TikTok — UX research case study

A case study of UX research project for UI/UX bootcamp at Dibimbing.id

TikTok UX Research Case Study

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INTRODUCTION

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Hello! My name is Aissya Jelitawati. I’m an architecture graduate from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and decided to continue my next design journey in digital products, specifically in UI/UX design. In the past view months I have been participating on a UI/UX design class from Dibimbing.id and would like to share my recent work about what I have learned as a student of Dibimbing.id.

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⭐ ABOUT TIKTOK

Image Source: logo.wine

TikTok is a social media platform that can be used to create and watch contents in the form of short mobile video and has a high popularity around the world. Based on DataReportal as per July 2022, this platform has over one billion monthly active worldwide users.

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and was initially known in China as Douyin. This app was originally launched in China on September 2016 and it became available worlwide only after merging with Musical.ly on August 2018. TikTok hosted millions kinds of short-video with the durations start from 15 seconds to 10 minutes, including various genres such as dance, sing, pranks, jokes, educations, entertainments, etc.

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⭐ OVERVIEW

This report would be talking about a case study of UX research project of an application called TikTok. I worked on this research with my other friends, Febbri Anggraini and Aditia Nani.

My role: UX researcher
Project Scope: User interview, research, analysis
Tools: Google Sheets, Google Forms, WhatsApp, Zoom/Google Meet, Figma
Duration: 4 weeks
Timeline:

Research Timeline

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RESEARCH PROCESS

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The process that we did in this research is by understanding the background, finding for the objectives, and composing the suitable research plan. Afterwards, we were performing the screening process and the interview for the total of 10 users who are compatible with our research target, in order to get several insights as the basis for the solving problems, determining the actionable plan, and eventually being able for the improvements of the product. Our overall research process are depicted in the following image:

Research Process

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⭐ INITIATION

In the initiation stage, we did several brainstorming to explore and compose the research background, research objectives, the methodology, and the respondents criteria.
Tools we used: Google Sheets, Zoom

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Background ✨

The background of this research is to evaluate the interface of the profile menu, especially the “Liked Videos” and “Favorite Videos” page. Our team wanted to know the effectiveness of separating the two page menus and see whether one of them is required to be taken down for the purpose of minimalist view.

However, our team still did not know about the users’ decision on clicking the “like” or “favorite” button. Did the users know the difference between the two menus? Why did they hide the list of the videos they “like”? Also, why did they decide to hide the “Favorite Videos” notification to the creator when they are adding a video to their “favorite” list?

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Objective ✨

The objectives of this research are written as follows:

1. To understand various users’ behavior when using TikTok.
2. To find out the pain points that user feels when using Tiktok
3. To discover what users’ needs which are not yet available on TikTok.
4. To find out users’ reasons for clicking the “like” or “favorite” button for a video.
5. To find out users’ knowledge about the different functions of “Liked Videos” and “Favorite Videos” page.
6. To understand users’ reasons for not showing the list of the videos they had “liked” to be seen publicly.
7. To understand users’ reasons for adding a video to their “favorite” list without letting know the creators.

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Methodology ✨

Qualitative — In Depth Interview

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Respondent Criteria ✨

We interviewed a total of 10 respondents with the following criteria:

• Active TikTok user who operates TikTok at least 5 times in a week
• Indonesian citizens
• Female/male
• 18–45 years old
• Used “Liked Videos” and “Favorite Videos” page on their profile menu

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⭐ PLANNING

We made the research plan which consists of the screening questions including the Google Forms for the interviewees and the discussion guide document.
Tools we used: Google Sheets, Google Forms

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Screening Questions ✨

We made lists for the screening questions that include the questions about users’ personal data, demography, behaviors on using TikTok, and the schedule invitation. All of the questions were composed in Google Sheets and then we made the questionnaire in Google Forms.

Google Forms Questionnaire

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Discussion Guide Document ✨

The purpose of the discussion guide is to assisted us as the interviewers in the interview process, so we would have the similar questions in order to achieve research objectives. The document were made in Google Sheets and we categorized the questions into four main sections as follows:

• Section 1: Introduction and Warm Up
• Section 2: General Behavior of Using TikTok
• Section 3: Objective Question Regarding Issues
• Section 4: Wrap Up and Closing

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⭐ CONDUCT

We searched for the respondents by spreading Google Forms screening questionnaire in social media. After we got some users who are compatible with our research target, then we contacted the selected respondents to arrange the interview schedule.
Tools we used: Google Forms, WhatsApp, Zoom/Google Meet

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Respondents Profile ✨

We got a total of 10 respondents from spreading questionnaire in social media, consists of three male and seven female respondents. The interview process were carried out via Zoom/Google Meet and WhatsApp call with a duration of each session at around 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Respondents Profile

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⭐ ANALYSIS

We did the analysis to look for the main findings by using affinity diagram, arranging the customer journey map, generating user persona, and obtaining contention of what we found about our main objective and the other similar apps.
Tools we used: Figma, Google Forms, Google Sheets

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Affinity Diagram ✨

This is the affinity diagram consisting of several categories that clustered the data we collected from user interviews.

