Skype
Redesign

This case study looks at how to improve Skype for people who use it daily, including for business, and for people who use it a few times a month to keep in touch.

Interviews, a competitor review and a survey showed one clear issue: users were happy with video calls but struggled with chat. I prioritized the fixes (mute, search, reply, voice messages, chat folders), added video call improvements such as recording options and custom grids, and refined the result through usability testing.

I first needed to understand how people use Skype and how they feel about it. I interviewed 13 users aged 20 to 60, reaching them through my Instagram account by asking who uses Skype, then setting up phone interviews.

Interview questions

• What is your main purpose of using Skype?
• Which device do you use it on most?
• Where do you arrange your meetings, on Skype or somewhere else? If somewhere else, why?
• How often do you use Skype?
• How do you start with Skype?
• Why did you choose Skype?
• What bothers you about Skype?
• What could Skype do better?

What people complained about

Chat issues were reported mostly by the first user type, video call issues by the second. Both groups complained about the Skype ID.

Users were mostly satisfied with Skype’s video calls. That was the reason they used it. They were not happy with chat, so I ran a competitor analysis to see what users liked most about other apps.

Most of the problems were in chat. I wanted to know which features were must-haves, and which improvements would make users happier with the least effort. The competitor analysis gave me a set of ideas, and I asked people to sort them into must-have and nice-to-have.

With these findings, I started ideation and tried to find different solutions for each user type. I focused on chat and discovery, though I had ideas for video calls too.

Chatting

For the issues reported most by the first user type, I came up with two solutions. The first redesigns the chat itself: mute and search in every conversation, voice playback with speed control and skip, smoother replies, and fewer sending options to reduce confusion.

The second adds folders to organize chats.

Video call

For the second user type, I proposed smaller improvements: a redesigned reaction picker with more emoji, a bottom sheet that takes less space, custom grids, pinning a speaker, and the option to record video and audio or audio only.

Finding your Skype ID

Both groups reported this problem, so I designed several ways to share your ID to find out which works best.

Because of limited time, I designed the flow for creating and managing folders to organize chats.

As a result, I redesigned the parts users struggled with most.

I ran a usability test with nine people, split into two parts.

Folders and video calls

• Folders: create a folder named “Friend” and move the chat “Anna” into it.
• Video call: join the meeting, change the grid to 6, pin a person’s video, and go to chats without hanging up.

Users were fine with folders. In the video call, getting to chats was confusing: two testers couldn’t do it without help and one couldn’t do it at all.

Skype ID

I tested the scenario “send me your Skype ID.” Each person saw one of the designs, three people per design, and I measured time and counted errors.

During testing I noticed people still struggled to reach chat from a video call. Based on their behavior (they pressed the phone’s back button), I changed the design and tested it with four more people. No failures.

After launch, I recommend tracking these metrics to see how well, or how badly, things go.