A Feature Integration for Shared Knowledge

Annie H. Lee
Jul 25, 2017 · 8 min read
Photo by Zach Meaney on Unsplash

In a recent post in Recode, Ben Bajarin a principal analyst at Creative Strategies Inc. writes,

“Technology has opened the door to many different communication options. With each new technological advance, communication has evolved in new ways, as new options to communicate were invented. Visual communication is the most recent advancement. This is not just limited to static images or the wide world of emoji, which lets us express ourselves in visual ways. Snapchat has helped usher in a communication style based on self-expression via video.”

“Communication is, at our core, an essential human behavior. Technology continues to evolve and give us more ways to communicate and invoke emotion with words, text, audio, images, digital touch, real-time drawings and whatever comes next.”

We strive to improve our communication networks because as history tells, we are story tellers of information.

Quora Mobile Application

Quora is a prime example of the way our world has evolved. It is an online community of users who ask and answer questions. Peter Baskerville, an avid Quora power user describes Quora as such:

“An online collaborative information sharing and learning platform. It’s an engineering platform that connects the information needs of real people with information solutions provided by real people. In essence, it is a mobile university.”

I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with two other talented UX designers, Anthony Virey and Joseph Cimino. The three of us explored Quora as a potential client. Thinking about the trajectory of communicating tools, we investigated how a video feature would be incorporated onto their existing mobile platform. My roles on this project: Project Manager + Creative Director. I oversaw the timeline of our project, set our daily agenda and took the lead on our design outputs. Joseph provided crucial insight into the value of video as Anthony brought in his expertise of business models. I divided our time into the the four sections of the double diamond method:

Double Diamond Method

Research

Business Research

As our group delved into Quora’s surrounding arena of businesses, we began to uncover the fact that 2017 is the age of information: Knowledge sharing sites have democratized the distribution of information exchange and we live in a world of shared knowledge.

Knowledge sharing platforms

We connected shared knowledge with social media. It has become a major highway of connecting with others and has evolved with the types of information in the feed: user networks, personalized advertisements, original content and more. Social media is quickly becoming the ecosystem of the internet and moderates information consumption.

Social media platforms

The way we digest information continues to evolve. Digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, are all racing to develop video platforms for the masses. This innovative landscape is the opportunity for Quora to become the world’s go-to destination for first-hand subjective wisdom. We concluded that original video content is their next frontier!

Opportunity Diagram for Quora

Competitive Analysis

In Quora’s sector, a couple of companies have created Q+A video platforms. Start ups such as Whale and YAM encompass the valuable ideas I just discussed but have a few major shortcomings like no quality control, no restricted time limit of videos, no barrier of entry, and a low user base in the thousands. Reddit has developed a strong brand for Q+A and holds presence on the internet. Their RedditAMA videos feature celebrities in well produced videos but doesn’t nearly have the high traffic its mother site has. Their videos are inconsistent on all levels: the number of questions being answered, time, style, and frequency of output. Our analysis has made it clear that Quora’s 190 million user base has the potential to drown out all of it’s competitors if it’s done right. We looked further into our research through Quora users.

User Research

We identified two types of interchangeable Quora users: answer seekers and expert users who provide answers. Along with our screener, and research surveys, we conducted a user research lab for our answer seekers,
where we had participants view the same content through two different medium. A paragraph of text and a video. The insights we gained from this lab are that people have a better experience watching and hearing someone explain content. Why? Body language, hand gestures, and the presence of a voice, enhance their engagement. Video is preferred over text and video makes content easier to digest. We also conducted research on our expert user base. We asked varying questions like, why do you submit? What is your first impressions about a video recorded answer?

Here’s what we found:

Answer Seeker Research Insights
Expert User Research Insights

These insights were crucial steering our conceptual ideas. Our group assumed we would be offering an option for video answers as opposed to text answers. We continued our user research by developing our personas:

User Personas

Primary User Persona

Consider your primary user is Isabel. She’s an avid Quora answer seeker. She’s a 29 year old sweater designer living in the West Village, who is looking for a career change. She is currently on Quora browsing topics on careers and life changes. She commutes often to trending cafes and is tech savvy. She identifies as a visual learner and prefers learning through interaction.

