Cookie Jar

Heuristic Evaluation & Push Notifications Research
Company: Cookie Jar

Role: User Interface Designer, User Researcher
Duration: July - August 2021
Scope: User Research, Interface Design

About

The mission of Cookie Jar is aiming to steer away from curated feeds and staged photos — and move towards a more mindful, personal, and genuine way to share our memories with our loved ones.

During my 8-week internship period, I was responsible for evaluating the heuristics of the uploading interfaces, conducting user A/B testing for push notifications of the app, and participating in the interface design process.

Heuristic Evaluations

For the heuristic evaluations, we evaluated the user flow of the upload section. Some of the points we have covered include:

  • Creating darker colored action buttons since the background is in a lighter shade of gradient color.

  • Rephrasing the header phrases to make them more clear to the users.

  • For the background color, since the orange shade is quite light and has made the white font harder to see, we discussed the potential color change. We suggested that a darker shade of orange or purple would be more optimal for the color contrast between the font and the background.

Push Notification System

Users looking to escape the toxicity and addictiveness of social media can be overwhelmed by push notifications, so how can Cookie Jar get users to continue using our app without the addiction or annoyance that comes from social apps' notifications?

Why do we need push notifications?

1. Highlights from the app, like coupons/news
2. Important info
3. Reminders
4. A new activity, like friends sharing a new moment with the users

What we need to watch out for:

  • We need users’ permission before you can send them to push notifications

  • A blank default request doesn’t give any info about the value your app provides or why users should give us permission - make them feel good about this decision

  • Need to provide context before asking permission

  • DO NOT ask the first time they open the app

  • Possibly let the user choose when, what, and how often they’ll be notified.

Target audience:

Our main users range between teenagers and young adults/professionals. These people are working or studying for the majority of the day.

Verbiage & Personalization

  • The character count that fits in a push notification accounts for around 10 words, so there’s little room to get their attention while motivating them to react to your notification

  • Adding a call-to-action like “slide for more info”, “have a look”, “share”, or “read more” helps

  • Personalized push notifications are 4 times more likely to be opened

  • Let users think that the message is just for them - you’re only interested in the individual user

  • Don’t make it general enough that it looks like it was sent to everyone

  • Try to personalize the messages by looking at user journeys, or send transactional push notifications - behaviorally triggered notifications are 9 times more likely to be opened

  • Users responded significantly more to notifications that included an image or an emoji compared to standard notifications 

User Behavior:

When?

  • NOT when users are sleeping - need to take into account that different users are in different time zones

  • Around 8 pm seems to be the peak for the most user activity

  • Utilize the 8 pm to 10 pm slot (peak time for entertainment apps)

  • Also, consider persona-based time determination

How many?

  • Any time there is something shared there should be a notification, since limiting that wouldn’t make sense - users would want to know when a friend interacted with their profile!

  • Although, users may experience stress from receiving notifications all
    the time

  • If notifications say the same thing, send it sparingly. If they are unique and varied content, the app can send push more frequently.

Where to?

  • When users open the notification, they NEED to be taken to the right page or part of the app

  • Users will be incredibly annoyed if the notification takes them to the main screen or a completely unrelated one

If there is urgent info:

  • If something very important happens during the night, the app can send it out earlier during the day (10 AM - 1 PM)

  • But make sure that the info the app thinks is urgent would also be considered so by the users

Common Mistakes:

There are several common mistakes that social media platforms make when it comes to mobile app notifications. These include asking users to enable notifications during the initial app launch without explaining what type of notifications they will receive, sending too many notifications at once, sharing irrelevant content, and making it difficult to turn off notifications.

Another common mistake is ignoring time zones, which can lead to users receiving notifications at inconvenient times. Additionally, many companies fail to test and optimize their notification strategy, which can lead to low engagement and user dissatisfaction.

Finally, lack of personalization is another key mistake. Users are more likely to engage with notifications that are personalized to their interests and behavior, rather than generic messages. By avoiding these common mistakes and implementing a thoughtful and strategic notification strategy, companies can improve user engagement and satisfaction with their mobile apps.

Tips:

  1. Duplicate notifications in the app if the user forgets to read them or can't see the whole message. This ensures that the user is still able to access important information.

  2. Make it easy for users to clear the red badge notifications on the app icon by having them disappear when the app is opened. Don't make users tap around to get rid of them.

  3. Test our notifications with a user testing group or conduct A/B testing to see what types of notifications are most effective and engaging for our users.

By implementing these tips, we can improve the user experience of our mobile app and increase user engagement with our notifications.

Push Notification Examples: 

The writings on the examples shown are straightforward & no emojis. They show the user handles who interact with the owner directly/indirectly. The writings are short and concise, serving as an activity alert/update to the users.

The writings seem as if the app is chatting directly/ having a conversation with the users. This makes the users feel more relaxed and closer to the app on a personal level.

The writings give users a sense of anticipation toward certain rewards/upcoming events.

The use of emojis in the writing adds a bit of fun to the writing so it doesn’t seem as pushy/wordy.

Brainstorming:

A/B Testing:

In order to gain insight into what notifications our users would be most likely to engage with, we developed a test script to compare several sets of notifications. We tested 15 people in total, 5 people per set of notifications.

User’s Choice:

What We Found:

  • Notifications that are unclear or wishy-washy are less likely to be engaged with

  • Notifications that are forceful or pressure users are less likely to be engaged with

  • Too generic of phrasing does not incentivize users to engage

  • Notifications that were too wordy/cluttered were disliked by users

  • Emojis can help, but they need to fit the context of the notification