Uncovering Teen's Needs
Role: Product Designer in Researcher hat
OVERVIEW
Visva is a way to create and manage membership-based communities for teenagers and young adults. Visva helps get things done within your tribe. School clubs, cause-driven communities, and nonprofit organizations are the primary target audience of the platform.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Define the problem → Select the approach → Plan and prepare for the research → Collect the data → Analyze the data → Report the results → Make the change
TIMELINE
June 2019 → July 2019 · 1 month
THE PROBLEM
The huge product change started on one of the meetings with the product team. We discussing potential causes of such a low retention rate.
As you can see on the graph, there was a massive drop in people in the first two days after installing the application. So basically, they tried the app and never opened it again. From the business perspective, we needed people to use the app for a few days so the IA could uncover their interest and start providing relevant to them content. We needed a chance to fulfill our promises to customers.
OBJECTIVE
Improve user retention rate
My personal objective was to come up with ideas on how to improve the user experience, so people are coming back to the app. I came up with the plan:
1. Develop a research-informed understanding of the current retention rate results
2. Understand the current challenges people face with Visva
3. Come up with ideas on how to improve the user retention rate
When I joined Visva, all the information about the target audience was mainly analytics data and a few assumptions. Until then, all designs were done by a design agency.
It took me about a month to make my table research, create a report and convince the team to dig deeper into the needs of our target audience.
I was the main person running the whole process, with the help and support of the Product Manager and collaboration with the Marketing team.
Low Retention Rate
SELECT THE APPROACH
First, I did table research of the target audience.
I made the report because I needed to be sure that stakeholders understood the problem as well to be on the same page with me when I proposed a solution.
PROVISIONAL PERSONA
Elsie
Freshman in high school
Main points:
Tired of people gaming social media
Worried about what others think
Doesn't post as much
Cares about mental health and activism
Values private stories and one-on-one conversations
USER INTERVIEWS AND TESTING
To understand the expectations of a generation that grew up with technology and the internet, I conducted usability studies with real teens to identify specific guidelines for how Visva can be improved to match teenagers' preferences and needs.
These interviews included an initial survey, a live user test, where teenagers were invited to interact with content, and a final set of questions.
I used the HEART framework to summarize my findings and set the UX goals
Many conclusions which were drawn from these tests ended up influencing design and business decisions later. But for this specific project, after looking at the data, I learned:
Users' first impression of the app affected their perception of the usability and credibility of the platform.
Visual design and aesthetics play a large role in perception. For unfamiliar sites and apps, teens are likely to place a large focus on visual design. It turns out from my research that
One of the deal-breaking factors for retention drops off — teens felt the app's design was too boring and formal
To gig deeper I did a small product competitor analysis based on UI of the most popular apps used by teenagers. I you can see on this slide how Visva was different.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
I asked teens what advice they would give designers to make the app good. It gave me insights into how teenagers view the app. Most of the responses involved simple visual design and content. Some of their responses:
“Make it brighter or colorful. Fun looking.”
“I would say make it colorful to grab attention. Make it stand out.”
“I feel like if you’re an app designer, you want to be hands-on. The app should have interactive things so that you can learn more, not just a bunch of links.”
I made different styles capes to see which design language they prefer
Participants preferred bright, playful designs with vibrant accents.
Based on the feedback, I started working on the visual language of a bran new look of the product.
Once the design language was done, I was able to build a blueprint of our design structure — The road map for the redesign.
I organized features considering the priorities that research participants indicated as important and mapped how they might relate to one another.
The new visual look gives app visitors a feel for the atmosphere and personality of the platform
RESULTS
2 month after the redesign, there was still a drop in the retention rate. It’s normal, and it will always be. But
We can see a dramatic difference between how it was before I started and how it ended up after the redesign.
The major deference that was beneficial for the business is these first few days of the app usage. After the redesign, We were able to hold people in the app long enough to start providing relevant to them content and convert them to long term users as result.