UI / UX Design Case Study
Patreon Find Creators
Redesigning search and discoverability
Project Summary
*DISCLAIMER*
Note: Patreon has undergone a rebranding of their platform on October 4, 2023, as such material in this case study will be outdated though the initial problem of discovery persists.
Overview
Patreon is a platform that enables content creators to monetize their work and helps fund their passion projects and ventures.
As a user of the platform, I have supported different content creators through Patreon. I was eager to find ways to improve the user experience, to help discover and support the creators and content they are interested in.
This case study focuses are researching and redesigning already existing features to better support creators.
Role
Research, Ideation, Wireframes, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Team
Solo Designer
Timeline
(8 Weeks) December 2022
Platform
Web / Mobile
Tools
Sneak Peek
Goal
Patreon is an effective platform for creators with an established audience but is less successful for smaller creators. I aimed to improve the search feature to help creators be discovered.
Why this important to Patreon?
Improving the design of discoverability for creators is essential for Patreon's ecosystem. As of 2022 Patreon has over 250,000 creators it is important for users to able to discover and filter for the right content.
Business Benefits
Improved discoverability helps Patreon as a business by attracting new users and keep existing users engaged. Leading to higher revenue through engagement and subscriptions.
Creator Benefits
Creators are the lifeblood of this platform. Improving discoverability helps creators gain more exposure, engagement and monetization.
User Benefits
Users use Patreon to support creators. If they are unable to find them, this can cause frustrations using the platform. Improvements to discoverability will improve the ecosystem.
Problem Statement
Users of Patreon want a quick and easy way to access and find creators that appeal to their interests, currently, it is difficult to navigate and filter through the current search process. This leads users to not engage with this feature.
Challenges
When doing this feature redesign I encountered a few roadblocks along the way...
Finding Users
Patreon is not a social platform, recruiting users to perform tests and gather data was difficult.
Design System
Adhering to Patreon's design system (2022), a minimalistic style that focuses on the key features.
Prototypes
I challenged myself to create 2 interactive prototype versions for web and mobile applications.
Research
User Research
My first task was to understand the following:
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How often do users find creators natively on the platform?
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Are they aware of the search feature and have they ever used it?
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What is the current process, and does it make sense?
Within the first few days, I already ran into trouble... finding users. Patreon was not designed as a social platform, there is no in-app messaging, which made it difficult to find and recruit participants.
This led me to look at alternative sources.
Community Direct Message
Community sections are for members to interact, but I quickly found that use rates vary among creators and did not find much success.
Online forums and Discord
Due to a lack of participants on the platform I turned to alternative sources, such as Reddit and discords communities.
Unfortunately, three weeks have passed, and I was only able to survey six users, far less than I had hoped. I was concerned about the lack of data, but I had to work with what I had.
Interview results
Key Insights
Users discover creators through external sources such as YouTube or self-promotions.
Users supported creators that produced similar content with a max of 2-3 creators at one time.
The frequency of when creators post affects users' decisions to support content.
The mobile app was used less frequently than the web version.
Pain Points & Frustrations
Search navigation was lacking features to find creators. Categories were too broad
There is no option for users to sort creators making it difficult to discover creators.
Descriptions did not provide enough information to differentiate the content
The lack of preview options made it hard to get a sense of the content offered, especially on mobile.
UX Audit
Learning these results surprised me, which led me to test the Discover feature myself. In an impromptu session, I performed a UX audit in which I "discovered" that the search experience was very limited.
You were only able to search through six categories based on "Popular Searches", but there was no option or filter to narrow your search.
For example: For Digital Art, the current experience groups all creatives regardless of medium under one general umbrella.
After selecting a category, I found that the results were random with no way to filter creators. additionally, results were shown randomly with no clear criteria for sorting.
The mobile app was lacking even further. In terms of search capabilities, and no categories to choose.
Competitors in the space
To help supplement my lack of user data I looked to see how similar platforms in the creator space handled discovery. I selected a range of popular services and niches focused on comparing designs, user experience and effectiveness - Twitch, Kickstarter, and Kofi -
Research Summary
Searching
Patreon's Search categories were too broad with user preference for finding creators through outside sources.
Description
Information on each creator via search was too generic to be able to distinguish creators from average users of the platform.
Familiarity
Preference for creators who produce similar content, or offer services.
Filtering
No way on either the web or mobile platform to sort or filter content creators.
Personas
Due to the lack of user data for my designs. I hoped that through additional I could supplement user information through personas.
By summarizing all the information I targeted my future designs to engage with users who were more likely to utilize the search feature.
