Requesting Feedback: New Chat Experience
Hi everyone, as promised, here I am asking for your feedback!
We are working through a new design for the chat experience on the 7 Cups mobile app. Below you will find a link to a prototype you can "click" through.
A couple things to keep in mind:
1) Please don't share this link.
2) I'm sure you have a lot of ideas and feedback about our web and app experience (and we want to hear it all!), but for now please just pay attention to the chat experience presented in the prototype.
3) Only certain areas of the prototype allow you to "click" on it. If you aren't sure what you can click on, simply click offscreen anywhere and yellow highlights will pop up temporarily to show you what you can click on.
4) Please fill out the survey linked below to provide your feedback - I will try to monitor this thread, but the main area I will look for feedback will be in the survey results.
5) Remember to have fun :)
@healingOcean78 I had fun 
But not immediately. At first I tried to see the prototype on iOS but all I got was a blank page.
I made the following notes.
Chat
"Connect Now" is misleading. It looks like you maybe have to select a chat, then press the Connect Now button. Maybe relabel this button "Request Another Listener" and put it at the bottom or in a menu?
No indication that Noni is a bot. Let's make this clear.
No indication whether DanaMH is available to chat right now. Does the existence of a chat in the list mean the person is available to chat?
Unclear what "a few seconds ago", "2 days ago" etc. are meant to tell me. The time the last message was sent? The time the chat began? The last time the person logged in?
Unclear whether MajesticMandy00 said "Hi what's going on?" to me and I didn't reply, or I said "Hi what's going on?" to them and they didn't reply.
Unclear what the third icon ("users") in the bottom bar might do.
Doesn't seem to be any way to find out more about Noni or DanaMH from here, without entering a chat. How do I see their profiles?
I can't tell whether I'm a listener, a member or a guest. Is the round image at the top right my own profile image? If so, it looks like I'm a listener and all the people in my chat list are also listeners.
I can't tell that DanaMH is a listener (not a guest, member or therapist), except that I happen to know a round icon means listener or therapist in the website.
Noni
Back button does what's expected—good!
The button "No, I need help with som" looks like it has run off the edge of the screen.
If I click "Yes, let's continue" that doesn't appear in the chat as a message from me.
If I click "No, I need help with som" that does appear in the chat as a message from me, but Noni's reply doesn't acknowledge that I need help with something. The reply should be "What do you need help with?"
Why is there a "See more" link? Why can't I just scroll the list?
DanaMH
Top-right "..." menu button pops up a menu at the bottom! A popup should be adjacent to the thing you clicked to pop it up.
The popup menu has no obvious way to close it.
Entries in the menu should be "Review DanaMH", "Block and report DanaMH". A menu choice should always exactly match the title you're going to see when you make your choice.
"End live chat" should be "End 1-on-1 chat". Don't call it a 1-on-1 one chat in some places and a live chat in other places.
"Delete message thread" should be "Delete this chat's messages". Don't call it a chat in some places and a thread in other places.
Review listener popup
There's no way back to the menu.
Title is "Please review DanaMH" but I initiated this! That's like I say to the waiter, "Please bring me a coffee" and the waiter replies "Please order a coffee"! It should just say "Review DanaMH".
I assume the stars will be clickable in the real thing.
I assume "Submit Review" will be disabled until there's some information to send.
Isn't there a 15 character minimum for reviews?
"Send Review" is a little clearer than "Submit Review" because submit has many meanings, and English is not everyone's first language. (Although it's true that members' written reviews are themselves reviewed, so you are really submitting your review for review.)
After pressing "Submit Review" I get a round button with no explanation. Very weird. Do I have to press the round button to confirm the review (which I can no longer see)? After the review has been sent, let me see what I just sent!
Block and report listener
Unclear why block and report are mixed up together, when report looks exactly like review.
Unclear what block really means. It would be better to explain—maybe a checkbox "I don't want to chat to this listener again."
How would I attach a screenshot as evidence?
All this looks like it needs a complete redesign.
End live chat
Unclear what, if anything, this really does.
The way chats end needs to be redesigned, because abandoned chats are a significant problem, and at the moment the system has no way to identify abandoned chats.
Heart
Two clicks just to heart a message seems silly.
Turning the message background red ("danger"?) doesn't look right.
It's useful to know when the last message was sent without having to click on it. It's even more useful to see how long ago the last message was sent without having to subtract the current time from the time of the message.
It's useful to know how long the current chat has been going on.
It's useful to know how many messages have been sent in the current chat (because as a listener this affects my profile).
How would I keep a message in my notes?
Type your message
The top of this long message has been cut off so I can't easily read it all before sending it. (This happens in the web interface, too.)
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie wow! Thank you so much for this in depth feedback, we sincerely appreciate it. I will fully review everything you've said and (assuming you filled it out) your survey response in a complete survey analysis when the total response count hit a good number.
Thanks again!
