Sundae
A social note-taking platform to organize & collaborate on knowledge
WEBSITE REDESIGN | NOV 2018
PROBLEM
In today's saturated digital landscape, consumers are overwhelmed and desensitized to information. Sundae has created a space for collaborative notetaking so users can engage with content in a meaningful way. However, the web app’s unintuitive design raises critical usability issues.
SOLUTION
We did a visual and task flow redesign to make Sundae a more enjoyable and easy-to-learn experience.
SCOPE
3 weeks
TOOLS
Sketch
InVision
Realtime Board
TEAM
Alice Bae
John Choi
Yinan Xiong
MY ROLE
Project Manager
Competitive Analyst
Visual Designer
Scrum Master
DISCOVER
Beta Site Evaluation
The first step in the redesign was to assess the current experience of Sundae's beta site.
We conducted usability tests to identify opportunities for improvements, and thus set goals for the project.
Lack of Hierarchy
The hierarchy of Collections (blue cards) and Notes (grey cards) is unclear due to identical card sizes, side-by-side placement, and chaotic typography.
Confusing Nomenclature
Unfamiliar vocabulary like “Universe” and “Cherries” requires learning a new set of representations. Users struggled to find the help page since it was labeled “WTF”.
Text-Heavy Design
Users were overwhelmed by the text-intensive content and lack of visuals.
Lack of Utility
The site’s unclear value proposition keeps users from seeing potential use applications.
The User-Generated Content Landscape
We looked at popular user-generated content platforms to determine ways to improve Sundae's design. Several key features were identified in the competitive landscape:
Highly Functional “Create” Page
All platforms offer intuitive creation flows with well-integrated features, making it easy to share content
Personalized Feed
Curated content enhance user targeting by appealing to individual interests
Visual Content
Images are included everywhere for greater user engagement and delight
User Interviews
In addition to improving the content creation flow, we were challenged with identifying a more specific target audience. Sundae had a very broadly defined primary user, making it difficult to narrow the project scope. We conducted 9 interviews with anyone who posted content online, and synthesized through affinity mapping to uncover patterns in behaviors, attitudes and frustrations.
I want to store interesting content
My current way of storing info is disorganized
I’m overwhelmed by the saturation of info online
I like quick & easy-to-use platforms
I want to share content with friends & family
DEFINE
Personas
Interviewing various content creators/consumers revealed potential use cases for Sundae.
Alison: collects research on personal interests
Paul: interested in career-related content
The Problem
How can we help digital consumers retain information so they can build an organized archive of personal references?
DEVELOP
Design Goals
Our vision was to make Sundae into an ideal space to save and organize content.
We focused on 2 areas in the redesign towards a more delightful and appealing experience.
EASY "CREATE" PROCESS
1-step process to create a note and place inside a collection
ENGAGING CONTENT
Visuals to enhance text-only content
Curated feed with relevant information
Sketching & Wireframing
Rapid sketching and wireframing allowed us to ideate various designs for homepage layout and note creation flow.
HOMEPAGE
Different column-row combinations for curated feed
Collection cards that incorporate visuals
CREATE NOTE
Multi-step: user follows a sequence of overlay pages to create a note and place in a collection
OR
1-step: user can create a note and place in a collection without leaving the homepage
DELIVER
Usability Tests
We tested our prototype to assess how well users could learn how to use the site, create a note, and add notes to collections.
HOMEPAGE LAYOUT
Problem: Users struggled to find a list of their own collections
Solution: Add a “My Collections” section on the homepage for easy access
COLLECTION CARD
Problem: Users were not impelled to click on cards
Solution: Add information and visual content in cards to make them more clickable (i.e., number of notes, number of followers, last update)
Final Design
Our team focused on redesigning the content creation flow and homepage to improve learnability and delightfulness. The redesigned homepage features collections curated for the user in a layout that makes the information more digestible. Minimal visuals were added to make the content more aesthetically appealing. We also made the navigation bar more user-friendly by eliminating confusing nomenclature like "Universe” and adding icons.
CURRENT SITE
REDESIGN
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EXPANDED VIEW
Hovering over a collection expands it to show a description. Users benefit from greater control as they can view more details before clicking on each collection.
EFFICIENT CONTENT CREATION
1-step process for adding a new note to a collection with a multi-functional design that enables searching collections and creating new ones within the same page. With the new “tags” feature, users can add attributes to notes to improve search and categorization.
Next Steps
Conduct further user research to determine best use case
Consider gamification through reward/tier system to motivate content creation
Develop mobile app so users can access and create notes quickly