Work / Vocal
New creator support features for writers
Vocal is a content creation and publication platform for long-form writing, aimed at providing a creative space for writers to hone their craft. This was my one of my first end-to-end design projects where I got to be involved from early generative research to delivery.
Problem
Vocal's writing challenges attracted a significant amount of paid subscribers, motivated to win prizes and earn money through reads and tips. However, the platform was seeing a high rate of churn among paid subscribers of about 62% across all time.
Outcome
Following insights from Vocal writers, we introduced a new subscription tier, Vocal Pro, for advanced monetisation tools and new global features that improved content discovery and enhanced community connections. The strategic suite of new feature contributed towards increased engagement on the platform among all Vocal users.
I collaborated within a large team of product leads, 5 designers and 3 engineers that joined the project at different points with the leads interfacing closely with the client.
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Research
I kicked things off with desk research, reviewing tons of user-submitted product reviews on Vocal and presented it back to the team. We found a common theme among them: Writers found it difficult to reach enough readers to offset the cost of Vocal+ membership. Many writers joined Vocal+ to enter a writing challenge and eventually realised that they could not justify the ongoing costs, a common reason for cancelling their membership.
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.
Mixed methods approach
We employed a sequential mixed-methods research approach, starting with quantitative data collection followed by qualitative exploration. This allowed us to first establish the scale of user attitudes and motivations through a broad survey before delving deeper into the nuances of their experiences through focused discussions.
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.
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 below.
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.
Correlation between motivations and goals
In synthesis sessions, we noticed that most professional writers on Vocal followed a similar path from hobbyist to serious.
Their motivation to share their writing correlated positively with the intensity of their goals to earn money, improve their writing and amplify their audience. This was a key insight that informed the the release of a new subscription tier.
Actionable insights on how Vocal could better support creators
These were the main themes we found around the desired support as articulated by creators in the survey and focus group sessions:
Equip creators with a suite of monetisation tools
57% of surveyed participants selected "I was interested by the ability to earn money from my writing and wanted to give it a go" when asked what brought them to Vocal. This was the most selected response. While to varying degrees,all creator types were interested in content monetisation.
Enable ease of content discovery
All creators recognised that an engaged readership was necessary to earn money from their content.Participants voiced that the reading experience on Vocal could be a lot better, suggesting for an app specifically as many preferred to read articles on mobile.
Enhance community connections for creators
50% of Vocal users said thar their motivation for writing was to grow their skill. For a majority of creators,feedback through actual words was the most valuable form of support as a writer.
Wireframes
The lead UX designers led a small group of us through digital whiteboard sketching sessions to sketch ideas based on the group discussions and survey. Inspired directly by what Vocal writers shared, we expanded on them to figure out possible ways it could work on Vocal's platform and the implications on different roles on the system.
These high-level sketches include details for discussion around possible engineering and business impacts. You can browse Thinkmill's online playbook where they openly share their methods to designing software, including this collaborative sketching technique called functional wireframing.
When it came to UI designs, moving from wireframe to prototype went fairly quickly since there was an existing design system. If design exploration was needed, we jumped on Zoom to discuss the pros and cons of layouts while sketching on a digital whiteboard.
With boxes and arrows, we were able to quickly discuss different ideas and move forward with the design process.
Prototypes
Design and delivery spanned about 2-3 months. This involved a full platform refactor and the implementation of an updated design system, which provided a cohesive foundation for a series of new feature releases for both free and paid Vocal members:
Creator profiles with a new look and pledges
A new subscription tier was introduced, targeted at professional-level creators, to earn ongoing tips which we called "pledges". The pledges feature was designed to provide a direct and ongoing donation option for dedicated readers, with the ability to scale into a creator's own membership program to share exclusive content.
Aside from the final UI, one notable contribution of mine was suggesting the name "pledge." This was informed by the existing mental model on other creator platforms and conveniently distinguished the action from "subscribe" and "tip" to ensure clarity for users.
Pinned stories
We enhanced content discovery on creator profiles through the implementation of pinned top stories and an interactive tag carousel that automatically categorised stories. Both updates were designed to intuitively guide new readers through a creator's diverse portfolio. We settled on the interactive tag carousel based on data indicating that Vocal creators frequently wrote across a variety of genres, and we wanted to prominently showcase their breadth of work to potential readers.
Constructive feedback through reader insights
To enrich the reading experience and foster constructive engagement, we developed "Reader Insights".This feature was designed for readers to provide structured feedback by selecting from a curated list of constructive options. On this feature, I was responsible for curating the feedback selection, crafting the copy, and choosing the icons. Tied to their story statistics, creators reported appreciating the additional depth these insights provided through automated reporting.
Enhance community connections through comments
The positive reception of the "Insights" feature gave the team confidence to proceed with the implementation of "Comments." While initial concerns existed regarding moderation efforts, the overwhelming popularity of "Comments" upon release underscored the effectiveness of our user-centred design approach in addressing a significant community need. It became the most popular feature release on Vocal to date.
Key Takeaways
Finding the right solutions involves speaking with users: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 group 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.