Project overview
iMessage faces increasing pressure to stay relevant, especially among Gen Z, its most active user base.
Messaging apps drive ecosystem loyalty, making user experience a key factor in device choice.
However, limitations in message history, conversation navigation, and continuity create user friction, impacting satisfaction and user.
Timeline
12 weeks
Team
4 members
Platform
iOS - iMessage
Audience
Generation Z
Tools
Figma
Mural
Optimal Workshop
UserTesting
Contribution
Research
Concept ideation
Prototyping
High-fidelity designs
Over
of Market Experience
Over
Completed Projects
More than
Happy Clients
PROBLEM
Despite being a dominant platform, iMessage lacks key organizational tools that Gen Z users expect. Users feel bombarded by messages, struggle to locate past content, and report stress over message clutter, which often delays their responses and diminishes trust in the platform.
SOLUTION
Our redesigned features drove a +14 % increase in task-completion rate through custom inbox filters, reduced time-on-task by –11 % with in-chat search, and majority of participants responded positive to the “Save Message” function—cutting workarounds like screenshots and app-switching by 75 %.
Project scope
Heuristic Evaluation
Competitive Analysis
User Testing (two rounds)
Week 3
Week 6
Week 9
Week 12
Redesigning iMessage app to reduce
cognitive overload and streamline communication.
press the section to skip
Heuristic Analysis
Evaluated iMessage using Nielsen’s 10 heuristics; identified issues with message filtering, history, and timestamp visibility.
Competitive Analysis
Compared iMessage to WhatsApp, Instagram, and others to identify feature gaps in sorting, media recall, and customization.
User Testing
Combined card sorting, interviews, and unmoderated usability testing to validate pain points and test redesigned features.
EXPERT HEURISTIC EVALUATION
Uncovering usability issues with expert eyes
We conducted a heuristic evaluation of iMessage using Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics to identify friction points that affect Gen Z users—especially around finding, understanding, and organizing conversations.
PART ONE
Summary
After conducting individual evaluations of iMessage’s features and potential usability barriers, we collaborated as a team to prioritize the most impactful issues. We then mapped each one to the appropriate violated heuristic based on Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics from the Nielsen Norman Group.
To retain iMessage’s most engaged users and stay ahead in the evolving messaging landscape, Apple must act now.
By implementing the targeted changes from this heuristic analysis, iMessage will not only improve usability but strengthen user loyalty and maintain its competitive edge in a dynamic market.
Opportunity space
Things that matter to Gen Z users
35% of Gen Z users prefer texting
32% in person 16% social media 10% video chat
Gen Z users are highly enagaged texters
48% check messages 10X daily 25% check text messages 20X daily
Gen Z wants to communicate using visual media
60% of messaging apps are visual media focus e.g. gifs, emojis, videos
Competitive advantage
iMessage is embedded within Apple’s ecosystem, making it easy to communicate across Apple devices Unique features such as Memoji, Message Effects and Apple pay are included within the app to enhance user engagement
59% worry about privacy
Users admitted to their fear of their private life being shared online Apple prioritizes privacy and security using end-to-end encryption to ensure users are protected without fear of their information being stolen
Our approach was to categorize our selection of violated principles along with their severity level
click for more details
Where was that conversation?
Locating specific threads due to a lack of sorting, archiving, or filters.
Press for details
What was that conversation?
Message previews, reply context, and media records were unclear or missing.
Press for details
When was that conversation?
Inefficient scrolling, hidden timestamps, & limited search scope caused delays.
Press for details
Recommendation
iMessage needs the most improvement in user shortcuts, flexibility of use, and alignment with external messaging interface standards
This heuristic analysis highlights key areas where iMessage can improve usability, reduce user friction, and better meet the evolving needs of its most engaged users, ensuring it remains competitive
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Analyzing the competition to identify gaps
This competitive analysis identifies market gaps, refines strategy, and strengthens differentiation. By assessing competitor strengths and weaknesses, we can enhance positioning, optimize user experience, and make data-driven decisions. Staying ahead of trends and adapting proactively ensures a lasting competitive edge
PART TWO
Summary
To understand how iMessage could better serve Gen Z users, we conducted a competitive analysis across 7 key messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Google Messages, Messenger, Snapchat, Discord, Instagram Direct, and influencer brand Jackbox Games.
What do we know so far?
67%
Prefer text messsage confirmations over email, mail, etc.
45%
Worry about the consequences of having private information exposed
48%
Have 50+ unread messages and 25% have difficulty managing messages
What do want to learn from competitors?
Popular messaging platforms
What other messaging platforms are being used and how do they rank?
Evaluation of different features
Which features do competitors have that stand out and why are they valued?