Affinity Diagram

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Affinity Diagram Analysis ✨

🌠 Users’ Behavior

Based on the interview results, the average respondents started as an active TikTok user for the last 1–2 years. Our respondents said that they usually spend times between 15–60 minutes in TikTok, up to 2 hours at most. They used the TikTok in their spare time and in times when they do nothing, such as during breaks or at night to seek for the information the entertainment purposes.

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🌠 What users like about TikTok?

“Video lebih bervariatif dan jenis konten lebih luas dan menarik dengan durasi video yang singkat.”

“Konten-kontennya bermanfaat, menarik, menghibur.”

“Awalnya kurang tertarik karena kata orang-orang alay, ternyata pas coba nonton banyak informasi. Saya jarang nonton TV, jadi dengan nonton TikTok udah dapet informasi. Trus video nya pendek-pendek ngga se-panjang YouTube, video-nya compact dan sudah penuh informasi.”

“Awalnya tidak menarik karena banyak yang joget-joget, ternyata pas coba install ada banyak info dan rekomen, serta pengetahuan baru. Karena sistem TikTok itu scroll ke bawah, jadi ganti kontennya juga cepet.”

Studies of users who once found TikTok content unattractive but are now users:

• “Joget-joget” and “alay” content is less attractive to users.
• Users prefers content about recommendations, information sharing, and useful knowledge.
• Fast traffic and easy-transitioning content on TikTok attracts users’ attention.

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🌠 What users don’t like about TikTok?

“FYP kadang kurang sesuai dan tidak ada fitur mute.”

“Tidak bisa mengirimkan pesan DM kepada pengguna lain yang tidak saling follow.”

“Ingin ada mode anonymous untuk viewer di TikTok.”

“Fitur “Not Interested” kurang bekerja dengan baik sehingga TikTok masih sering merekomendasikan video yang tidak ingin ditonton.”

“Seharusnya ada fitur untuk filter konten dewasa dan konten tidak mendidik.”

Studies of users who use features on TikTok as inspiration for ideas and recommendations:

• Users want to be able to send DM messages to other users even though they don’t follow each other.
• Users wish for anonymous mode as a viewer on TikTok.
• FYP doesn’t match users’ preferences and unwanted contents keep popping up.
• Users want a feature to separate adult content and general content categorization.

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🌠 Users’ Expectations

“Berharap TikTok dapat memfilter konten yang dewasa untuk pengguna di bawah umur karena pada saat mendaftar di TikTok tidak ada verifikasi detail dengan umur pengguna.”

“Susah edit video yang kompleks. Auto-caption belum mendukung Bahasa Indonesia. Kalo nge-stitch tidak bisa diedit videonya langsung. Ada beberapa efek yang membatasi durasi video.”

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🌠 Analysis results based on the affinity diagram:

1. At first, users did not like TikTok because of the useless and “alay” content they thought. However, it turns out, the users then becomes a regular users after knowing that there are newer contents that are more useful and helpful for their daily life.
2. Users want the addition and development of certain features to improve the quality of their experience in using TikTok, as follows:
   – Anonymous viewer mode
   – Improved contents’ preferences in FYP
   – Categorization for adult and general content
   – Adding video mute feature.
   – Ability to send messages (DM) without having to be followed-back first.
   – Enhance the auto-caption feature in Indonesian language.
   – The addition features that could make it easier to edit videos before uploading it, such as a feature to remove the background so users don’t need to use other applications for editing.
3. Users want the development to improve the quality of the contents in TikTok, as follows:
   – More suitable FYP in accordance with users’ preference.
   – Needs for users’ age screening and content screening (vulgar).
   – Indecent contents, non-education, and non-useful contents need to be banned immediately.
   – Demands for more useful contents.

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Customer Journey Map ✨

From this customer journey map, we got some information about users’ experience when using TikTok, such as their feelings while using this app, the frustrations they feel, also the opportunities (suggestions) we could perceive to solve users’ problems.

Customer Journey Map

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User Persona ✨

After gaining insights from our respondents, we concluded some important point by analyzing the data to create the user persona.

User Persona

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What we found? ✨

🌠 “Liked Videos” VS “Favorite Videos”

Based on the interview result, many of our respondents feel that these two pages are similar because the videos that were being liked and favorited can both be watched again. The difference is “Favorite Videos” page can be categorized by sounds, effects, etc. There is an assumption that the “Liked Videos” page is for interesting videos and the “Favorite Videos” page is more likely for saving useful videos. But still, it does not provide a significant difference in their function and this cause a confusion to the users.

