How might we reduce the friction of time zone differences to help people connect more seamlessly?
WHAT IS BREEZE?
Breeze is an AI-driven mobile messaging app that enables users to easily connect with people worldwide, regardless of time zone differences.
CHALLENGE
Design an AI-powered mobile messaging app that helps people stay emotionally connected with loved ones—by removing the friction of time zone differences and making cross-time-zone communication feel effortless.
MY ROLE
I led the design of Breeze in July 2024. During the 12-week project, as a solo designer, I was in charge of implementing the end-to-end design process, including Research, Interaction Design, Design System Development, Branding, Visual Design, Usability Testing & Iterations.
People experience difficulties when contacting loved ones across different time zones.
About a year ago, my friend Maki shared a story about the frustrating, time-consuming process of scheduling virtual gatherings with her family abroad, shortly after she arrived in the USA. This isn’t unique to Maki; many people I know face similar challenges connecting with loved ones overseas. I experience this myself, struggling to stay connected with family and friends across time zones. Despite trying various messaging apps, I found they didn’t fully address the time zone issue, a gap confirmed by my research.
That’s why this topic sparked my interest: How can we help people overcome common challenges when connecting with their family/friends across multiple time zones? Let’s design an AI-powered messaging app that offers a seamless, time-zone-friendly communication experience!
“With family across Japan, Canada, and the U.S., scheduling online meetups is always a challenge. I constantly had to Google time zones and do the math—over and over—just to find a mutual time. It was exhausting and frustrating. There had to be an easier way…”
-Maki (California, USA)
Research from various methods consistently revealed that the inability of current messaging apps to effectively manage time zone differences was a significant pain point.
Competitor Analysis
To better understand how comparable messaging apps have tried to help users connect across time zones, I conducted a Competitor Analysis on the most popular messaging apps. While WhatsApp displays the ‘last seen’ local time, none of the messaging apps provides optimal solutions for time zone difference issues,such as time zone confusion or cross-time-zone meetup scheduling, which Maki and others have struggled.
View details
Competitor Analysis
Heuristic Evaluation
I followed NNG’s heuristic principles to analyze the usability strengths & weaknesses of the 3 leading competitors: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Signal.
The result revealed design flaws and areas for improvement in responsiveness and user control, even among these globally leading messaging apps. These insights reinforced my original assumptions regarding user challenges in cross-time zone communication.
View details
A part of the Competitive Heuristic Evaluation
A part of the Competitive Heuristic Evaluation
User Interviews
After creating a Research Plan that served as a roadmap for the process, I recruited relevant participants using Screener Surveys and conducted user interviews to uncover pain points and needs from real potential users. The results revealed a lack of cross-time-zone communication solutions in existing messaging apps, leading to challenges such as:
Users wanted to easily plan virtual meetups without endless back-and-forth messaging.
Users felt uncertain after sending messages.
Users were frustrated by having to guess their family’s or friends’ availability.
Empathy Mapping
Via Affinity Mapping, I identified 2 user types who were suffering challenges from cross-time-zone communication, so I developed two Empathy Maps to gain a deeper understanding of the users’ environments and further connect with their feelings. This helped me identify the 3 major problems users were facing as mentioned below.
View details of Empathy Mapping
Personas:
Key Insights from Research:
1
Time zone confusion
Manually converting time zones was frustrating and time-consuming, making it difficult for users to know when would be the best time to connect.
2
Cross-time-zone meetups
Users struggled to coordinate group meetings with people in varying time zones.
3
Real-time interaction
Users found text-based communication insufficient for maintaining close, long-distance relationships, as they desired more real-time interaction.
How might we reduce the friction of time zone differences to help people connect more seamlessly?
1
Time zone confusing
How might we make it easy to see the best times to connect across time zones?
2
Cross-time-zone meetups
How might we empower users to effortlessly plan group gatherings across multiple time zones?
3
Responsive Communication
How might we bring real-time presence to text-based communication to deepen connection across time zones?
