WeChat product analysis report!

one. Product Information

1. Product Name: WeChat

2. Version number: WeChat 6.6.1

3. Experience environment: Nut Pro 2 version 4.13

4. Experience time: 2018.1.19-1.20

5. Product positioning: WeChat was initially positioned as a mobile instant messaging application. With subsequent improvements and the introduction of new features (voice messaging, shake, Moments, subscription accounts, games), it gradually developed into a comprehensive mobile social platform.

6. Product slogan: WeChat is a lifestyle. ——-Specifically, WeChat, as a mobile social network, connects people. Using virtual network space to create a new social platform has become a new way of life

two. Product Introduction

2.1 Product Overview

WeChat is a mobile chat software launched by Tencent in early 2011. It can quickly send voice messages, videos, pictures and texts through the Internet and support group chats with multiple people. WeChat relies on the mobile Internet, supports mainstream smartphone platforms, integrates multiple communication methods, has low charges and saves data traffic. Soon after its launch, it quickly developed into a giant in the Internet social platform. As an Internet product that has been developed for seven years, its audience has become increasingly broad, and it has become a national product of the Internet.

2.2 Product Features

2.2.1 Main functions

As a social software, WeChat's main functions can already meet the social needs of most modern users. It has simple operation, concise interface, small and beautiful product, and comprehensive functions. The products are also undergoing iterations to continuously adapt to the development of modern needs.

2.2.2 Characteristic core functions

.1 WeChat’s evolutionary path has three stages: communication-society-platform. As a social tool, its foundation and core function should be communication, which is the so-called chat function, which is a rigid demand. There are many chat software on the market now, but it is difficult to make a basic chat function comprehensive and perfect. In the initial planning of the product, the positioning of the product is extremely important. Once determined, it cannot be easily changed. Otherwise, the user stickiness will be reduced due to the product becoming inappropriate after iteration, thus losing a large number of users. WeChat was initially positioned as an IM app without any complicated or unnecessary functions. WeChat has always been on the path of being small and beautiful, so the current daily active users of over 100 million are also a recognition of WeChat’s core functions and accurate positioning by the public.

.2 The so-called "friends" in the Moments include more humanized functions such as sharing and limiting visible/invisible users. It also shows WeChat's protection of user privacy.

(1) Comments in Moments can only be seen by friends who are friends with the same group, so that other friends will not be disturbed by strangers.

(2) WeChat has gradually evolved from a chat tool for acquaintances to an IM for office work. The dynamic content, time, and people posted are not suitable for colleagues or certain friends to see, so they need to be appropriately blocked to protect one's privacy.

(3) You can choose the location where your Moments are sent, or choose not to display it.

(4) Avoiding the original nature of QQ, including all kinds of strangers, familiar and unfamiliar people, and various message push notifications, the Moments is a connection between friends, with a comfortable and familiar atmosphere.

2.2.3 Function point analysis and optimization suggestions

1. Although WeChat does a good job in maintaining user privacy, from the perspective of user needs, posting to Moments is more of a display of users’ desire to show off and seek resonance. The more likes and comments a user gets, the greater their sense of satisfaction and vanity will be, and of course they will want others to see it. However, WeChat hides all such information. In fact, it can add a function that allows users to choose whether to display the number of likes and comments, which would be more user-friendly.

2. Comments in Moments can only be seen by those who have mutual friends on WeChat. However, every time you evaluate or like each other, a message will be prompted in the "Discover" column. This is actually a disturbance, because the content is not directly about yourself, but the interaction between others. So I think it is humane to choose whether to accept such message reminders.

3. There will be a red message count prompt on the chat page, but some are messages generated by public accounts, and the titles of some public accounts will not make users want to click, but the red dot is still displayed in the lower left corner. Unless you click it, it will not disappear automatically, and the messages will only accumulate. For some users, this is a very uncomfortable visual experience. We can learn from QQ in this regard. When you don’t want to click on useless messages, you can press and hold the message and slide outwards. The message number can be canceled by itself, and a certain interaction will occur. The message disappears explosively like bubbles, which increases the fun and provides a good user experience.

2.3 Product structure diagram and page function display introduction

analyze

1. The WeChat homepage is a chat list, which is arranged according to chat time. You can specify messages and whether to be reminded of messages. For muted messages, the message number is displayed in front of the message content, and gray small font replaces the red number circle message in the upper right corner of the chat box avatar to reduce the interference experience. The page is concise and has no unnecessary advertisements that affect the chat experience. It is easy to use.

