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Serving a growing segment of hobby bloggers
Expanding a website builder with blogging functionality
We knew bloggers were already using our tool, but not in the way it was intended. Without a dedicated blogging functionality, they made do with features specifically designed for business websites and landing pages. In order to serve them better and expand our blogger segment, we knew we had to do better.
A simple blogging tool
With SimpleSite's existing website builder tool as the starting point, and staying to true to our mission of providing simple tools for the least tech-savvy people, how might we build the functionality needed for bloggers to create and manage their blogs on our platform?
More bloggers with better blogs
We achieved our goal of enabling bloggers to create much better blogs and saw the results first-hand. User satisfaction increased along with it and we measured an uptick in overall blogger signups.
My role: I was in charge of the UX and UI with input from the Design team I was leading at the time.
Step #1: Data from Support to inspire the project
Like many other projects I’ve worked on, this one was inspired by conversations with our Support staff. Supporters are always sitting on a goldmine of information about the users and I love having processes in place for a close collaboration between UX and Support.
In this case, we knew from Support inquiries and other research that many of our users were using SimpleSite to create blogs - despite our platform not being optimized for that at all!
The fact that our users made it work without an actual blog functionality showed us how strong the need was. And it showed huge untapped potential.
Step #2: Market research
To validate our hypothesis and gauge the business potential, I did some further research into the blogging industry. I read up on various studies and papers estimating the size of the market and current trends.
I also researched our main competitors to get a better sense of their focus on the blogger segment and how much our offering differed from theirs.
The impressive market data and seeing that our competitors were far ahead of us got me the necessary buy-in from key stakeholders to prioritize a better blog functionality in our product.
Step #3: Scoping the project
I worked with the CPO and PM to scope the project. We agreed that basically any level of added blog functionality would be a big improvement to our existing product.
The goal here thus became to design and implement an MVP that would enable our users to create and maintain a blog on our platform without having to use our existing features in ways they weren’t intended.
We also decided to prioritize designing for desktop devices as only a small share of our bloggers used mobile devices to do any kind of editing or publishing.
I estimated that 3 weeks would be enough for a thorough research and design process.
Step #4: User research
In order to better understand our users’ needs and expand on the Support data, I planned two research initiatives: A survey and a series of user interviews.
I created the survey myself and worked with our UX Researcher to plan the interviews which she then carried out. This gave us a deeper insight into our users’ habits, goals, and specific feature needs.
Step #5: Personas
With this new knowledge and dedication to our blogger segment, we created two new personas for the product team and the company at large to better connect with our users.
One represented the majority of our existing bloggers: The more casual, hobby blogger who values simplicity and ease of use over pro features.
The other represented another type of blogger that we aimed to attract in the future: The serious full-time blogger who needs an advanced blogging platform.
Step #6: User scenarios (“A day in the life of…”)
I wrote out two scenarios for each persona, narrating “a day in the life of a blogger” and how a blogging platform fits into that.
Step #7: Competitor analysis and inspiration
With a solid understanding of our user needs and our goals for the project, I went on to gather feature- and design inspiration from our direct competitors and other blogging platforms.
This helped me decide on both what we could/should build and how we might do so.
Step #8: Feature list with prioritization
I translated our user- and competitor research into a blogging feature list consisting of all the ideas we might build now and in the future.
I made my own suggested prioritization based on the agreed-upon scope of the project, my understanding of our users and their needs, and my research of competitors and other platforms.
Step #9: Information architecture and low-fidelity prototyping
With a good understanding of the blog MVP, I proceeded to spec out the feature hierarchy and user flows associated with the functionality.
To accompany this, I created a series of pen-and-paper wireframes to make the new functionality and how it could fit into our existing product more tangible.
Step #10: Evaluation and scoping with PM and Dev team
I brought our PM and Dev team into the process as early as possible to evaluate the ideas and challenges to be aware of. Together, we evaluated my low-fidelity wireframes and all the potential features, assigned a “technical effort” score to each of them, and updated my initial prioritization accordingly.
Step #11: Iterative prototyping and testing
With a strong foundation and a clear direction for the new blog functionality, I turned my initial pen-and-paper wires into digital mockups and a clickable prototype in Figma.
This enabled me to further evaluate and iterate with the Dev team as well as run continuous user testing throughout the process.
We ran both moderated in-person testing with our own users and unmoderated remote testing on TryMyUI with their own user panel.
Step #12: Handoff and collaboration with Dev team
After multiple rounds of testing and reaching a satisfactory level of usability, I had a final handoff meeting with our PM and the Developers in charge of implementing the new functionality. As they had been involved throughout the process, they were already prepared for what would come and had started doing the foundational work.
The result
The final solution was a very simple, first iteration of a blogging functionality with further plans to expand upon it. The design is presented below.