I designed Breeze, an AI-powered messaging app built to reduce the friction of time zone differences, making it easier for people to connect seamlessly with loved ones around the world.
1
Time zone confusing
How might we make it easy to see the best times to connect across time zones?
Solution: I designed 2 key features:
Local Time Display (per contact)
AI-informed Personalized Availability Indicators
making it easy for users to know when their loved ones were likely available.
WHY: Research revealed that users found it frustrating and time-consuming to convert time zones and guess when others were available, leading to confusion, scheduling delays, and dropped conversations.
IMPACT: Usability testing showed that
These features significantly reduced users’ cognitive load
Users completed tasks 30% faster compared to flows without local time or availability features.
75% of participants said they would prefer this app over their current messaging tool, specifically because of the local time display and personalized availability features.
ITERATIONS TO REACH THIS FINAL DESIGN
Based on usability testing feedback, I repositioned the availability dots from the top to the bottom-right of user avatars and clarified their meaning in the onboarding flow. As a result, the task success rate increased from 92% in round 1 to 100% in round 2.
Displaying local times and personalized availability on the Updates page (the first screen users see when launching the app)
Displaying local times and personalized availability in key areas throughout the app (i.e., Calls and Chats).
2
Cross-time-zone meetups
How might we empower users to effortlessly plan group gatherings across multiple time zones?
Solution: I designed the new AI-powered “Meetups” feature, enabling users to schedule cross-time-zone gatherings in just a few clicks. By automating availability detection and time zone coordination, this feature helped users connect with loved ones 50% faster.
WHY: Research revealed that users were frustrated by the mental load of converting time zones manually and the back-and-forth messaging required to find a mutually available time.
IMPACT: Usability testing showed that this feature
Significantly reduced cognitive load during scheduling.
Allowed users to plan cross-time-zone meetups approximately 50% faster than before
100% task success rate
Increased users’ confidence and motivation to initiate group gatherings.
ITERATIONS TO REACH THIS FINAL DESIGN
Through usability testing, I discovered that some users initially had difficulty noticing and using the new Meetups feature due to its novelty. To improve visibility and onboarding, I added an animated pop-up for guidance. This change helped users discover and engage with the feature twice as fast, and significantly increased overall user satisfaction. Users expressed their satisfaction with the instructive pop-up and the straightforward and intuitive process of the Meetups feature
Developed wireflow for this net-new “Meetups” feature
A pop-up displayed at app launch helps users discover the unique Meetups feature.
Allowed users to schedule cross-time-zone meetups in just a few clicks, by simply selecting participants and a preferred time window.
3
Responsive Communication
How might we bring real-time presence to text-based communication to deepen connection across time zones?
Solution: I introduced the Availability-Aware Message Delivery feature (the app sends personalized notifications with estimated response times from chat partners), creating a sense of real-time presence and boosting user engagement.
WHY: Research revealed that users found text-based communication lacking in emotional connection and responsiveness, making it difficult to maintain close long-distance relationships.
IMPACT: Usability testing showed that this feature
100% user satisfaction with the feature
Increased engagement by 25%, as users stayed active on the platform longer
Increased conversation rates, driven by more timely and emotionally satisfying interactions
The app sends personalized notifications with estimated response times from chat partners, helping users stay connected with realistic expectations and a sense of real-time presence, especially across time zones.
MVP Scoping
To address the 3 most pressing user pain points uncovered in research, I framed the MVP around time-zone clarity, scheduling ease, and responsive communication. I generated user stories that captured how people would interact with the app, then prioritized the most impactful stories based on user needs and feasibility, which shaped the MVP scope. The final MVP focused on four key feature areas: Updates, Calls, Chats, and Meetups—each mapped directly to a core pain point.
Local Time & Availability Display (via Updates) → Solves: Time-zone confusion
Responsive Messaging (via Chat) → Solves: Feeling of delay or disconnection
Real-time Communication (via Call) → Solves: Feeling of delay or disconnection
User Flows
I then developed the key user flows, illustrating step-by-step how users navigate the red routes—the primary actions essential to the core experience.
