TITLETYPECLIENT

OKIE  0-1 Product design
Web app
Career tech 
Hi-fi prototype
Self-directed


Backstage
Design system
Figma UI Kit
System thinking
Accessibility
Self-directed for Ticketmaster


Knowunity
EdTech Mobile
User research
Usability testing
Product strategy
Knowunity


Toko
AI driven language app
Product design
Product strategy
Design challenge for Toko


Alcov
AI driven mobile app
UIUX design
Foundational design

Alcov


Visual design works I did with fun and joy... :)

+ Infographic: What’s in my December
+ Album cover redesign: TAKE_v1 
+ Album cover redesign: TAKE_v2


©CharlotteHsuBrooklyn, New York

Knowunity

Designing growth features to increase the core user base for an EdTech app.





Responsibility
  • Develop a user research plan to address business challenges
  • Lead research and usability testing among the “follower” user type
  • Integrate user insights to generate feasible design solutions
  • Coordinate client communication
Skills

Mobile design
User Research
Business strategy
Usability Testing
Product thinking
Tools

Figma
Dovetail
Calendly
Google Suite

Timeline

Nov - Dec, 2023
4 Weeks





Overview

Product


Knowunity is an educational platform enabling students to post/read study materials (notes, quizzes, flashcards), and join subject-based or grade-based study groups.
Challenge


Grow the platform’s most-engaged content creators (Lighthouse Knowers) to drive overall community engagement and attract new users.








User types brief




Potential User

Not user yet


Regular User

Follower who read others’ content but doesn’t post


Knower

Content creator who haven’t reach Lighthouse Knower bar

Lighthouse Knower

Most-engaged content creator




Business goal

Expand the Lighthouse Knower base to boost user engagement and new user acquisition.


Knowunity holds a hypothesis that by increasing  the platform’s most-engaged content creators(Lighthouse Knowers), it will boost engagement among the whole study community, and  attract potential new users.


The problem

How can we propose feature designs to help more creators achieve Lighthouse Knower status?







Key Design Solutions




01

On Search scrolling feed, add “following & explore”filters

Findings
  • Creators lack strategies to promote their notes. 
  • Followers want a simplified way to discover updates from followed creators or explore new content.

BenefitsWith filters on the content feed page,
  • Creators’ content becomes more accessible.
  • Followers can easily filter notes based on preferences.






02

On creator’s profile, introducing “subject leader” badges and add subject filters to content collection

Findings Subject expertise is unclear on creators’ profile
  • Followers follow creators for specific subject notes, and expect to see their subject specialty on profiles.
  • Creators find it fulfilling to help others, post notes on various subjects, but reluctant to label themselves as experts in one area.

Classified subject content is in need
  • Followers struggled to find specific subject notes on creators’ profile
  • Creators expect to classify their content by subjects


Benefits With subject leader badges
  • Encourage followership
  • Creators can showcase multiple areas of expertise.

With subject filters
  • Users can quickly find content in their area of interest.
  • Creators can organize notes by subject.







04

Let creators link group chats to relevant content folders on their profile pages

Findings
  • Creators value authentic interactions within group chats.
  • Group promotion is currently limited to direct or ambassador channels.

BenefitsA link to creators’ subject-specific group chats in the relevant content folders help improve group discoverability and member growth.






05

Enhance the visibility of group chat reaction features

Findings
  • Users rely on the discussion quality to decide whether to join a group chat.
  • Creators are motivated by feedback on group chat discussions.

Benefits Make group chat reaction features more prominent:
  • Encourages members to engage and provide feedback to the discussion
  • Helps potential joiners evaluate the activity and value of this group.



Before: user have to long-press the message box to utilize the reaction features
After: user can easily give reactions on the surface of teh message box





How did we reach these solutions?




Define scope

Working with PM and BD manager to clarify the criteria for Lighthouse Knowers, we focused on helping creator “gaining followers”  and “grow group chat members”

 

First thing was to know how Knowunity defines Lighthouse Knowers.  Collaborating with client to learn their three criteria, we narrowed our focus to these two:

  1. Helping creators gain 100 followers
  2. Helping creators grow their group chats to 100 membe





Identify the paths and factors that influence creators in achieving the Lighthouse Knower criteria.


By analyzing the product’s structure and interaction patterns between user types, we identified the factors that impact creators in meeting the Lighthouse Knower criteria.



The path toward becoming a Lighthouse Knower is influenced by the dual perspectives of creators 'creating content' and followers 'utilizing content.'


Therefore, we decided to research 2 user perspectives:


  1. Content Creators: Focused on creating and sharing valuable materials.
  2. Content Users: Engaged in consuming and interacting with shared content.




User interview

Interviews helped us understand user motivations and challenges


We conducted interviews with 10 participants:
  • 5 Content Creators: Discussed their journey, motivation, and challenges in becoming content creators
  • 5 Content Users: Explored how they discover and engage with creators and group chats.





Usability testing

Usability testing uncovered barriers in current features


Through usability test, we assessed how users interact with:

  • Joining creators’ group chats.
  • Following creators to build stronger connections.

Detailed interview questions and testing scenarios can be accessed here






Outcome

Client praise and actionable impact


The clients were highly impressed with the presentation and expressed their appreciation for its quality. They discussed actionable ways to implement the recommendations provided, demonstrating the impact and value of our work.








Thanks for reading