When communicating digitally, it is inevitable that at some point there will be a need to share media from outside of the app with someone within the app.

Upon researching this feature in the market, there were two general UX patterns that other apps were following. Some apps let the user share media, text content and choose a media recipient, all in one screen. The other UX pattern was breaking the process up into two or more steps.

So on one hand, with a one-step/one-screen approach, the user gets everything done in one step, at the cost of potentially cluttering the UI. On the other hand, with the two-step/two-screen approach, the user may have a clearer understanding of what they need to do, at the cost of having a lengthier process. After consulting with colleagues around the office, most people opted for a one-step approach because of the convenience.

The VBC app offers a variety of communication-oriented features, such as VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone, multiple phone lines, chat/chat groups, video meetings and more. Throughout my time at Vonage I continuously improved existing features and designed new features.

One of the features that was clearly needed by users was a richer URL sharing experience. The common behaviour typically involves someone sharing a link within a chat, and another user will want to visit it or copy the link to share it.