New creator support features for writers | Nooranah Malberg | Product Designer in Brisbane, Australia

Problem

Vocal was facing churn in their Paid subscription tier, which allowed writers to earn more from their Vocal content and participate in challenges.

Outcome

Following insights from Vocal writers, we introduced a new subscription tier, Vocal Pro, and advanced creator monetisation features. The diversified content monetisation and discovery contributed towards increased engagement on the platform.

Role

I worked with 4 designers, including the head of design during research and delivery, and several engineers at Thinkmill. We were embedded in Vocal’s product team from the start.

Mixed methods research

To gain first-hand insight into the readership issue, we personally tested the reader experience. This revealed a somewhat unengaging interaction, characterized by one-sided actions such as liking, tipping, and following. This initial investigation sparked early questions around writers' unmet needs and if the idea of implementing ongoing tips was the right solution.

Starting with quantitative data collection followed by qualitative exploration allowed us to establish the scale of user attitudes before delving deeper into the nuances of their experiences through focused discussions.

01. Survey

We conducted a comprehensive survey of 3,000 Vocal users to measure several key aspects:

· Motivations behind signing up or sharing content

· Their usage of Vocal as a creator

· Their usage of Vocal as a reader

· Attitude towards the ability to receive ongoing financial contributions from dedicated readers

All questions utilised a multiple choice format to facilitate efficient analysis. Multiple choice options were based on prior market research.

Notably, I included a question about the frequency of assistive technologies usage which yielded a surprisingly high rate of affirmative responses. Recognizing the potential implications, we prioritized support for screen readers and other assistive technologies in our subsequent design considerations.

02. Remote focus groups

Based on survey responses, we recruited a representative group of Vocal users to zero in on their survey responses.

With 2-3 participants per remote session, we explored their survey responses before sharing idea vignettes on what creator support could look like. Participants voted and discussed their most and least favourite creator support feature ideas, as represented by coloured dots.

The idea cards were low-stakes and non-binding, allowing participants to express their preferences without the pressure of making a final decision. Discussions were helpful in tying their preferences to their unique needs and situations.

Insights to product hypotheses

From the listening sessions, we found that most professional writers on Vocal followed a similar path from hobbyist to serious.

Their motivation to publish on Vocal correlated positively with their goals to monetise their content, improve their craft and build an audience.

With that finding, we focused our solution on the more serious users, who were likely to subscribe to :

Equip creators with more monetisation tools: 57% of surveyed participants expressed that the ability to earn from reads was the key reason why they decided to sign up and give it a go. By diversifying content monetisation, more creators could get value out of their Vocal+ subscription, potentially resulting in less churn and higher feature adoption rates.

Enable ease of content discovery: This also solved the core problem around Vocal+ membership churn, where low readership impacted creator's sometimes ability to cover the cost of their membership. By improving the reader experience, we hypothesised that more readers could easily find and enjoy articles or short stories, which would increase creators' passive earnings from their writing.

Enhance community connections for creators: This direction was based on how 50% of Vocal users expressed that their main reason for staying on the platform was improving their writing skills. For a majority of creators, they preferred receiving feedback in the form of actual words over a 'like' or ‘tip’. By supporting comments on Vocal, we hypothesised that Vocal could foster a sense of community and connections among writers, resulting in less Vocal+ churn over time.

Staggered release of features

Design and delivery spanned about 5-6 months, including an update on Vocal’s design system. As each feature was released, reception and uptake was monitored, giving Vocal the confidence to release moderated commenting and a reader mobile app.

I was involved in the first half and contributed to these final designs:

Updated creator profiles

Reader insights on stories

Takeaways

Find the right problems before getting the problem right: Instead of going ahead with initial assumptions, we asked writers what role Vocal played in supporting their writing goals and how the platform could better meet their needs. It resulted in traction towards launching a reading-only mobile app and features that continue to support creators today.

Focus on behaviours and listen to stories: Sharing idea cards for discussions in focus group sessions was great - it grounded imagination to what was possible and preferred in discussion. Often times, it led to a story such as how they'd include a link to their Vocal profiles in job applications as it showcased a range of work. When we looked at the data, many Vocal writers tended to write across a range of genres or communities. These insights helped tremendously with design details.

Invite more people into the process of design: Engineers participated early, joining us in research sessions. They attended focus groups with a target of at least 70% attendance to mitigate potential bias. As a result, the design and delivery process felt synchronized due to our shared understanding of creator needs. Their contributions during review sessions were based on shared context and it fostered a strong sense of teamwork throughout the project.