iPhone Prototype

PROJECT DETAILS     

     Project Name: Re-Designing WhatsApp Messanger
     Focus: Information Architecture & Navigation
     Full Creative Project: Behance
     Inspiration: My lady.)

About 6 months ago I started to pursue a friendship with a lady… In the beginning, the only common ground we could find that felt safe, was WhatsApp. What started out as single chat bubbles, got multiplied and ended up in streams and streams of chat bubbles traversing between casual conversations about the normal “how was your day” to deeper, “what do you fear” conversations…

As the chat bubbles streamed in and out over time, WA created the space for us to go out in groups. But in between, we continued to spend countless hours on WhatsApp, chatting to each other.

These countless streams of chat bubbles somehow lead me to a pivotal question: What would WA look like if I had to design it from the ground up? I realized that my current not-so-good experience with WA was influenced by the app’s not-so-good Information Architecture [IA]. So, 5 months ago I embarked on this journey to re-Imagine WhatsApp.

For 5 months I scraped together scattered and hard to reach hours during my full time job, to work on a simplified and easier to use WhatsApp. I tore the whole app apart and started to build it from the ground up again, focussing on the architecture of the app as well as a few new concepts.

And this is it…

WhatsApp Re-Imagined

The whole idea was to focus on what WhatsApp do best: Chatting. But I felt that the User Experience [UX] of this core value was traded for a wrong navigation pattern [I briefly wrote about the dangers of using wrong navigation patterns, over here]. So my whole mission revolved around finding a better alternative to this “problem”, which I hoped would simplify the app more.

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The other day someone send me an article written by Brent Jackson. It’s called Hamburgers & Basements: Why Not to Use Left Nav Flyouts. In the article he talks about why it might not be a good idea to use a Left Nav such as used in Facebook and Path’s mobile apps. He lacked some serious substance and talked loosely about a a few points, but this quote perhaps sparked the most conversation:

Why call it the basement? Because it’s hidden, dark, there’s a ton of crap in it, and, frankly, it’s scary and no one wants to go down there.

Having a quick conversation on this article at the office the other day, opened a can of worms. Some of the guys didn’t agree with the article. I agreed. Well, at least in a sense. The Left Nav doesn’t have to be this way. But sometimes it is. And this made me think…

It made me think of patterns. Big brands. Conformity. Comfort Zones. Iteration. Innovation. And a bunch of other stuff.

And it also made me think of this…

The biggest threat any pattern, like the Left Nav pattern, can pose, is that it can easily become a nice comfy compromise people can rely on when they’re too lazy to come up with unique solutions to visionary, strategic, IA or UI problems.

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I found this really thought provoking article the other day. I’m normally not a big fan of “10 Things…”  articles, but it contains 1 or 2 points that made me think. The last one is perhaps the best:

“Several years ago when I asked my grandmother about overcoming pain, this is how she explained it to me:  Look at the circles below.  The black circles represent our relative life experiences.  Mine is larger because I am older and have experienced more in my lifetime.  The smaller red circles represent a negative event in our lives.  Assume we both experienced the same exact event, whatever the nature.  Notice that the negative event circles are the same size for each of us; but also notice what percentage of the area they occupy in each of the black circles.  Your negative event seems much larger to you because it is a greater percentage of your total life experiences.  I am not diminishing the importance of this event; I simply have a different perspective on it.  What you need to understand is that an overwhelmingly painful event in your life right now will one day be part of your much larger past and not nearly as significant as it seems.”

So, ultimately, I think, what this point says is that whatever bad experience you currently have, will look a lot different in a few years time as you gain more experience.

I agree.

It kind of gives me a sense of peace that somewhere out there there is a different perspective on what I’m going through right now. It’s out there.

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A while ago I had quite a perception shattering experience at work [I think they call it a paradigm shift]…

As part of my role as a User Experience designer at Flow Interactive, I do quite a lot of sketching. Obviously…

So, when I started with Flow, I decided to buy some nice colored pens. Cheap ones. They are ok. But not great.

Now this is where the story gets interesting. The other day one of our directors and myself did some drawings together and somehow I ended up using his pen. And what a delightful experience… So I complimented Phil on his pen which lead him to asking me if I would like to have the pen. Like in keeping it… How cool is that?

