Place
Mobile
Project Overview
Place was experiencing two main issues. First, there was a noticeable decrease in the creation of new communities. Second, there was a rise in the number of communities that were being abandoned or left inactive. My role involved researching similar community platforms and conducting user testing with legacy users to understand pain points. Using these insights, I formulated and tested hypotheses that informed the development of effective solutions.
Research
To enhance Place's community experience I kicked things off with a competitive analysis. I explored platforms like Ning, LinkedIn groups, Yahoo groups, Google groups, Facebook groups, Reddit, and Meetup. I drafted a set of questions, vetted them with my product design team, selected a few communities based on some of the more popular topics on our platform, and then conducted interviews with users who fulfilled roles as both community owners and active community members in these groups. I then conducted the same process with legacy user groups.
The outcome of these interviews helped me to create user personas that would then become the fulcrum into which we use to balanced our solutions on. I filtered through the commonalities from the research feedback and created 3 main buckets Activity, Monetization and Growth. After vetting these with the team I then wrote user stories and tagged each story with its respective bucket tag and then backlogged them. After chatting with the team to prioritize the tickets.. I proceeded to take steps into designing and vetting solutions .
Activity
Activity broke down into a few smaller buckets all based on research insights.
Good Content: Potential community members mentioned that good content keeps them coming back to the social platforms they use. Features that were associated with that were: External and native videos, photo editors, gifs.
Customization: Community owners wanted to be able to have more control over the customization of their communities. Features that were associated with that were: custom Emotes, usage of header space for video or music content. Notifications: Users wanted customization over the amount and the relevancy of the notifications they received. Features that were associated with that were : Following specific hashtags, topics, new posts, events.
Interest tags
On Boarding, and community creation with tags
Choosing Interest tags during user on-boarding allows the platform know what you are into. As you designate your areas of interest, the platform gains valuable insights into your likes and dislikes. This knowledge forms the cornerstone for a personalized journey, enabling the platform to connect you with community groups that align with your interest.
Discovery w/tags
Currently the discovery feed is just a short list of the most popular and active communities.However, with the incorporation of tags, we are now able to curated a listing of groups that are more aligned with users individual interests. If the success goal is to increase activity within the communities, then the strategy lies in spotlighting and suggesting communities that resonate with users' passions. This enhances the likelihood of community owners receiving users who genuinely share a love for the community's topic, thus fostering active and meaningful participation within the community ecosystem.
New content types
Adding Native video allows the community to be a part of everyday life. If you see something that is relevant to your community, upload it and share it with your fellow community members. The introduction of emojis as expressive tools enhances communication, offering swift reactions to posts and a creative touch to personal contributions. Custom emojis takes things a bit further, enabling users to craft emojis that uniquely resonate with their group's identity. In addition to these enhancements, the platform's support for uploading GIFs from users' camera rolls is complemented by the addition of a direct GIF search feature via Giphy within the composer. This seamless integration streamlines the process of finding and sharing GIFs, eliminating the need to navigate away from the platform. This multi-faceted approach ensures a diverse and lively range of interactions within the community, enriching the overall engagement experience.
Notifications
The ability to directly connect with information that resonates with individual interests is facilitated through the option to follow topics, posts, and hashtags. This feature empowers users to curate their content consumption, by aligning with their specific interests. The inclusion of these type of notifications helps to create an environment of ongoing interaction and vibrancy.
Post Cards
Addressing the current lack of clear separation between posts within the community, I introduced a redesign that utilizes content cards as distinct containers for each post. This alteration enhances user experience by improving content visibility and comprehension. By implementing the card system, related pieces of information are visually grouped, allowing users to easily distinguish between content beginnings and endings.
Additionally, spacing between each card in the feed ensures further content separation, facilitating better digestion and comprehension. This revamped card-based feed not only enhances the community's visual aesthetics but also fosters extended attention spans and increased engagement, ultimately creating a more user-friendly and engaging browsing experience.
Direct Messaging
Direct messaging plays a pivotal role within community-based platforms, enabling ongoing conversations, direct owner to member connections, and the possibitly of fostering personal relationships among members. By placing messaging in the navigation bar, it offers users a more convenient pathway to connect. This strategic enhancement encourages quicker interactions, seamless communication, and more efficient connections among community members.
monetization
Community Subscriptions allow community owners to charge subscription fees for access to their content. These subscriptions can be one-time, monthly, or annual fees.
In the Future:I would like to set up the option to also allow community admins to create in-community donation campaigns. Donations are a lot less in your face and demanding,,and if the campaign is compelling enough, people will want to donate
Paid Events
Allowing owners to create events that require payments for entry. Members can pay for events and or have the their passes available in their apple wallet for entry to real life events.
Promo and Advertising
Allows community owners and leaders to Pin important content . Advertising allows for owners to make revenue though advertisements.