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🌠 Contention about Other Similar Apps

Instagram Reels

“Kurang fokus kontennya, walaupun mirip TikTok tapi videonya random tidak seperti TikTok yang disesuaikan preferensi user.”

“Jarang pakai,ga bisa di-pause, jadi lebih suka nonton lewat TikTok. Beberapa Reels di IG juga suka ada di TikTok jadi ngapain juga double-double.”

Besides using TikTok, 9 out of 10 respondents said that they also use Instagram (IG) Reels. The Reels feature on IG is almost like TikTok because it contains short videos of various information. However, the respondents felt that TikTok is more easy to use. Besides that, the content they got on TikTok is more appropriate and more varied than IG Reels. Some of them thought that IG is more suitable for uploading photos only. They also find it difficult to pause videos on IG Reels because they have to press and hold the screen so they feel more comfortable and choose to use TikTok.

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YouTube

“TikTok ramah algoritma, enak untuk bikin konten, ternyata algoritma nya ngga mengandalkan ads. Dari segi UI/UX, kelebihannya mudah pindah konten, kelemahannya susah nge-browsing konten. Kayak disuapin TikTok, nggak kayak YouTube yang mostly cari sendiri. Tapi TikTok simplicity nya enak.”

“Saya jarang nonton TV, jadi dengan nonton TikTok udah dapet informasi. Trus video nya pendek-pendek ngga se-panjang YouTube, video-nya compact dan sudah penuh informasi.”

Besides using TikTok, one of our respondents said that he used YouTube a lot. Users feel that YouTube makes it easier for users to browse content, while watching content on TikTok feels like being fed. Even though videos on YouTube are longer and take up a lot of time, YouTube is very useful if we want to learn something and find more detailed information than what we usually found on TikTok.

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⭐ FINDINGS

We concluded our research process to gain the way forward such as the recommendation and the actionable insight.

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Recommendation ✨

🌠 Design and Feature

• Clarifying the difference in functionality between “Liked Videos” and “Favorite Videos” page or eliminate one of the pages.
• Simplifying the users’ profile page.
• Adding mute feature.
• Adding a feature that can remove the background when creating content.
• Allowing sending DM even the users don’t follow each other.
• Adding Anonymous feature.
• Creating editing features that could remove the original sound and add other sounds, text, stickers, filters, and transitions.

🌠 Content

• Filtering adult content so that it won’t be watched by minors.
• Adding flow to target users who will watch certain videos when uploading content so that the products promotion could be more targeted.
• Creating separate sorting for content users don’t like.
• Giving a popup question box about users’ preferences every once in a while.

🌠 Technical

• Improving the algorithm to make FYP more compliant.
• Ensuring that the user interface is the same even after synchronizing contacts and keeps the discover button always appearing.
• Ensuring that popup ads can be closed easily without having to enter the ads page.
• Bypassing the username search flow, so that when users press the back button, they would be immediately returned to the main page, not to the search page again.

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Actionable Plan from Users’ Insight ✨

1. Users are confused about separated “Liked Videos” and “Favorite Videos” page in their profile menu because they look similar.

Removing the “Liked Videos” page. If a user is visiting the other users’ profile, the “Favorite Videos” page will be replaced by “Liked Videos” page and adding a permission option in the setting privacy so the users can decide to allow another user to see the list of the video they marked as favorite or no.

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2. Users are worried when the children watched a content that is not suitable with their age.

Adding an extra flow before uploading the content in the option “Who can watch this video?” so the adult content can be automatically filtered and can not be accessed by users under 17.

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3. Users often feels that the videos in FYP did not match their preferences.

Giving a popup question box about users’ preferences every once in a while. The popup contains category choices that are adjusted to the algorithm of users’ liked or most watched videos.

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4. Users feels that the unwanted contents keep popping up. Even after clicking the “Not Interested” button, the content still appears frequently.

Making separate sorting categories for the contents that users don’t like, such as “mute” keywords and “block” categories.

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5. Users need editing feature after taking a video before upload it.

Creating a page where users can edit videos that just been taken with TikTok and the editing feature that could remove the original sound and add other sounds, text, stickers, filters, and transitions.

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CLOSING

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Thank you so much for taking time to read this post!

This overall research journey was such a whole new design experience to me and it really helped me to understand the process behind the development of a digital product. I learned so many things about the design process starting from the scratch until we made it to the last. However, there is no “ending” in the process of design and it always needs iterations as long as the products still exist. And guess what? I am ready to sail through that fun long journey!

Feel free to send me your inspiring feedback. I welcome any of your new insights by leaving a comment or could you contact me on LinkedIn!

See you on another post :D

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⭐ ATTACHMENT

Research Plan (include screening question and discussion guide document)
Affinity Diagram
Presentation Report

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