Designing an improved anonymous chatting experience—Anonn.

Anonn allows you to connect and chat anonymously with anyone around the world

What I Did

My Role: Sole designer working with 1 product manager and 2 engineers

• Led the visual design for the web and mobile app.
• Design System Manager

Timeline: 1 month for the first version; continuous iterations are ongoing.

Tools: Figma, Maze, Figjam

Project type: Contract

The process

Designing Annon was interesting in so many ways. From the idea to create an anonymous chat app to research and interviews, visualisation, then testing. Anonn is currently under development as a mobile app, and I couldn’t be prouder!

Researching the audience and learning about them

It all started with a chat. My friend, Jeremiah Ajayi texted me that he got an idea for anonymous chatting. Something like 2Go, but anonymous and trendy.

We then spoke with a couple of friends to get their opinions on the current Anonymous chat offerings and their frustrations. We also reviewed several existing market options like NGL, gas App, Kubool, Curious cat..etc

Defining the problem we wanted to solve.

After analysing the research data (interview with friends) , we knew the problem we wanted to solve.

“To craft a space where connections could flourish, unburdened by identities, labels, or societal pressures.”

“Continuous Anonymous Chatting”.

We wanted an anonymous chat like Whatsapp where users could chat continuously, not leave opinions, and end conversations.

This was our driving force and mission.

We had other features in mind.

1. Continuous conversations with chat-like interface
2. Anonymous polls
3. Anonymous group chats
4. Community

Brainstorming ideas (even bad ideas) that could be a solution.

Hmm, here, we explored ideas like connecting AI and the Web3 ecosystem. It is not a bad idea; it still stands as a future possibility

I visualised the most solid ideas.

• Sign-up flow
• Profile page
• Chat page
• Empty states
• Anonymous polls

Chat/Conversations screen

Here, users start anonymous conversations. The chats are encrypted.

I added some extra spice with the UX writing

But it wasn’t just about visuals; weaving a friendly, humorous tone into the UX writing was crucial. After all, anonymity doesn’t have to “sound” so serious!

Validated assumptions with user testing and feedback

We tested with 10 users to get feedback on the overall experience of the product and improve solutions.

Finally, we validated our assumptions with user testing and feedback, which helped us identify areas for improvement, such as the need for notifications to support continuous conversations. Currently, we are developing a mobile app with a fresher look and more features, so stay tuned for updates!

Results/ feedback

• We launched the Web App on December 30th, 2022, and had 500+ sign-ups.
• Like every user-centered product, we prioritise feedback and user satisfaction.
• We noticed a loose end: notifications (it is impossible to have continuous chats without getting notifications or reminders).
• Hence, the mobile app is in development, with a fresher look and more features.

Explore https://anonn.xyz/ .