Secondary User Persona

Your secondary user is Tobias. He’s a Quora expert who rarely asks questions but contributes answers daily. He is a university professor who believes that knowledge sharing is the cornerstone of society. He often comes across answer seekers like Isabel and spends time to answer questions through his Quora application on his commute to work. Understanding the needs of Quora’s users led us to our design solution.

Define

We have to create a video feature, but where do we begin? We lo-fi sketched our ideas, and ran with an idea we thought solved the problem. For almost a week, we worked on a live video feature where experts could front-face record and edit their video post-production. But we were stumped with a huge roadblock. Based on our user base research, most experts like Tobias don’t want to be on video! They don’t want their faces on the internet and don’t want to spend massive amounts of time creating a video on their phone to upload when answering a question.

So went back to the drawing board and found inspiration in News Anchors and TV hosts. They synthesize information of a topic and present it to the masses. Content was already on Quora. The idea was to have a face to a Quora question. It wouldn’t have to be the expert. A Quora host would synthesize expert answers while giving due credit and deliver it to the answer seekers. It was genius! Our solution met all the pain points of users according to our extensive research. This was an exciting point in our emotional wave timeline for our project.

We iterated in lo-fi, mid-fi, and eventually hi-fi. We created a solution so that the expert isn’t affected by the problem and the problem is around Inquisitive Isabel’s demand for video. Problem statement:

Quora needs to introduce a video feature
because answer seekers value interactive learning experiences.

Design

Design Solution

Quora Spotlight feature notification banner

Introducing Quora Spotlight.

What is it?

  • They are highly produced short video features created by Quora.
  • They highlight questions on Quora that have high activity and create heavy traffic on the platform.

Click here for an interactive prototype of how this feature functions.

This feature design was driven directly by our user research insights, focusing on content and format. We didn’t want Quora spotlight to take over the platform. It is meant to be a complimentary feature that supplements what is already successful. We used design to seamlessly tie it in to be least disruptive for avid users.

Delivery

Along with the implementation of this new video feature, we saw opportunity for UI changes. For increased legibility and a subtle nudge for more signifiers, a key iteration was the use of material design. The use of cards for each question and answer allowed for better readability on the text heavy platform. We created annotated wireframes and hi-fidelity frames including all of our updated features.

UI Iteration
Quora Spotlight Feature l Annotated Wireframes
Quora Spotlight Feature l Hi-Fidelity Wireframes
Photo by Paul Carmona on Unsplash

Long Term Vision

In the age of information, knowledge is free. Good videos drive user growth and attract more advertisers. People’s attention is the asset. Quora had 100 million users in 2016 and has rapidly increased to 190 million users in 2017. There are extremely positive responses to beta testing for advertisements. We believe that Quora has the opportunity to become a media company. Quora conferences, talks, sponsored ad as answers, Quora awards shows, etc. The opportunity is here and now.

Team Quora: Annie Lee, Joseph Cimino, Anthony Virey

After thoughts

Working with my team was a valuable experience. We all had different strengths and contributed in different ways. Our team dynamic worked successfully for us and though we traveled up and down our emotional well-being curve. We were in it together every step of the way. In our most challenging moments, we wrestled with the knotted areas of our project without letting each other give up. We encouraged each other to get comfortable in the uncomfortable moments of delivering better user experience.

Personally, I’ve grown to understand myself better as a team player; my areas of comfort and areas of growth. I learned an immense amount of valuable insights from both of my teammates by learning to understand how their minds work in contrast to mine. Despite the shortcomings we’ll always have as imperfect human beings, it was such a joy to embark on this challenge with my fellow UX designers. One of the things I valued during this project is the amount of depth we relentlessly sought after. We chased after the “why” of every decision and statement.

Annie H. Lee

Written by

Product Designer @StashInvest

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