Reflections on an app that I (and 1.15 billion users) can’t live without
As a burgeoning UX designer, I was asked recently to reflect on what makes an app great.
The app that immediately came to mind was WeChat. If you haven’t heard of it already, it’s the ultimate all-in-one app. With its primary user base in China and other parts of Asia, it boasts more than a billion users. It’s the first app that many will open when they wake up, and the last app they check before they go to bed. Like WhatsApp, you can message, call, video and hold group chats on it. It’s also a social media app like Facebook, where you can post photos, text and video. You can also use it to pay at stores and digitally.
WeChat is its own little universe where official accounts, mini apps and stores live. Do you feel like ordering pie? I can order and pay for a dutch-style apple pie from a baker on the other side of town through the baker’s mini app. Want to sell that cot that your 3-year-old no longer use? Post it in one of the buy-and-sell groups. Want to tell all your WeChat friends about your holiday in Thailand? Post your photos, videos and stories in WeChat Moments. Don’t understand what your French neighbour posted in your apartment group chat. WeChat will translate it into your native language for you!
This is only the tip of the iceberg of what WeChat has to offer.
For the typical user, it’s an app that’s easy to learn, and easy to use. For businesses it’s a great way to enter the marketplace without costs (aside from getting someone to design and set up the mini-app for you). It’s an app that does more than many apps combined, and movement from use to use is frictionless. It’s truly an app I cannot live without.
