Medium | UX Case Study
Transformation does not always include something radically different from what exists. Even the smallest changes can improve the user experience. We have aimed at leveraging certain points on the existing platform to further enhance the experience.
The Brief
Provide viable solutions on how Medium as a micro blogging platform can transform their user experience catering to their existing users as well as expanding their network.
Our aim was to define certain problems keeping the user in mind and offering practical and scalable options within the current structure. Not wanting to change a lot in the existing look and feel we wanted to give the user more control of the existing website.
About Medium
Created by Evan Williams in 2012, Medium is a microblogging platform for both readers and writers alike. With only 3 free reads a month, one can become a Medium member for $5/month or $50/year and get unlimited access to thousands of articles.
- Ad-free — Their aim is to create the best reading experience for the user, hence being ad free. Medium is home to thousands of independent voices, combining human and technology creating the best experience for their users, filtering out the rest.
- A plethora of articles- They cover a vast range of topics from art and design, to technology and finance with several more to explore. One can find an article on just about anything on medium.
- Earn money based on member engagement- Upon fulfilling the needs for the medium partner program a writer can earn money based on engagement on their articles.
Research Synthesis
“People ignore design that ignores people”
Frank Chimero
Designer
Stakeholder Analysis and User Personas
- The Reader — Avg age: 18–40
- The Creator — Avg age: 21–40
- The Employees/Employer
- The Investors
Our goal was to create a smooth sailing experience for the user strengthening Medium's market strategy and make it profitable to each of the stakeholders.
To better understand the users we carried out two surveys, one on a social media platform, Instagram, and the other as a Google Form, which was
then circulated.
Based on the above categories of stakeholders, as well as the surveys we further developed a few user personas.
Needs and Expectations
The Readers
- A variety of topics
- Well curated feed
- Quality material
- Verified content
- Able to save articles and make personal notes
- A well informed community
The Creators
- A versatile platform that accepts a variety of media
- An active community for feedback
- Deserved credit
- Vast exposure
- A creative community
- Side money
Brand Story
Medium’s mission is to deepen readers’ understanding of the world and to empower writers to share their best work and biggest ideas. We’re building a subscription-based ad-free publishing platform that connects expert writers with thoughtful readers. Our product allows the best ideas to rise to the top and elevates the most passionate, diverse voices.
We are a friendly and reliable platform, wanting to bring together people who share the same passions. We believe one’s efforts must be rewarded. In order to be distraction-free (no ads) and generate a reward system we have introduced a monthly as well as a yearly subscription.
Medium Values
- Diverse Viewpoints
- Authentic Relationships
- Elegant Solutions
Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough describes the process of putting yourself (or members of your team or organization) in the shoes of a first-time user of the interface you are designing.
Takeaway : The website home feed feels cluttered and some things are difficult to understand at first because of the variety as well as quantity of content available. Segregation of topics and publications is not done efficiently making it difficult for one to understand how it works.
The overall reading experience is great.
“Building features is easy, building the right features for the right people is challenging.”
The Stumbling Blocks
- Segregation of suggestions
- Website interface is cluttered
- Selection colour in the list of topics lacks contrast
- Mostly promotes articles written by subscribed members making it difficult to get work noticed if you are not subscribed
- No fact check or plagiarism check
- Features on the app and website vary. (Audio)
Medium has a highly optimized SEO. Their clean and quirky visual language along with a diverse range of topics are only some of their strengths. Anyone having the ability to publish whether subscribed or not creates a large community of like-minded people without having the barrier of money.
Taking into consideration all the factors mentioned above, we decided to follow Mediums’ existing design, adding features and accents which would enhance the existing experience.
Site Map
Content Strategy
Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.
Stories have a unique way of connecting people.
The ethos of Medium is inherently democratic; it seeks to give a voice to people who have something interesting to say, even if they don’t have thousands of Twitter followers, an active blog or friends in the right places. Medium is built to reward content for its quality, not for the pedigree or popularity of the author.
So while Medium allows anyone to publish pretty much anything, it works hard to guarantee that visitors only see the good stuff.
The site encourages great writing and a superior experience for the reader
Competitor Analysis
Quora, Twitter, Svbtle, theSkimm, Bold Media and Reddit can be considered as Medium’s competitors. However, it is one of the only existing microblogging sites, it is different from traditional blogs and media websites — it may look very familiar but is actually very new.
In some ways, it’s similar to Tumblr, but the site has an older, more professional demographic and the focus is on a higher standard of content. It was founded by two of the original founders of Twitter, Ev Williams and Jason Goldman, and incorporates many of the most effective features of the top social media networks. On most blogging platforms, you publish a new post, then you would separately share that content on different social networks. Medium aims to combine all of that within a single blogging platform. By building up your followers on Medium (and by signing up through your Twitter account, you can start off with hundreds if not thousands), the content you publish on the platform can develop significant reach. It’s also not time-linked either, so some content you published some months previously can suddenly become a viral hit. Its algorithm automatically helps higher quality, more engaging content rise to the top; while other content sinks down and out of view.
Medium has managed to break several blogging norms choosing a rather disruptive approach, developing a strong follower base in the process and eliminating competition.
Ideation and Solution
One major feature we decided to change from their existing homepage was the infinite scroll. While on Medium we do not want the user to feel confused or that they are wasting time. Limiting the scroll was done so that the user can explore bits of every option choosing which to delve deeper into without being confused or scrolling mindlessly.
“Medium’s mantra is ‘People create better things together.’”
We also added collaboration. Connections formed through stories can foster relationships and transcend transactions. We believe this would increase communication within the community and lead to growth. It would help the less confident to take the stage. This feature would make connecting the writers to each other increasing their footprint on the site. It would lead to an increase in users in turn benefiting the company.
Paper Sketches
This segment was all about switching to the creative mode. We started sketching interfaces and tried various iterations to diverge into all sets of possibilities.
Style Guide
Working on Visuals
We chose not to play around with the aesthetics and stuck with the existing brand guidelines. We designed the space keeping in mind UX laws and prioritizing user goals. Simultaneously making sure to eliminate issues highlighted while analyzing the old interfaces.
High Fidelity Wireframes
We went ahead with designing high fidelity wireframes using Adobe XD.
We started fleshing out these ideas from the sketches and wireframes
made previously.
Conclusion
This is one of the most challenging but rewarding projects either of us have done so far. We tried to follow a defined process however there were times we weren’t prepared for what the outcome was. This project has been a huge learning curve for both of us.
Some things we learnt through this project :
- Implementing the design process
- Make Data-informed decisions - We were compelled to carry out extensive user research for this project which helped us to make Data-informed decisions.
- Frame Survey Questions - We learnt how to form clear questions without any bias focussed on our predefined goals. We also learnt how different platforms engaged with people differently even though the questions were the same.
- Improve Documentation - Writing this article helped us retrace our process and understand where we went wrong. We know this is nearly not as perfect but has taught us the importance of a lot of things in the process.
This project was done as a part of a classroom UX assignment.
We would like to thank our mentor Abhrojit Boral for being there through every step and guiding us to work efficiently and maturely.
This is a collaboration project between Naomi Shah and me.
