incidents occur in these categories:

1) cell phones 2) women’s clothes 3) women’s belts and shoes 4) home and kitchen gadgets

Based on the review of 1078 reports, the results have a 95% level of confidence and a 3% margin of error. Thus, it can be generalized to all Divar users.

Also, as mentioned above, I listened to a sample of these recorded calls, and this small sample provided me with a valuable insight into the nature of this harassment. In categories where it is not possible to determine the gender of the advertiser (such as mobile phones or industrial equipment), the main form of harassment is the frustration of not having a deal, which leads the two parties to insult one another. Most often, these types of insults are exchanged between men, and they do not hesitate to report them. However, in the categories related to women (such as women’s shoes, belts, home and kitchen gadgets, and women’s clothes) the majority of victims are women who have been harassed because of their gender. In addition, I would like to point out that the following types of harassment are prevalent in Divar:

1) Harassment through the built-in chat feature.

2) The harassment of a person through the use of phone numbers or other messenger services.

3) Posting an advertisement with the telephone number of another individual.

To find the right solution, I needed to dig deeper into the situations in which harassment occurs.

Phase 2:

Before starting the second phase (quantitative phase), I came across a research about unifying at-risk users. This helped me to gain a better understanding of how to approach this research.

In this phase, we needed to figure out the percent of each scenario to prioritize the problems and provide solutions. For the purpose of generalizing the results, I listened to 400 recorded calls. This way of exploring data was very difficult and time-consuming. However I wanted to listen to every story to be a true advocate for these users. I wanted to somehow connect with their pain so that I could relay these stories to stakeholders. I know every story has pain behind it for me to listen to and for victims to experience.

I also had to listen to these calls because we do not register the gender of the caller on our records, so I had to verify that myself. In the goods vertical I listened to 67 calls, which can be generalized to all users with a 90% level of confidence and a 10% margin of error. Several other findings were also made regarding other verticals, but I will not discuss them here. Finally, this study confirmed the hypothesis of the first phase:

1) The main form of harassment that men face in Divar is insults, and there are no indications that they are being sexually harassed.

2) Abusers can easily identify the gender of the advertiser in those categories which are dedicated to women; therefore, women are at a significantly higher risk of harassment in Divar.

3) Minorities, including women, are unaware of ways to protect themselves from cyber security threats and are less likely to report harassment as a result of stigmatization.

4) Divar’s “hide phone” feature allows advertisers to prevent unwanted calls by concealing their phone from the demand side. However, this feature is not used frequently due to problems with the built-in chat. Therefore, a new solution was required.

Solution:

Following the presentation of the findings to the team and the stakeholders, our designer developed a feature called “secure call” in order to reduce the rate of harassment in the goods vertical. As a result, now we have three ways for the seller and the buyer to communicate:

1) Direct phone call.

2) Hide phone, which hides the seller’s telephone number.

3) Secure call.

If a secure call is enabled, buyers will see a fixed number to call the advertiser (seller), and if the advertiser wishes, they can share their number with them.

After completing the design, I conducted a usability test on a prototype and found that users were unable to distinguish between hide phone and secure call. Therefore in the next iteration, we consulted with our copywriter, refined the text, and resolved the problems.

Secure Call design

Testing Phase:

As soon as we finished the design and refined the feature, we tested it on women’s shoes, belts, clothes, and home and kitchen gadgets categories for three days. When we compared the number of harassment reports in the last three days with those in the previous month, we were surprised to observe a 50% decrease in the number of reports. I have also reviewed all the reports of the call center concerning secure calls to ensure that we have not missed anything. The questions were primarily related to adaptation of the new feature itself, since it was a new feature for our users.

Having achieved successful results, we have opened this feature to all users within the goods category.

Impacts:

• This feature resulted in a 50% reduction in harassment reports and made Divar a more secure platform. I believe this is where I have had the most impact on Divar.
• Having the opportunity to speak on behalf of victims, especially women, is one of the most rewarding things that I can achieve as a member of our team and in support of our mission to protect our users from online threats. My experience with dealing with stories about online harassment was painful, but I see it as an initial step toward convincing stakeholders to pay more attention to the social context and at-risk users when creating products and services as well as making them more accessible.
• By using generative research, I was able to identify an underlying problem and demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of UX research in mature products.

Reference:

SoK: A Framework for Unifying At-Risk User Research