Redesigning Skype with a user centric approach

5 min readJun 3, 2022

A UI redesign of Skype

Background

Millions of people use Skype to communicate virtually, especially after the rise in virtual conversation due to the Global pandemic. Recently after using it to communicate with my family and friends, I was unhappy with the user experience.😅 To fill the holes in the existing UX, I decided to redesign its app for my UX bootcamp.

The main aim of this project was to redesign Skype interface and make it more user friendly and we had only 3 days to do so

The aim of a redesign challenge given to me as part of my Ironhack bootcamp is to practice UI skills at a fast pace, without the constraints of doing user research. I just had to use the content, the Information Architecture, everything that already exists in the app and just focus all my effort on visual skills. Of course, the use of UI Kits was prohibited: I needed to create everything from scratch.
For this r

Objective

To build a solution that gives better user experience to skype users.
The Goal here is too make more user friendly and mainly work as calling application

Start with Heuristics Analysis

I tried to find out what are the problems with current skype applications and what are main user pain points. I used heuristics analysis method for the same

Heuristic evaluation is a process where experts use rules of thumb to measure the usability of user interfaces in independent walkthroughs and report issues. Evaluators use established heuristics (e.g., Nielsen-Molich’s) and reveal insights that can help design teams enhance product usability from early in development.

Current skype app

Problems in current skype application :

Inconsistency in each page, header is different on each page
There is no primary CTA, the user has not given any hint what next action is expected from him
Too many details in the design, and no information hierarchy
The chat page has details of call log information, which should consist only of details of msgs
Primary CTA on the chat page is misleading, has too many options and no priority to any of the options, users do not understand which action to take
Unnecessary priority to notification in the navigation bar, notifications can be divided in msgs and calls page
Place of the profile does not match with other apps, breaks the mental model of the user
On the calls page, phone dail is the primary CTA, does not match with the call or other apps, it hides all the other options when dail screen pops up
other contacts or search for contacts is hidden when dail page appears
For chat there are so many options — users do not understand which one to use

To find out the solution for all above problems, I looked into other apps like zoom, whatsapp and slack

I came up with below ideas that can be done to solve current user issues

Make header consistent on each page
Primary CTA for msg and calls can be highlighted
Priority can be given by correct use of font and weight and hide the secondary information
All the clicks on the profile icon can perform the same action, this will add consistency in the design
The place of the contacts can be inside the profile page
For new messages notifications can be added directly on calls and chat screen

My approach for redesign

My main focus was to make the skype app modern and transform it into an app that makes calling easier between friends. I wanted to give that friendly look so I turned away from the blue or other conventional colors