Design Goals
Using personas as a base for where I should focus my designs I choose the following to improve the search feature.
Goal # 1
Discover Creators
Improve visibility for creators of all sizes
Goal # 2
Recommend Content
Promote similar creators to users
Group and sort creators based on content
Goal # 3
Narrow the Search
Add filtering and sorting
Expand categories
User Flows
The current search experience is straightforward but it doesn't meet the needs of users. I created an expanded flow chart to help guide my design.
Wireframes
Expand on categories
1. A "Recommended" tab is added that suggests similar creators to users.
2. Categories are expanded to allow more options to define searches.
Categories Tags
3. Categories are then broken down into subcategories
4. Upon selecting a subcategory, a tag appears in the search bar to indicate the user's choice
5. In addition, users can filter their results to narrow their searches
Filter Expanded
6. The filter dropdown has several options to choose from to sort their search.
Results
I had hoped that expanding the categories would improve content filtering. However, feedback indicated that additional categories did not improve the experience, as they were still too broad.
Dropdown Categories
1. In the second iteration, I moved subcategories to a dropdown menu.
2. Expanding my first version, for selected categories and subcategories appear by allowing users to make selections across different categories.
Subcategories Menu
3. Building on the dropdown concept, I created mockups of each category
Categories Menu
4. I included a set of filters based on my research. These filters were Patrons, Posts, New, Hot, Trending, and Funds.
5. Descriptions were generic due to word limits. To solve this, I designed a "Preview" feature, which provided an overview of each creator's content.
Creator Snapshot Preview
6. The preview provides a summary of each creator's content without navigating users away from the page. The snapshot intends to help provide distinction in the content of each creator.
Results?
Testing the dropdown indicated that the search bar will be cluttered with tags when selecting more than two categories.
Filtering based on monetization also did not have the desired impact. While this metric is used on the platform it did not impact user decision to support a creator.
Similarly the tiers in the snapshot preview were unnecessary as users felt that tiers did not add value.
I think we found a winner!
Categories
1. "If it ain't broke don't fix it". After multiple redesigns of the categories, I found that the initial design worked and only needed slight revisions to the categories.
2. Recommendations on the sidebar stayed the same.
Subcategories
3. Testing showed that one category vs multiple was more effective as more options caused confusion and users tended to search for similar content. Thus I removed the tags.
Revised Filter
4. I narrowed down the filters to sort based on Patrons, Posts, Hot, and New
Creator Snapshot Preview
5. With feedback on Wireframe #2, I removed tier subscriptions and focused on the preview of content.
Results?
After finalizing my design I believe this version improves the discovery of creators. Ideally, I would have tested this design, but unfortunately, the holiday season was here.
For the mobile experience, I had the challenge of smaller screen size and spacing. Fortunately, I laid the groundwork for the transition.
Mobile Wireframe 1
1. Categories: Tappable categories are used to filter results. The current mobile did not have any options to sort creators.
2. Recommendation: Similar to the web version suggestions on similar creators appear below.
3. Sub Categories: Subcategories appear when users tap on the filters to narrow their search.
4. Filters: To maintain consistency, filters appear at the top of the screen, just like the categories. They are selected by tapping.
Results
While this design did improve discovery, it didn't utilize the capabilities of mobile devices. I decided to continue iterating on the design to improve the mobile experience for users.
Mobile Wireframe 2
1. Categories: The static menu is replaced with touch functions such as scrolling. This helped declutter space.
2. Sub Categories: Moving subcategories to the top and using touch scroll in place of a pop-up menu.
3. Filters: Next to the subcategories, a filter allows users to sort all creators. When tapping the button, a new menu allows further sorting.
Results
This version of the design integrates mobile touch functions and makes the process of searching for creators more streamlined.
Although I was unable to verify through testing whether the new mobile design was better, I am confident that these changes improve the user experience for discovery.
Reflections
This project sparked my passion for the creator space and gave me a deeper understanding of the work that goes into developing features and designs for both web and mobile applications.
What I learned
Lesson #1
Research backed Designs
The lack of research data meant more assumptions. I learned that the more data you have the more confident you are with design decisions.
Lesson #2
Is the design worth the effort?
Discovering that users rarely used the platform's search feature led me to ask, is it worth the effort for a redesign?
What I would do different
Changes #1
More Research!
With limited users, I had to make assumptions. With more user data, I could improve and validate design decisions.
Changes #2
Usability Testing
Due to time, I was unable to test my final wireframes and prototype. Usability testing ensures my designs are solving the core problem.
