The Impact of Instant Messaging Features on a Collaboration Platform's Usability

Abstract: The use of online collaboration platforms has increased drastically in recent years with the rise of remote work. The focus of this Master thesis was to explore what impact different instant messaging features have on the usability of such collaboration platforms. Specifically, the thesis aimed to answer the following research questions: 1) What instant messaging features are essential for good usability in a collaboration platform? 2) How much can an instant messaging feature improve the perceived usability of a collaboration platform? 3) How are new features received by experienced versus inexperienced users? Through a user-centered, iterative design process utilizing qualitative methods such as heuristic evaluation, user interviews and user-based tests, a prototype reply feature was developed for an existing collaboration platform. Usability evaluations conducted on both the original and updated versions of the platform showed that the usability was significantly increased by the addition of the new feature. The findings indicate that certain instant messaging features can significantly impact the usability of a collaboration platform, and that features tackling issues with organization, structure, and findability are prioritized by users. Lastly, lack of experience in a platform does not seem to affect how a user perceives the usability of the platform.