DURATION

3 months

(September 2021 - November 2022)

MY ROLE

UX Researcher

TEAM MEMBERS

Katia Meuleman

Huiran Li

Brisa Jimenez

SKILLS LEARNED

Usability Research Methods

Surveys and Interviews

Data Analysis

TOOLS

Zoom

UserTesting.com

Miroboard

FigJam

Figma

0 | Context

UW HCDE 417 is a usability research techniques class that introduces usability research methods used in the product-development process; contextual inquiry, surveys and interviews, focus groups, user profiling, usability testing, cognitive walkthroughs, heuristics, and others.

In this project we were tasked to take an application and conduct a usability study to evaluate how easy and intuitive the product or service is to use.

Usability studies can help identify problems and areas for improvement, and learn more about the target user's needs and preferences.

At this time during COVID, TikTok was becoming a tremendously popular platform. As a UX Researcher, I offered an especially unique perspective because I was completely new to the app.

As UX Researcher, I was responsible for

  • Leading surveys and interviews

  • Critically collaborating and analyzing data

  • Advocate recommendations to stakeholders

TikTok: Usability Study

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a popular social media app where users can create, share, and watch short videos.

It started as Musically, a lip-syncing platform, before being acquired by ByteDance. Users can make videos between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long. The app uses an algorithm to tailor a "For You" feed based on what users watch and engage with. TikTok aims to "inspire creativity and bring joy," making it a top choice for short mobile videos and a key player in entertainment.

60% of people use TikTok 1-5 hours a week.

Around 3 in 5 people use TikTok at night.

Boredom is the top motivator for using TikTok.

Content Creation

There is a barrier of confusion when making new videos.

“When creating new videos, the adding music part is quite confusing sometimes“

“When I shoot a shot video using TikTok, I don’t know how to save the draft on my phone album without posting it.“

“There are so many filters and random buttons that idk how to use.“

What do users find challenging when using TikTok?

Time & Motivation

The dopamine response makes it difficult to get off app.

“It's hard to get off TikTok once I start“

“TikTok's catered algorithm makes it easy to get lost on my phone. This makes it so hard to stop scrolling through the app and go to bed.“

2 | Test Design

How can we dive more into the challenges of TikTok?

“Reading the notes over the animated background is difficult.”

"There is too much information showing up on the video. Sometimes it blocks the content.“

1 | Exploratory Study

What is the purpose of an Exploratory Study?

Data Analysis

After our 8 interviews, we compiled the transcriptions, debriefed, explored common themes and patterns via FigJam.

There are topics that users consistently asked for and we observed during our tests. These patterns emerged from our questionnaire as well as our moderated tasks.

Flashback

The exploratory test for the usability study helped us to identify challenges found within the famous platform. We found a way to weave the topic of content creation, time & motivation, and display back into the upcoming Usability Test.

UserTesting is a platform that enabled us to easily work with users to provide feedback and complete prototype tasks for the TikTok Usability Test.

We conducted 8 interviews with 1 Interviewer and 1 notetaker per session.

Jsers are presented with experiential & satisfactory questions, a series of testing user path tasks to complete, post-task questions.

3 | Design Reccomendations

Due to time and technical constraints we were not able to fully bring our vision to life and pivoted to designing for concept. Some limiting factors that contributed:

  • Technical: Though we were tech enthusiasts, we did not have a technical expert on the team, this limited our scope and understanding of realistic possibilities.

  • Ambiguous Product Vision & Strategy: Challenges occurred with 4 brilliant overlapping brain ideas and not enough direction, the lack of constraints made it more difficult and time consuming in choosing scope direction.

  • Limited Time & Budget: Rushed into design process before fully planning out which caused major set backs for concept changing.

    Design Corners: Due to time constraint, we had to cut on important design process like: design systems; information architecture, user personas, fully functioning high prototype, which could have strengthen the project further.

5 | Reflection

TikTok Redesign

This study allowed me to assess the usability of a widely used application, uncovering its strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. With the constant innovation occurring daily, this experience brought me closer to real-world projects aimed at enhancement. I practiced several key skills:

  • Making Findings Actionable: Ensured that observations are clear, precise, and descriptive, enabling the team to identify issues and work towards effective solutions.

