Poll in Google Chat

Role: UX Research Consultant

Timeframe: Three Week Sprint

In today's fast-paced environment, team conversations in Google Chat often get bogged down by decision fatigue, scattered feedback, and the need to switch apps just to agree on a meeting time. This friction degrades team engagement and slows momentum.

This reality brought our research team to the pivotal question:

How can the Poll app for Google Chat™ be optimized—specifically through the /poll command and @mention functionality—to ensure seamless discoverability, intuitive creation, and real-time engagement, ultimately maximizing the efficiency of team decision-making and feedback gathering?

This case study demonstrates how my research focused on transforming Google Chat from a simple communication tool into a powerful, interactive hub for rapid alignment and streamlined decision-making, proving that critical consensus can be reached without ever interrupting the conversation flow.

Sprint at a Glance

Recruitment

We engaged Google Workspace power users who actively rely on chat as their primary tool for daily communication and real-time collaboration. This strategic focus ensured we gathered insights from the users with the highest reliance and most critical needs.

Method

1:1 Remote Moderated In-Depth Interviews (∼60 mins) conducted via Google Meet. Testing leveraged a high-fidelity Figma interactive prototype simulating the Google Chat environment to ensure realistic and contextualized evaluation of critical user workflows.

Overview

The polling feature was an unequivocal success, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants. The key takeaway from this research immediately drove a critical product decision: we leveraged the findings to refine and clarify the post-launch copy, significantly improving users' understanding of the polling feature's capabilities and functionality.

Impact

My research played a pivotal role in the development of the new polling chat extension. By ensuring the feature was an intuitive and seamless addition to the current experience, we successfully prevented user friction and eliminated the need for users to switch tabs to external polling or response-collecting tools. This work solidified the in-app polling feature as the go-to solution within Google Chat.

What We Learned

The feedback highlighted a need for a more prominent, flexible, and visually clear poll feature that prioritizes user experience from creation to results display, with a strong emphasis on customization and addressing potential privacy concerns in a group setting.

Flexible Creation:

Users desire straightforward poll creation but with more customization. This includes toggles for single/multiple votes, emoji integration for options, controlled visibility of results (real-time vs. hidden), and the ability to create image-based or multiple-choice polls (including "other" options) with a preview before sharing. A Google Forms-like interface was expected for rich question types and media.

Discoverability and Privacy:

The poll feature needs to be more easily found (e.g., in the compose bar) and automatically integrated into the chat interface for better adoption. Features like anonymous voting and hidden vote counts were highly valued for fostering honest participation and avoiding conflicts.

Flexible Creation:

The current display needs improvement for larger groups, particularly regarding responder names and easily identifying multiple votes. Users want to see vote counts, know if responses are pending, and have a clearer poll winner indication. The necessity of a "Show Results" button was questioned if counts are already visible. Additionally, charts/graphs for large group results were suggested for better at-a-glance understanding.