Strengths and weaknesses
Assess each platform and brainstorm how iMessage can improve or adjust.
Emergent themes impacting messaging
Research surfaced four themes currently impacting the messaging space:
Organization - How well can users sort, filter, and search messages?
Customization - Can users personalize their chat experience?
Media Handling - How seamless is sending, editing, and retrieving media?
Privacy - Are users protected and confident in their data security?
Direct competitors
Companies offering closely related products or services to attract the same audience
Google Messages
High-quality RCS media — but has weak customization.
WhatsApp
Advanced filters & group scale — but Meta-privacy concerns.
Facebook Messenger
Seamless integration with partner platforms—but suffers from feature overload.
Indirect competitors
Companies offering different products or services but target the same audience
Snapchat
Ephemeral media & playful AR filters drive casual sharing—but poor long-term message organization.Discord
Threaded chats & server hierarchies excel at community organization, yet feel complex for 1:1 texting.Instagram DM
Seamless Stories/chat integration makes multimedia sharing effortless, but lacks advanced search or filtering.
Jackbox Games
Influencer
Why use a company known for an online board game?
They unique way of fostering engagement and establishing inclusivity by accommodating others across devices and distance
Sense of community
Multi-media handling
Collaborative multimedia engagement
Competitive edge
Investigating new areas for growth allows teams to uncover untapped opportunities, differentiate from competitors, and design more impactful solutions.
By analyzing competitors, we can identify what works, spot gaps, and gain insights that inform smarter, user-centered decisions—ultimately shaping a stronger competitive edge and more effective solutions."
Enhanced Comfort
Space Optimization
Timeless Elegance
Functional Aesthetics
USER TESTING
Validate our design concepts with
real users and real insights
We conducted remote, unmoderated usability tests with Gen Z participants to validate our prototype’s new features—filters, in-chat search, and saved messages. By measuring success rates, time on task, and user satisfaction, we gathered actionable feedback that guided our final refinements.
Results
These outcomes confirm that our inbox filters, in-chat search, and saved-messages features not only made tasks faster and more reliable but also dramatically improved user confidence and satisfaction.
Open card sorting (50+ 18-28yrs old participants)
Quantitative task metrics (success, time, satisfaction)
Remote 1:1 interviews (4 rounds)
Unmoderated usability testing
Overview
Card sort
Understand mental model for message categories and organization via (Optimal Workshop)
Qualitative usability testing 1
Learn about current feelings and use with current UI (Usertesting.com)
Quantitative testing 1
Benchmark current UI workflows with hypothesized usability issues (Optimal Workshop)
Data triangulation
Synthesize and triangualte data + Ideate and prototype
Qualitative usability testing 2
Evaluate feelings, use cases and usefulness of concept prototype (UserTesting.com)
Quantitative testing 1
Test concept prototype workflows and compare against benchmarked data (Optimal Workshop)
Research insight themes
Insight themes
After conducting three phases of research: Heuristic, Competitive, and User research — became clear as we blended our data.
Bombarded & unorganized
Users are mentally organizing messages, forcing them to juggle dozens of message types and feel buried without filters
Stress about unread text
Features do not match mental models
Social pressure to respond
Experiencing cluttered thread list
Finding past messages
Reliance on scrolling or screenshots shows a need for reliable scoped, in-chat search and a “saved messages” feature
Forced to scroll for specific texts if keyword doesn't work
Screenshots are commonly used to store important texts
Cluttered messages and old data is forced to be kept
Storing methods are unreliable
CONCLUSION
Next steps (further research)
Potential benefits and collaborations
How might Apple Intelligence support these features? (may influence users to take advantage of new features)
How can Apple advocate media management and support users to adopt healthy habits?
Message search
Additional qualitative and quantitative testing to refine importance of search for finding messages.
Global search is not effective enough to find past messages, especially when there is a high quantity of messages being received and unread.
Saved messages
Continue researching ways users prefer storing important messages and investigate real life use cases.
Conduct quantitative usability on saving messages feature and refine designs based on data
Unlinked message history
Further research can be done on how users prefer to retrieve media records and message replies.
CONCLUSION
Reflection
This iMessage project reinforced that every design choice must be intentional and evidence-based—an aesthetic interface alone won’t solve real user problems. Our research shows that inbox filters, in-chat search, and “save message” are high-impact features.
These findings directly shaped our feature set—custom inbox filters, in-chat search by type, and long-press save—each of which tested significantly faster (–11% time) and more reliable (+14% success) in follow-up usability sessions.
I’m confident these enhancements would make a strong recommendation for Apple’s next iMessage redesign or upcoming iOS update, supporting connection among users.