Revamping a Corporate Chat App: Key Takeaways from Suning’s Bean Sprout Redesign

Introduction

Product development from nothing is hard; moving from early to intermediate stages is harder, and advancing from intermediate to advanced is even more challenging. This article discusses how to seek breakthroughs in product iteration, using Suning’s instant‑messaging app “Bean Sprout” mobile client as a case study.

Enterprise Instant Messaging

Enterprise instant messaging focuses on internal office communication, building a platform for employee interaction, reducing operational costs, improving efficiency, and integrating related applications. Compared with personal messaging tools, it emphasizes security, practicality, stability, and extensibility, with mobile office and corporate social features being key challenges.

Changing Mindset, Disassembling and Reassembling

Visual redesign begins with competitive analysis. Selecting competitors follows a principle: analyze top‑ranked products rather than lower‑ranked ones, to set industry benchmarks and strive for leadership. The analysis focuses on DingTalk and WeChat.

Analysis of message‑list layouts shows DingTalk’s balanced layout, bright colors, strong text hierarchy, and consistent use of blue tones via alpha variations, while WeChat features high contrast, square avatars, and uniform design. Bean Sprout’s neutral tones, lower saturation, and inconsistent accent colors reveal opportunities for improvement.

Core Focus and Minimalist Aesthetics

To avoid a chaotic “city‑like” product, the goal is to identify the main line and core competitive modules, then design around them. Minimalist design principles suggest “subtracting” visual elements while adding conceptual clarity, akin to breaking a teapot and reassembling it into a valuable piece.

Icon Redesign

For the mobile interface, icons are crucial. The new approach uses abstract, broken‑line icons that convey rich meaning with minimal strokes, providing users space for imagination and enhancing recognizability while retaining some visual memory.

Balancing Benefits, Centering on Core

Despite constraints from business, product, frontend, and development teams, user needs remain paramount. Effective user interviews are essential, and raw user data must be synthesized with professional expertise to devise reasonable solutions.

Design Details of Bean Sprout 5.0

Bean Sprout mobile 5.0 consists of four modules: Messages, Contacts, Workbench, and Me, with core focus on message list, chat interface, and workbench. Design updates include:

Space : Choosing iPhone X canvas size to define layout, similar to calligraphy composition.

Color : Transitioning from immature grass‑green to a refined peacock‑green, adjusting saturation and brightness to suit diverse user groups.

Typography : Using default system fonts with appropriate size and spacing for clear information hierarchy.

Images : Adopting 16:9 aspect ratios for workbench ads, maintaining circular avatars, and using rounded‑square icons for consistency.

Emptying the Mind, Source of Innovation

Adopting a “empty cup” mindset before iteration helps remove the three poisons—experience, habit, motivation—allowing fresh creativity. Drawing on creative theory, continual questioning of “why” fuels innovative ideas.

Conclusion

Continuous learning fuels innovative output; design excellence, not money, determines project success. The article recommends reading “Between the Lines” by Hartmut Esslinger for further creative inspiration.

Future possibilities include integrating AR technology to blend shopping with immersive experiences, potentially reshaping user lifestyles.