@RarelyCharlie i 'm so glad to finally have the chance to contribute to this it's 2 am here so i'll take a Seat on front of a cup of tea on my pc tomorrow to fill my survey 😄
@RarelyCharlie
I totally agree with the point. Many time member don't believe I am not bot. To that bot and our is same way of welcoming. That I changed so let the confusion bit clear. So whenever member start with listener may be some indication show that now you are talking to human being. Secondly a brief introduction where it make clear 7cups Chat is not for adult fun or advice giving.
There's another thing that I've been trying to work out, and I think I've finally got it.
If I open my iPad and click on an app's icon, for example to open Safari, the icon first changes colour to indicate that it has been clicked, and then when Safari opens there's a transition effect so it doesn't just pop into view instantly. That is, there are two delays: a delay while the icon confirms it has been clicked, and a second delay while the app transitions into view.
And then inside Safari the same kind of thing happens. Suppose I click on the bookmarks icon in the toolbar. First, the icon changes colour to show that it has been clicked. Then a moment later the bookmarks transition into view (sliding from the left). Again, two delays.
In the Gmail app, Google have done the same thing. Major actions have two delays built in.
In the 7 Cups app these delays and effects are missing (as far as I can tell because it doesn't let me log in). And in the prototype they are missing. Maybe the effects are not easy to do in Overflow. When you click on something, the thing you clicked on either doesn't respond or it disappears instantly, and something else appears instantly. I think this makes the 7 Cups app feel unfriendly.
For me it's better if sequences of things happen at a more human pace, using delays and transition effects like Apple and Google have done. Something you click should instantly respond in some way so you know you clicked it, and you need some fraction of a second delay to perceive that, then whatever action results from the click should happen slowly over the course of another fraction of a second, so it doesn't feel like you're being thrown around.
Charlie
@RarelyCharlie I love how observant you are about all of these details :)
You're right, those things are missing because of the nature of the prototype. Rest assured there are animation and "press" confirmations like you mentioned in other apps. The prototype is so you can get a feel for the information being shown and a little bit about how you move around the app to different aspects.
Thanks!
Thanks for being responsive and open to feedback despite the amount of time and thought that went toward the update. Here are some of my (mostly visual) impressions that I've also left in the feedback form:
Colour scheme: The blue chat menu palette is tough on the eyes because of clashing temperature and low contrast. If youre determined to use teal, adjusting its RGB to something less red based and saturated could go a long way. The navigation/username bar hue works a bit better compared to the chat menu in that it looks a little more muted on my screen - matching these two colours would look more consistent - but I dont think theyre preferable to the current white and purple. Ideally, I would keep the scheme neutral and plan a night theme down the road :-). On that note, not to divert from the current experience too much, these adjustments would also increase readability when using a blue light filter. The prototypes colour scheme does look like it should be readable with colour vision deficiencies (though this is no firsthand feedback), so kudos for that - good standard to maintain in any future adjustments.
Font readability: I suggest increasing font size of timestamps (in the chat menu and chat window), as well as of „DanaMH is typing…; increasing contrast of „DanaMH is typing… or matching it to timestamp colour; increasing spacing or using a monospaced font for usernames (chat menu) and timestamps (chat window).
Listener status marker: I would keep that in the chat menu as I think its useful information without having to check a persons profile, but wouldnt convey that through colour only as is the case now (colour perception and accessibility). Different symbols have been discussed in the past, I feel that "online, "busy and "offline markers could work as well. This one may be worth collecting more community feedback on in the future.
Mentioned before, but worth repeating: double-clicking a message to heart is excessive, and the red highlight looks too much like something got caught in the profanity filter. Just the heart symbol should be widely understandable and convey the message. Is this meant to prevent accidental hearts? In that case, I wonder if that's necessary and whether there are alternative solutions.
Own good example that implements most of the points above: Noni chat window - the transparent reply buttons work well (enough contrast), theyre distinct in design from chat bubbles and intuitive/recognisable as buttons/links without relying on context or colour only. The text (except timestamp) is consistently sized and spaced. Colour scheme (though I would still tweak the teal) isnt too loud.
The colors are pretty ugly.
@ReadBooksDrinkTea yeah i think the yellow doesn't fit at all
@healingOcean78
Great idea but if i'm totally honest, I think I prefer how it is now with the colours, layout etc - will leave on feedback :)
@healingOcean78 you have to explain to me, i like beta testing but you have to explain to me what i an supposed to do
awesome !
@healingOcean78 I'm also infinitely curious about the natural language tuning that is done for Noni. I have an idea in this regard that I think would highly help the way it is presented right now and eliminate user frustration; I will do the survey but I'm not sure there's space for it. If I wanted to do a mock PT of the flow, is there a place I could submit that idea?
@Blynng Feel free to direct message me!
@healingOcean78 I submitted a survey yesterday and was pretty verbose. I stated that I was willing to work on follow up questions, so I don't know how that works, but you could look for that first? I put A LOT of notes in there.
my feeds to the listener is going all giberish....can u help. hes not able to read them.
@anonySky8925 I suggest that you report that problem using the forum at the bottom of the Support & Feedback page. If possible, provide more details about what you mean by "going all giberish".
Charlie
@anonySky8925 Feed bugs are no longer being fixed.