Warmth
Intimacy
Trust
UI Style Guide Creation
I created a Style Guide to establish visual standards and principles for Breeze, ensuring that all design elements of the app remain cohesive and aligned with the desired tone and mood. The interface should be Clean and Highly Readable while representing the brand attributes: Warmth, Intimacy, and Trust.
View the key justifications for my visual design decisions.
TYPOGRAPHY: I chose Montserrat font for the biggest headings (the names of the pages), and Open Sans Font for other smaller headings & body texts. Montserrat font has a sleek, geometric design that feels modern, approachable, and personable, which can create a friendly and inviting atmosphere for the app. Open Sans font is well-known for its clean, modern, and highly readable design. It has a neutral yet friendly appearance, which creates a welcoming UI without being too formal. The combination is ideal for an app centered around close and personal connections like BREEZE.
COLOR PALETTE: I considered color psychology to decide the primary color for the app. The Primary color is a deep, muted purple with red undertones, which can convey a sense of warmth and intimacy. Especially, the muted nature of this particular shade can enhance that feeling by being more subdued and less formal, while the richness of this shade can also evoke a sense of trust and reliability. It is paired with a soft, warm light beige background which helps enhance the feelings of warmth & trust. The light tone of the background creates a calm and welcoming atmosphere, which is ideal for fostering close relationships with family/ friends. Dark grey shades are used for Texts. The texts were tested and it showed that they passed the WCAG requirements at both AA and AAA levels, meaning they have enough contrast against the backgrounds for readability and accessibility.
ICONS, BUTTONS, TEXT BUBBLES, NOTIFICATIONS: They all have rounded corners, which make the designs approachable, friendly, and non-intimidating.
IMAGES: For messaging apps, there are not many images like other types of apps, the only images are the user avatars. I used sticker style for the avatars to create some sense of fun, informality, and closeness, helping users feel comfortable for casual chats with family & friends. I also use shadows on avatars, making them stand out from the background, to create more realistic effects and make them less formal.
LOCAL TIME: Time zone display is one of the main features of this app, so the local times are featured with the Primary Color to make them more noticeable to users.
Scalable Component Library
I also built a scalable and reusable component library in Figma to ensure design consistency and support future scalability for Breeze. The library included well-structured single components, variants, interactive components, interaction patterns, and animations, enabling faster design workflows and a more cohesive user experience across the app.
SUCCESS
Designing BREEZE, an AI-powered messaging app for connecting across time zones, was a deeply rewarding experience. I led the end-to-end design process to solve real user pain points, such as availability confusion and cognitive overload when coordinating across time zones. The final solution streamlined the experience through features like availability suggestions, automatic time zone conversion, and intelligent group scheduling. It achieved a 100% task success rate and 100% user satisfaction, and is estimated to help users connect 30% faster—significantly boosting conversation rates and engagement.
CHALLENGES & LEARNINGS
One major challenge was balancing user-centered design with technical feasibility. I proposed several AI features and worked closely with an AI developer to ensure the ideas were grounded and implementable. I also gained firsthand empathy for users—especially during prototyping, when even I struggled with time zone logic and scheduling coordination. It became clear that simplifying this friction can have a big emotional impact.
NEXT STEP
Moving forward, I’d refine key UX flows—like grouping duplicate “pending invitations” and “upcoming meetups,” and introducing a “reschedule” option. I’m also excited to explore additional AI-driven features, including Smart Reminders (suggesting ideal reply times), Predictive Message Scheduling (delivering messages at the recipient’s local time), and Calendar Integration (auto-detecting dates/times in chats). These would build on the foundation of BREEZE—making global conversations feel seamless, thoughtful, and deeply human.
What users are saying
User 1
“I really like the instructive pop-up and the straightforward, intuitive process of the Meetups feature. It saved me time planning a family meetup!”
User 2
“The estimated response time in the chat is great! It makes me feel my loved ones’ presence much closer and more real…”
User 3
“The local time display and availability suggestions are super convenient! It makes connecting with my close friends overseas so much easier.”