  • Maximizing Participant Feedback: Engaged with participants immediately after their experience, immersing myself in the environment and the tasks while taking detailed notes and photographs.

  • Staying Organized: Maintained an organized and methodical approach to my work, which included coordinating participants, managing rewards, and planning the session content thoroughly.

  • Conducting Thinking Aloud Tests: Recruited representative users, assigned them relevant tasks, and allowed their insights to guide the discussion.

Usability testing serves as a crucial method for understanding how users interact with products or websites, facilitating changes based on feedback. It aids in identifying potential issues, enhancing user experiences, and fostering customer loyalty which I learned I was passionate in doing.

What questions did we ask?

In order to develop survey questions, we took inspiration from the 5 W’s and H method: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

It was important to find a good balance between general and specific questions as to utilize qualitative and quantitative targeted questions.

  1. Demographic/User Groups - Who were the general users of TikTok?

  2. Motivations - Why do you use TikTok?

  3. Challenges - What do you find challenging when using TikTok?

  4. Navigation - How do you navigate through TikTok? How easy or how difficult is it?

  5. Time & Content - How often do you often spend on TikTok? What is your content preference?

Goal: Understand TikTok users' thoughts and behaviors.

  • Investigate motivations connected to TikTok.

  • Identify research questions, key variables, and form hypotheses for future investigation

  • Clarifying problems and refine research ideas.

  • Gain insights into complex phenomena.

  • Explore feasibility for usability study.

Key points: Exploratory Studies

  • Unstructured approach: Utilizes flexible methods such as open-ended interviews and case studies for qualitative data.

  • Not conclusive: Aims to explore topics rather than test hypotheses.

  • Basis for further research: Findings guide more rigorous quantitative studies

Flashback, a feature we brainstormed, shows users previously saved content. This allows users to easily share, re-watch, and enjoy saved videos.

Users struggled to find previously saved content. This impeded on the sharing process as well.

"Okay i'm going to bookmark this so that I can go back to it later, but then I just end up forgetting about it anyway, but I still think that they are like useful features."

4 | Iteration Ideas

Challenges & Improvements

Findings

Patterns

When asked to think out loud, these were the patterns recognized across boards of preliminary surveys, exploratory tests, moderated tasks, and pre/post test questions.

Group Chatting Capacities

Users are used to to group chat abilities on competitor social media apps

Customization of Feed

87.5% of the users we interviewed find content on For You but enjoy their Following page

Save and re-visit videos easily

Users struggled to save and re-visit videos

Use primarily for educational purposes

Educational content and sharing is a common reason why users choose Tiktok.

Loose track of time/struggle to manage time using TikTok

Users often loose track of time and feel as if they waste time on TikTok

Sending videos to be streamlined

Sharing is an important Tiktok feature

Display

The visual noise ratio to an animated background.

Observational

Observational Findings are things we identified during our tasks. During our user test, we began to see a pattern emerge.

Users find the “Discover” page useful but do not use it often

Users don’t mind lots of scrolling as long as they find good content

Users who comment and like more often have a better-trained algorithm

Users like sharing content with other users

Users like the “Following” page but never look at it

A single ForYou

Combining the ForYou and Following page enables users more control of their feed.

87.5% of the users we observed stay on the For You page.

Users found content they liked quickly on their Following page but rarely go to it.

" I don't really go on the discovery page very much and usually I don't go to my following that often either unless I do see that there's like a specific person that I found was live, I would say, probably like 90% of the time that i'm on for you page.”

Groupchat

Communication is an important function of TikTok and users are confused why a group chat is not yet available to them.

"I would like to have a group chat feature, because a lot of the times, like me and my friends will want to send something to each other and have to save it and sometimes like some videos aren't saveable so then it's like you have to screen record it and that's like tedious." (Participant 4)

Screen Timer

Perception of time seems to slip when users are able to endlessly scroll.

Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) has a time tracking system. A visual disruption on the app will benefit users in the United States by reducing feelings of lost time.

Video-Sharing

Make sharing videos seamless. Sharing is an important feature of Tik-tok. Users use them as a form of communication with friends and family. Many users share inside TikTok as well as outside using SMS or Messenger.