INTRODUCTION

How far will technology go and how can AI be introduced to existing products?

This is a conceptual UX case study created with the intention of showcasing how Gmail can benefit from introducing Large Language Models (Artificial Intelligence, or AI),  through new user-facing features.

INITIAL PROBLEM DISCOVERY

How do users find specific information in their inboxes? Existing filters promote recall over recognition.

The main problems are the following: Visibility is challenging for users when it comes to searching for specific information. Also, recall is a requirement due to the fact that the information needed on the filters must be remembered.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Keeping track of important information in a user’s inbox can be challenging

Widespread and extensive use of email communications in today’s society can make it difficult for users to keep track of important information in their ever-growing inboxes. The act of recalling or digging up important points in conversations that are spread out across multiple exchanges or threads can force the user to carry out time-intensive searches that can often miss key points. In order to address this issue, this UX case study wants to explore the possibility of leveraging LLM technology to summarize large amounts of information and offer up a medium within the Gmail interface to expose them to the user in a convenient and friendly way.

INSPIRATION

AI is revolutionizing everything!

It already has proven quite adept at performing tasks like answering questions, completing sentences, summarizing text, and creative writing.

RESEARCH

During the research stage, I used two methods in order to understand customer needs, behaviors, and how they search for content in their email inbox.

1. Interviews

5/5 of my interviewees do not use the filters Gmail provides to search for specific information.

The filters provided by Gmail are difficult for users since requiring a lot of information that needs to be remembered, something that can be a problem for a lot of users.

QUESTIONS THAT I ASKED:

  • How do you search for specific information in your inbox?

  • How long does it take you to find an email you received last month?

  • Which tools in Gmail do you use to search for information?

  • How frequently do you delete emails from your inbox?

2. Task Observation

I gave 2 customers the same task to learn more about how they search in their inboxes.

3. Analyzing the data

Users spend more time than they want searching for specific information in their inboxes.

Users rarely use filters to search for content because the information that needs to be entered is difficult to recall.

Users search by sender name, but multiple results make finding specific emails challenging.

DEFINE

The persona created for this project represents the goals and needs of the users

The target users are those who would benefit from the solution to this particular problem.

THE SOLUTION

What do users want? How can this experience be improved in order to help them to find information faster?

Incorporation of an AI Helper chat that allows customers to perform three principal functions: find information, create summaries, and send an email.

DESIGN PROCESS

1. Brainstorming technique

The first approximation to solve the problem using one brainstorming technique called: the 10 plus method.

First, I create as many ideas as possible to find different ways to approach the solution. Then, I make the process of elimination to continue with the design stage. Finally, I did the evaluation stage gathering feedback from the users.

Find information

👍🏻 If you don’t remember where certain information is, don’t worry!

You can ask the AI Chat help to search for specific content and it will locate the information on your email or elsewhere in your inbox.

Create a summary

👩🏻‍💻 Create a summary of everything you want!

Create a summary using the information from the search mode. In the summary, you will be able to see where the AI helper gathered the data if the information is in multiple emails.

Send email 

📩 Share the information or create an email instantly

You can share the information created by the AI Helper chat with anyone you want. With the AI tool, you can also attach any email, create a new subject, add an introduction to the email, etc.

2. Designing the functionalities and the screens.

What do users want?

The proposed solution incorporates an AI Helper chat that allows users to perform three principal functions: find information, create summaries, and send an email.

PROTOTYPE

Find the prototype created for this project below:

The prototype for this project has been created using Figma.

USABILITY TESTING

Let's put the solution to the test

I made a user test with 3 users in order to understand if the interactions proposed for the solution were visible, easy to recall, and learnable. During the prototype testing, the participants responded to questions after interacting with it. Furthermore, I used a high-fidelity prototype to make the process more clear and more visible to users.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

  • Is the new incorporation of the AI Chat helper on Gmail easy to use?

  • Is it easy and helpful to use to find and summarize information?

  • It is easy to recall how the new features work?

  • Do you like to have this type of tool as an additional option on Gmail?

MAIN INSIGHTS:

  • Users find the summary button in the inbox screen unnecessary.

  • The options available needs label in order to make the learning process easier.

THE FINAL RESULT

Take a look at how everything looks after incorporating the final users’ feedback.

CONCLUSION

What can I provide for the next project?

This project was one of the most challenging I made since I wasn’t comfortable with the AI approach, however, I was willing to keep trying to see how it goes, and in the end, I am pleased with the result ✨. Having said that, let me share a few lessons I've learned:

  • At the, I wasn't sure how to introduce IA to the project because I was not familiar with it. However, I find this project to be an amazing opportunity to go out of my comfort zone and explore different perspectives and new ways to solve problems. 

  • It is essential to not forget the principal problem attached to the project. At the same time, although exploring new solutions and technologies is exciting, the main focus as always needs to be the user and designing for how they behave to achieve a good result.

  • Even though I created sketches and wireframes, I didn’t think it would apport anything important to the problem. However, for the next project, I think it may be a good idea to include it since it allows readers to understand the behind process and how I approach the solutions.

See more projects

Amazon internship project - Save queries feature

Netflix - Feature for content recommendations