2. In the address book column, there are five content types: new friends, group chats, tags, public accounts, and added friends list. It covers the content that users can use to communicate on a daily basis. On the right side, user names are arranged in alphabetical order, making it easier for users to find chat partners. When sliding letters to search, the page will also display the letters being searched to guide users to find the correct contact.

3. The Discovery column is mainly a list-style navigation, and the navigation content is arranged according to the priority of needs. Users do not need to deliberately look for the content they want, because WeChat's data analysis can already sort the usage habits of most users according to the size of their needs. The main function of a monochrome icon in front of text is to differentiate (means) and assist users in visual positioning (purpose). As a vertical list, its main function is to assist users in visual positioning and facilitate user identification. Generally speaking, people recognize information such as graphics, colors, and directions faster than text content. For a new user, the user will read the text when he or she first uses this function. But when users are already familiar with this function, you will establish an association between the text and its corresponding visual elements. After being familiar with it, you don’t need to read the text anymore. You just need to glance at it and click the button corresponding to the graphic. Therefore, some of WeChat’s more universal functions are directly replaced by graphics.

4. In the "Me" column, it mainly contains personal information, as well as settings such as financial security, and the content is simple.

Based on the above, it is not difficult to find that WeChat, as an instant messaging function, has done a relatively good job in terms of user experience, whether in terms of content classification or interaction design.

1. As a social mobile portal, WeChat covers comprehensive and detailed functions such as making friends, life and entertainment, with a unified structure. The system UI is simple and easy to operate, easy to use, shallow entry, comprehensive content framework, simple and elegant colors, and white is the main color.

2. The top navigation content has a higher priority and covers most of the main functions. It is always displayed at the top of the main page, with the tabbed functionality at the bottom prominent, making it easy for users to find content, and they can easily jump frequently at the entrance, which is shallow and will not get lost.

3. Design priorities based on user needs, starting from frequency of use, user psychology and visual design to create an excellent user experience.

2.4 Product Target User Profile

Looking at the gender of users, male users outnumber female users, accounting for 55.12%, while female users account for 44.88%. According to the 43rd issue of the "WeChat Influence Report" released by Penguin Think Tank in March 2016, 67.5% of WeChat users are male. Based on previous user analysis, the number of female users has gradually increased.

From the perspective of age, the scope of users of WeChat is relatively broad, with users in each age group accounting for a certain proportion, and the proportion of users under 35 years old is relatively high.

From a geographical perspective, WeChat is used mainly in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with a higher frequency in coastal areas and a lower frequency in inland areas.

Judging from the frequency of daily WeChat usage by users, 25% of WeChat users open WeChat more than 30 times a day. 55.2% of WeChat users open WeChat more than 10 times a day.

From the occupational analysis of WeChat users, corporate users account for as high as 40.4%, followed by freelancers and self-employed individuals, students and public institutions.

As a social platform, most of the users who choose to use WeChat use the functions such as Moments, communications and public account reading, followed by WeChat Pay, which is gradually occupying a high market share.

2.4.1 Phenomenon

Based on the above, we can draw some conclusions

1. They are mainly students and workers, and are mainly users born after the 1980s. They have certain experience in using the Internet, have an interest and enthusiasm in exploring new things, pay attention to new hot spots, crave social attention, have a lot of fragmented time to use, and have strong adaptability. They serve as a good communication medium for the rise of WeChat.

2. First-tier cities use WeChat frequently, have a great demand for timely information exchange, and spread information quickly, which is in line with the basic characteristics of the Internet. However, users in remote inland areas use the app less frequently. We can take advantage of this and promote its use in remote inland areas to expand the scope of WeChat users.

3. WeChat is used frequently. The more frequently used a product is, the more valuable it is. In the (importance-frequency) rectangle, WeChat is a high-frequency, highly important product.

4. WeChat has a clear positioning. As an IM communication software, users still spend more time on instant messaging and regard it as its main function. Only if the positioning is accurate in the early stage and this positioning concept is always followed, there will be no multiple demands that do not meet the positioning due to product changes in the later stage, resulting in a decrease in user stickiness and the loss of a large number of users.

2.4.2 Summary

As a developing Internet product with hundreds of millions of daily active users, WeChat has incomparable resource advantages that its competitors cannot match. It addresses users' usage needs from multiple aspects, meets their needs, and provides them with the most satisfactory user experience. However, faced with the characteristics of the Internet that change rapidly, spread information quickly, and has an increasing number of users, WeChat, even as a social giant, cannot underestimate any opportunities for development. They are both opportunities and dangers. If they are not taken seriously, once the opportunities are seized by competitors, they will become a huge threat. We must explore deep needs based on user characteristics. Where there is demand, there will be a market. We must expand the scope of users, and so on, in order to make Internet products go further.

three. Product Analysis

3.1 Version Analysis (from Version 6.5.0 to present)

1. From the perspective of users’ daily social needs, users will browse their Moments frequently, so their demand for Moments will be relatively high. Adding a new way to share videos in Moments and not being reminded of certain interactive messages will further enhance the user experience.

