Datally
Datally is a data saving app for Android targeted at emerging markets which I helped to design while at Google’s Next Billion Users team. It allows users to manage their data, find wifi, and engage with third party apps to get data rewards.
Team:
Sahana Kumar - Product Design
Ram Ravichandran - Lead Product Design
Josh Woodward, Max Branzburg, Matt Jayson - Product
Opportunity
Users in certain emerging markets have completely different data needs for their phones than we do in the US. Many are extremely conscious and only use certain apps, or do all their downloading on wifi. We found a need to help users control and maximize their data.
Features
Managing Data
The first of the app’s main features is a data management graph, and tool to turn off background data for specific apps.
Data Saver
The app also features an out-of-app chat head experience to quickly turn on and off data, and know how much is being used.
It was a great challenge to try to create an unobtrusive out-of-app experience that added value and was intuitive.
Wi-fi Finder
The feature I solely owned was the wifi finding feature. I had to make it clear which networks were the best, and help users navigate to them easily.
Process
Research and Iteration
We found our app had certain unclear elements by talking with participants, and iterated to be as clear as possible.The green “connected” bar on the left most screen made users think they were already connected to wifi. The graph on the right screen needed to have clear numerical labels, because users didn’t understand the morning to night labels.
Launch and Press
Press:
Verge : Google’s new Android app stops other apps from wasting your data
Youtube: Datally: A new mobile data-saving app by Google.
Datally first launched in beta in the Philippines for several months, and then worldwide on November 29th 2017. It averaged a 4.5 star rating in the Playstore.
Unfortunately, about a year later, the team decided to discontinue support for Datally. (I did not work there at the time)