“Design used to be the seasoning you’d sprinkle on for taste; now it’s the flour you need at the start of the recipe.” — John Maeda, Designer and Technologist

My role

As the Sr Designer - Interaction Designer - Motion Designer I led the design strategy for updating the publishing flow and implementing a new home screen experience from 2021-2022. Moreover, I helped redesign the updates to the header and footer, including updated iconography, interactions for the search bars, and design system component updates and standardization.

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I collaborated with two other designers on the main app tab experiences, and main auxiliary features.

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In addition I conducted several 1-on-1 interviews with creators to further understand homepage and performance metrics.

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Process

1. Understand the initial idea, concept, business, and future proofing the app

2. Competitor analysis

3. Low-mid fidelity wireframing and get feedback from client, and the developer.

4. Journey mapping & Architecture mapping of the initial app

5. Final design and feedback with team, product owner, and other cross functional team members

6. Developer handoff

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The problem

• Creators had trouble viewing their analytics, earnings, and what was sold, mismatched data via metrics and earnings, and also help to get started.
• We received lots of questions to the creator success team about these items as well.

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Solution

As we continued to push creators into the LTK app, we need a home base for creators to see their analytics, earnings better, get information about brands or products that are selling well so creators can act on it. Even help for new creators. That lead to us wanting to create an initial homepage base.

• Expand upon and impact new and existing creators to be more successful
• A place that is easier to view what your making on a weekly or monthly basis
• A native experience for viewing analytics

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Pain points

Interviews consisted of 12 creators from various background and various status such as gold or silver or even bronze.

• Analytics was very bare bones and doesn't display much information that can help drive impact across their store
• They have to swap from mobile → Desktop for more info, which felt cumbersome ‘
• Also some data points wasn't lining up, and sometimes confused users
• Very difficult for new creators to get started and earning enough

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• As I was building the homepage and analytics experience, I thought through business requirements, user requirements, and also considering best practices and what I learned from the competitors.

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I drew various wireframes to get the ideas rolling, and to communicate with stakeholders of what I was thinking.

Determining the flow of the homepage

I asked myself one is the initial goals, what is the creator trying to achieve here, and how do we help new and existing creators view their products and act upon it.

• Viewing their earnings over time (How much was made today, or last week etc)
• Engagement on their post metrics (Top 3 items and a focus page)
• Acting on analytics (Overview / snapshot of most important metrics)

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Usability testing

• We used Userzoom and conducted several tests with creators from various tier levels.
• I put together a prototype using Figma, and I also had time to build a more refined interactive prototype in Protopie, for feedback on the micro-animations I did

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I learned that creators appreciated the homepage over the existing space. As it gives them a better overview and allows them act a bit faster. Creators also loved the animated experiences as well.

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Working with cross functional teams and developers, I lead the design of the homepage and effectively brought the homepage to fruition. Working with a team 5 developers included front end, back end developers, and few full stack developers .

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In other things...

I worked on various other aspects of the iOS app

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(Left) My animation. (Right) Developed and launched in app by Jun Zou.

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Reflection

What went well

• Creator homepage

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What might have gone better

• Analytics dashboard and performance

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What would I do differently

• Create a creator facing help space
• Marketing involvement

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The impact

• Adoption of new updated version with positive reviews for v4.0! Via app store
• Publishing flow updates and releases lead to a 4.8/5 rating average on app store review
• Positive feedback from creators on the launch of the homepage and updated navigation experience.
• Increased traffic to the LTK Creator app by 45%

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For confidentiality reasons I have omitted the actual values for these metrics.