2. In terms of basic communications, we will improve the functions of voice, pictures, and videos to enhance users’ daily social needs and user experience for audio and video. Make micro-innovations in message withdrawal and chat messages. The withdrawn message can be re-edited, which is especially suitable for long texts with rigorous or sensitive content. Even if it is withdrawn, there is no need to worry about re-editing the language. You only need to change a few words. The interactive design is easy to operate. In chat messages, you can send reminders of specific content to prevent yourself from forgetting it later.

3. Simplify the steps of reading articles - chatting - reading, directly design top articles, and wait for users to end the conversation before returning to the original reading page with one click.

4. Perform routine repairs on iOS system bugs to improve the user experience of Apple systems

5. The new reward code is different from the QR code. The QR code is more like connecting offline businesses, while the reward code is for individuals. Just scan it to give rewards directly. The usage scenario can be like paying tips to waiters and personal payment behaviors for offline service industries.

6. In terms of social interaction, integrate resources and classify friends you don’t contact often, such as setting labels when posting to Moments. For members who want to join the group, the group owner has the right to know the channels for joining the group, which to a certain extent guarantees the reliability of the source of group members, excludes some salespeople from joining, and avoids unnecessary trouble in group speech management. It also effectively prevents existing group members from being harassed by useless information, similar to the channel introduction of adding friends on WeChat.

7. Improve the mini program by making changes in interactive design, content, and display location. Use the Jump Game as a guide to familiarize the general public with the use and content of the mini program, understand the special nature of the mini program of "use it and leave" and "will come back", and generate a desire and interest in using the mini program.

Summarize

From the analysis of this version, based on the fact that it is an instant messaging tool, the focus of this iteration is still on making detailed improvements and micro-innovations in the communication and friend circle user experience. As a decentralized product, WeChat is user-centric, creating user-centric systems and continuously improving user experience.

In addition, it assists the growth of the new generation of mini programs. Mini programs are more like a developing platform. They continuously add third-party traffic, expand the user range, and allow not only individual users and corporate users to join. Enterprises can also join the publicity camp, which plays an irreplaceable role in promoting the mini program's own publicity and development. Although mini programs are the focus of development this year, WeChat still gives priority to the arrangement of mini programs to a certain extent to suit the public. In the discovery column, the mini program is in the last column of the list navigation, and a drop-down interaction is designed on the chat cover to display the mini program content, reducing the impact on the use of general users, maintaining the uniformity of the page, not changing the structure at will, and focusing on user experience.

8. From version 6.5.0 to the current version 6.6.1, it is not difficult to find that WeChat has begun to transform from a simple communication tool to a communication-social-platform, building a paradise for life with an open and inclusive attitude.

3.2 Comments

Judging from the number of comments, the current 6.6.1 version of WeChat has a higher score than the average of all versions. Positive reviews are mainly concentrated in five-star reviews, and one-star negative reviews are relatively small in proportion overall, but the number of ratings is as high as 40,487, which cannot be ignored.

Four or five-star rating: The functions are comprehensive and easy to use, and the new functions meet the needs of the public and have changed lives. The four-star rating is mainly based on the positive reviews on the five-star rating, and then users raised some issues encountered during use that need to be improved, but they have little impact on the use itself. However, most of them still put forward some demand suggestions.

1. The time span of opening the friend circle permission, or the visibility of the subdivided tag group

2 WeChat name change

3. Group chat and friends are separated for easy searching

4. Add shooting function filters and special effects to Moments

5. Delete Moments in Bulk

The negative reviews for Samsung and below are mainly

1. WeChat takes up too much memory

2. Voice messages cannot be forwarded

3. WeChat system crashes and displays garbled text (a small part)

4. The new voice function affects the user experience. The frequency cannot be locked, and the call duration will be displayed after exiting (mostly)

Request for Proposal

1. Change the message reminder sound, you can humanely modify and select different music

2. You can choose your own background image

3. Collect blocked group chat messages into a tool similar to QQ group message assistant

It was found that negative reviews mainly seriously affected the user experience, causing usage lag or reduced operability.

