‘Conversations are the core… we owe it to our users to create new things’: WhatsApp’s Head of Design

You have users who use the app differently, especially the newer features. Do you look at a lot of data to figure out what to add, maybe what to take away?

Idit Yaniv: We are looking at data, but we are mostly listening to our users. In India, we have been meeting with people who use our products for family and friends, for communication, people who use status, people who use channels, and people who run their businesses entirely on WhatsApp. It’s such a humbling experience. So when you design a product that kind of addresses so many different needs of people, you need to focus on the core need first, which is again a simple, reliable, and private product for them to communicate freely and privately with the people they care about the most. And then over time, their needs evolve, but they need more from the product. How can you do that in a way that still feels very simple, reliable, and private for them, but helps them do more with the product?

Is the design philosophy of WhatsApp like a charter? Is it like a document or is it something that constantly evolves?

Idit Yaniv: The things that never change are our principles. I always say that our principles of simple, reliable, and private are much more than just a poster on the wall… but it doesn’t just stay there. We are actually debating using our principles, we make decisions using our principles. 

The way I think about the design philosophy, and then how we approach design for billions of people is two-fold. One, we are taking inspiration from what people are already doing with the product, and we want to enhance that to become even easier, faster, more reliable, more expressive, more fun, and delightful. And on top of it, we want to empower them to communicate in new ways and to get even more things done using the product. So the core is always on enhancing and improving, but then there are multiple ways we can innovate and create new experiences for people.

Design itself is understood differently in different parts of the world. Colours, for instance, are understood differently and have different meanings in different parts of the world. How does all of that fold into your thinking of creating a product?

Idit Yaniv: We are thinking about designing truly globally. If you know how to use the device you own, then using WhatsApp should feel easy. That is why if you open WhatsApp on iOS versus Android versus desktop apps, you will see that the app looks and feels different, and that is an intentional design decision. You want to use the native patterns from the operating system, from the device, to make sure that people don’t need to relearn how to do specific things. If they open the app for the first time, it should feel familiar enough for them to be able to focus on the conversation. The conversation is what is truly important, and that is the core, then around all of that, we can create even more ways for them to customise their chats.

For example, we have launched payments in India and when you send money over WhatsApp, you can customise it with cricket backgrounds to make people feel this is actually representing what I’m interested in. So we do have areas in the product where you can see that kind of treatment. 

Are you also thinking about integrating WhatsApp as part of the larger Meta ecosystem?

Idit Yaniv: We are thinking about ways in which, once you create something, it is usable across different apps within Meta. One nice example is avatars. Once you create that, that works across different apps. The most important thing for us is to communicate, visually and very clearly, that this avatar will be used for you across the different apps. So when you open the flow to create an avatar, there is very much a Meta design system… it’s not a WhatsApp design system. And this is a very intentional design position to kind of signal to you that this is a Meta space.

How does travelling in a country like India help you, or how do you imbibe that in your designs?

Idit Yaniv: The biggest source of inspiration that I have is seeing people using the product. People are truly the biggest source of inspiration for designers who create consumer products and business products, seeing in real life how people use their products. I met this young man who runs a clothing business through our business app. Customers are reaching out to him on WhatsApp after he created ads on Instagram and Facebook. Business owners know that once the conversation on WhatsApp begins, the deal is on. What can be better for small business owners? There are so many opportunities for us to enhance that, even more when we are in the market.

Log in to Our Own Devices next week for the full conversation.