The problem is, I declined his offer: ”Nah, dont worry, I bought some half decent pens just the other day.” So he offered it again, “But do you want it!?”

I declined again… Well, he didn’t ask again and now I’m still stuck with my silly pens.

The thing is, this has happened in so many areas of my life before. There are some things that I really want but I’m just too happy with the sub standard things in life…

Just because I dont really want it. Just because I dont really want to grab it.

So, do you really want the peace? The joy. The wife. Abundance. Health. Etc. Etc.

If you want it, then take it… Pursue it. Live it.

2 Days ago I finished one of the most grueling one day races I have taken on by far. The Otter Trail Run is a 42km trail, running along one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. It is a monster! Relentless! And unforgiving…

It just keeps on going on and on and on and on. Just as you think the repetitive steps is over, another stretch of steps stares you in the face.

It’s a killer! But it stays beautiful…

But what I have learned from The Otter Trail was much more than race strategy, plyometrics, hill repeats, etc, etc…

The life lessons outspans these by a number of 1000… But before I dive into them, I need to give some context…

Almost a year ago, me and my brother decided to do the Otter. Not together though. I’m way to competitive and he would just frustrate me. So our training programs kicked off separately. He in the Northern Cape where there is virtually nothing else but mine heaps and me, on the other hand, in the Trail Haven: Cape Town.

I soon realized that Nico doesn’t know what he is letting himself into. With no trail race under his belt and no race done further than 21 km, I knew that he was going to be deeply disappointed with the outcome on race day…

I knew I had to sacrifice my own ego and moments of glory I was seeking so much. I also knew that running and finishing the Otter with him would be more difficult than running a sub 5h 30 min.

And this is where my lessons started:

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We all had childhood dreams. Dreams to fly. To become a FireFighter. A soldier. An astronaut. To change the world! Back then they were HUGE! I mean, you were a kid, hey… And when you are a kid, everything is possible.

And then life happens as we grow old… We loose faith that we have what it takes to change the world…

I watched Joe Niemand’s movie, “Agter die Ligte” last night. It’s a story that winds through his life journey and builds up to where he hosted the biggest Afrikaans music show in the History of South Africa.

In faith!

You see, South Africans dont do that! In anyway, not for God. We do other things for God. And without making it sound condescending, we South African Christians settle for baking pancake for Jesus…

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“What we do in life echoes into eternity…” Maximus, Gladiator

Lately I have been really inspired by this statement from Maximus in the movie, Gladiator. What I do right now, will echo into eternity… What I do right now, will influence my wife, my children and everyone around me.

I dont think we always understand this. If we did, our lives probably would have looked different…

I think the reason we struggle so much with this is because we only live for the 80 years that we will be alive. But, what if I can shift my mind around this 80 years? What if I dont only care about this 80 years but also develop a deep care for the next 400 years?

What would my bloodline look like? What would the people look like that encountered them?

I dont know. And neither would I. But they will. And I want them to look back and say; “Wow! My great  great grand father was a man who fought for us. Who pressed through. Fought the good fight. And changed our lives forever…”

I want this to echo into eternity in… and it starts right now!

The decisions I make right now to be a man of character and no compromise, to be bold, to be confident in who I was created for, and to be a History Maker & World Shaker will be the substance of this echo.

And this is what I hope for all…!

We were born for such a time as this to shake the foundations of the earth! [I'll do a post on this somewhere this week...]

May you be inspired to leave such a legacy!

Tribute Poster by 12Frames

Here is a great tribute to Neil Armstrong:

Let’s lay awake at night, dreaming up great things, things that could only be dreams now, and let’s build them. It need not be related to space; it could be related to an important advancement with renewable energy, or even with something as comparably small as re-creating education for this new century. But it must be something truly new, groundbreaking and meaningful, something that leaves you with the sheer joy of childhood excitement. Something that will make us better as a people. Let’s dream it, and let’s build it.

So what do you dream about? What will you build? But not just build, what legacy will you leave?

I am absolutely convinced that all have the potential to build things that will shake the world… but only a few choose and believe that.

I dont know what I will build. I dont know what legacy I will leave. But for now, I will just allow a solid character to settle in my heart.

The legacy will follow!