Summarize

It is found that users have a very deep experience of WeChat. Not only do they give feedback on bugs they find when using WeChat, but they also give very practical suggestions on needs. It can be seen that WeChat is a relatively in-depth national product, but there are millions of users with millions of needs. Faced with a variety of needs, as a product manager, you should be more aware of what the mainstream public needs, carefully grasp the product positioning, distinguish the real ideas behind the needs, think more about whether it is necessary to increase this demand, why there is this demand, and what impact will be caused by the demand. You cannot impose user needs on the product as soon as they have them, as this will make the product neither fish nor fowl and reduce user stickiness.

3.3 Downloads

The overall download volume in the market is showing a steady upward trend. In view of the gap in the regional user population, we can tap into users from remote inland areas and expand the user base.

3.4 User Requirements

Basic: Instant messaging, sending messages, contacting friends, transferring files.

Expectation type: post messages in Moments, shake, meet strangers in a bottle, pay by scanning QR code on WeChat and send red envelopes by direct transfer, follow public information, and use new voice and video chat.

Exciting type: Add new mini-programs and third-party service platforms.

3.5 Product Development Prospects

WeChat is a diversified communication core in the Internet era. The so-called diversification does not mean that it is just a communication application. Today, WeChat has covered a full range of life circles including text messages, phone calls, videos, shopping, games, etc. In the web2.0 blog era, it was more oriented towards writers with good writing skills and the ability to express ideas clearly and deeply. However, the subsequent rise of the Weibo era is more like anyone with a mobile phone and ideas can comment and express their opinions on Weibo, and the number of words only needs to be around 100. The number of mainstream users has skyrocketed and the number of users is widespread. The users of WeChat, which has been developed today, can be anyone who can speak and has friends. Even if they cannot type, they can send voice messages. It uses little data traffic and can meet the needs of most users. As for the platform, Weibo is positioned as a media platform, while WeChat is a social platform.

WeChat is a symbol of the rise of China's Internet in the world. Although its founding place is not in China, it has risen in China and has hundreds of millions of users worldwide, making it the first mainstream application to go global. However, WeChat users are still concentrated in China. To make China's Internet go global, we must develop WeChat's global Internet strategy. With the rise and development of cloud technology, we must seize this opportunity.

Nowadays, various communication-based apps are developing rapidly.

WeChat, a social giant under Tencent, has to face fierce competition from similar products in the international market. On the premise of consolidating domestic users, it needs to continuously explore the needs of foreign users, establish a foothold in the market, explore users' pain points and demand points, analyze the mainstream user needs of different competitors, and keep the general direction unchanged to create a new world. (I am at a loss for words)

3.6 Problems and Suggestions

As an analyst and a WeChat user, I believe that WeChat can gradually make detailed changes in version updates to keep up with the changing needs of users.

1. Interactive operations are more streamlined. After reading an article in a public account and returning to the communication page, you need to perform multiple operations. The first is to pin the article, then return to the public account, then exit the public account, and finally find your way back to the chat page. In order to reduce the number of operations, you can directly jump to the communication page after the pinning operation, and then a toast pop-up window will appear to prompt that the article has been pinned. This can remind users that the operation is successful and they can return to the communication page with one click, reducing the number of user operations.

2. There can be an option to set a night background. Nowadays, there are many night owls using WeChat, and they use more comprehensive functions than during the day. During the day, they mostly use office instant messaging functions, while at night they can experience most of the functions of WeChat. However, the white page affects vision at night, causes fatigue, affects eyesight, and produces a bad user reading experience. For example, QQ chat can set night options.

3. Collect and organize blocked group chat information in a unified manner. Blocked group messages will still jump to the front of the address book in chronological order. Friends and group chats can be separated into two navigations so that they do not affect each other. There is no need to push important friend messages to the bottom of the page because of unnecessary group messages.

4. WeChat has always done a good job of protecting user privacy, but it is too coercive

(1) If you delete a friend's conversation, you will not be able to find the chat history

(2) After changing the login device, all previous messages will disappear

(3) The computer cannot follow the mobile phone’s message records in real time

(4) The content displayed in Moments cannot be customized by users

Regardless of any company philosophy or product positioning, its goal is to meet user needs and take user needs as the foundation. There should be a humanized design that allows users to choose whether to keep or delete messages. Although this universal and unified operation standardizes and simplifies the operation to a certain extent, for private content such as information, it is a common product shared by all people. Users can make their own decisions and choose whether to keep or delete messages. As for the display of content in the circle of friends, the time span is too long and the choices are too few, with only four types (all, one year, three months, and three days). Since the system intends to set the display of content, users can decide for themselves. In this regard, we can follow the example of QQ Space.

Author: LISA

Source: LISA