Waverly is a start-up platform that utilizes AI to curate topic-specific content. Our team was brought on board to develop explorations of a feature that facilitates engaging conversations. The aim was to create an opportunity for users to interact and exchange ideas seamlessly.
PROFICIENCES
Figma
Market Research
User Interviews
User Testing
App Re-Design
KPIs
Design for AI
MY ROLE
UX Researcher
UI Designer
TIMELINE
1 month
Establish a feature that facilitates engaging conversations within Waverly.
Waverly is an app that uses AI to curate content for users based on their interests. Although Waverly presently allows users to follow Waves created by others and share content externally through various platforms, our design team has been granted the freedom to envision a new social sphere for the app. During our design process, it was vital to be imaginative in designing data-driven solutions that can distinguish Waverly from other apps in a competitive social media market.
1. Market analysis
2. Competitor analysis
3. User Interviews
4. Formulate a problem definition to set constraints on what an "engaging conversation" was for the Waverly user-base
The project brief provided by Waverly included their interaction insights as well as compiled research regarding interactions on social media and news websites during 2021. Below are statistics of importance that our team focused on during our analysis.
Social Media Insights
Out of all possible interactions on social media, users engage the most in commenting, direct messaging, and liking posts.
source: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997048/social-media-activities-in-the-us
News Insights
In comparison to social media platforms, online news platforms yield less commenters and readers by more than a 50% decrease.
source: https://mediaengagement.org/research/survey-of-commenters-and-comment-readers/
What contributes to this difference in interaction?
Several studies conducted since 2021 have revealed a large difference in comment interaction between news sites and social media apps. Our team aimed to understand the reasons behind this trend by supplementing these findings with user interviews and additional research.
source: https://mediaengagement.org/research/survey-of-commenters-and-comment-readers/
Our group conducted a competitor analysis in order to see what features already exist on social media and news apps to facilitate interactions between users. We found that while social media apps contain internal messaging systems, news apps lack this feature.
We conducted 8 separate user interviews from participants ranging between 21 and 53 years old. All participants are active social media users, and fit within the personas of the existing Waverly user base. Based on the compiled interview data, our team identified six main takeaways:
Key Takeaways
INTERNAL SHARING
Internal sharing systems for articles could provide a competitive edge as current competitors lack such system.
PASSIVE, PRIVATE BEHAVIORS
Interviewees prefer sharing content internally on social media with family, friends, and colleagues, and engage in more passive behaviors in private contexts on social media.
ENGAGEMENT POTENTIAL
Current research indicates a potential for 50% of users to start interacting online if offered a preferred environment
Persona Creation
We created a persona based around our research, key takeaways, and existing Waverly personas in order to better construct the app features.
Guiding Questions
Based on insights, our team generated three main guiding questions to ideate upon using the "How Might We" design thinking framework.
HOW MIGHT WE...
Make users feel confident they are interacting in a safe and respectful environment?
Ensure users can choose which conversations they want to engage in, and who to interact with?
Facilitate access to a space where users can have intellectually enlightening conversations?
Initial Sketches
Our team started to brainstorm ways to go about constructing a semi-private, semi-public space where users could choose who they interacted with and around what topics.
Wavelengths
Our team used the term "Wavelengths" to encapsulate the new space that we built into Waverly. "Wavelength" can be defined as a particular course or line of thought especially as related to mutual understanding. This definition encapsulates the idea that this new space, located in a separate tab to the Waverly homescreen, is one in which users can interact with other like-minded users of their choice to discuss shared interests. Three highlights of the Wavelength exploration can be found below.
A DISTINCT SPACE
Within the Wavelength feature, users can create separate groups for both different topics and Waverly users. The Wavelength discussion groups are kept to a separate tab, leaving the original homescreen, labeled "My Waves", for continued personal use.
Within the Wavelength feature, users can share and discuss waves, save quotes, and articles with Waverly members of their choice. Users can regulate who joins their discussions through Join Wavelength requests.
Within a Wavelength, users can participate in a semi-public, trustworthy space on Waverly. Four tabs within each Wavelength discussion group serve to provide multiple means to interact with group members through commenting on saved articles and waves, creating polls on saved quotes, and direct messaging.
After creating our initial wireframes, we conducted 4 users tests. Below are identified pain points that lead explorations for our final deliverable:
PAIN POINT 1: ICONS AND TERMINOLOGY
Icons and terminology were unintuitive and participants were surprised by outcomes once clicking certain features.
PAIN POINT 2: WAVELENGTH SCALE
General confusion about the scale of the size of the Wavelengths (how many people included, how to message and locate them, etc.).
PAIN POINT 3: INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Overwhelming nature of information presented to user once they entered first page of the Wavelength.
Based on market insights and Waverly interaction data from the past year, our team outlined KPIs to follow within the first 3 months of the new feature's release and evaluate if changes are necessary.
During this exploration, we learned that we must be creative in design solutions to stand out amongst competitors in a saturated social media market. However, we had to be mindful of the existing Waverly landscape, especially when it came to navigation and terminology.
Importantly, we had to ensure that we were mindful of how public or private the spaces we created were to ensure a comfortable environment for our intended user to engage in conversation.
Future Direction
To finalize designs more, we could continue user testing to see how the changes we made to terminology and tab layout may have impacted user experience. These tests could also provide insight into if the conception of the Wavelength space was provided through the new user onboarding.
