Skills I used in this project
Collected information from potential users through surveys and interviews. The purpose of this survey was to understand how people currently look for questions and answers on the internet. We interviewed two categories of people: those asking questions online and those answering questions.
Google being the most used search engine to ask a question, and Youtube for watching ‘how to’ (practical) videos
89% of respondents would ask a search engine a question directly
People counted wikipedia as a ‘trusted’ site and source of information alongside sites such as BBC and the NHS
People want a site that appears trustworthy, with community votes and experts providing information
People looking for answers:
Wanted text information as it was quicker to read if you are looking for a specific answer
Liked the idea of engaging directly with experts for answers
People providing answers:
Want to produce pre-recorded video answers as it would mean that the information would be more accurate and carefully thought-out
For both groups that we interviewed, a key point was that most people did not know what Ask Me Anything sessions were. Once informed, they thought that it was a really interesting idea and something that they would watch.
We analysed both direct and indirect competitors of Quora in order to understand where Quora fell in the online Q&A marketplace.
Direct Competitors included Google Hangouts, Twitter, Reddit, Youtube and Stack Exchange. Indirect include Ted Talks, Gumtree and Tumblr— although these are not strictly Q&A sites, we understood that there were certain features from each of these sites that Quora includes, or should be aspiring to.
The graphs above show companies that hold Q&A sessions (left: Google Hangouts, centre: Quora, right: Twitter)
From information gathered through the surveys and interviews and we created four personas — representing four key groups of people who would use the Video ‘Ask Me Anything’ feature of the Quora site.
We created empathy maps for each of our four personas in order to get a better understanding of what their needs would be. We then defined these personas by grouping their: Behaviours & habits, Goals, Features & Needs and Biography
"I like to get as much information as I can about lectures I've just had"
"I really need to get more sleep but by baby is always crying"
"You never stop learning and I want to help people do that"
"I wish I could quickly find answers from experts"
Samantha’s User Journey about asking a question on the internet displayed many areas that a Video ‘Ask Me Anything’ style session could improve upon. We therefore developed the feature with Samantha in mind.
There were many features that could have been included in the designs to benefit Quora's community. We had to limit these features for this developmental sprint.
Using research findings, we prioritised features to be included for this design sprint. They included:
We organised a design studio with potential users in order to produce sketches of how the feature could look on the website.
We found we had common designs for many of the features. We also re-named the feature from ‘Ask me Anything’ to ‘Ask an Expert’ as this was more informative and professional for Quora’s users. This decision was made as a result of the information we learnt from the survey and 1:1 interviews.
The first prototype was made out of paper as it is cheap and relatively quick to create, for initial user testing. We created a site-map and user flows to make the screens follow the correct flow. (To view these and the rest of the deliverables document, please click here).
These screens show the landing home screen, the 'submit question' page, the video library and the answer page.
“How would I be notified when the video is ready?”
“I would like to see his credentials, to make sure that he is the right person to answer my question”
“How do we know what topic this is on?”
Using the feedback from user testing with the paper prototype, we developed wireframes for the asking a question task flow.
“How would it know what I was interested in?”
“How do I log out if the notification and the avatar menu is the same?”
“How can I see my own question by video”
“Oh wow! It’s a video”
We followed the theme of Quora by having ‘topic tags’ as the filter to explain what each ‘Ask an Expert’ would be about. We also wanted to include visual information about academic credentials (such as university symbols) as part of biography section of the ‘Ask an Expert’ page.
Feedback from the user testing of this prototype was generally very positive, however there is still room for improvement on the next iterations:
“Do the highest voted questions get answered, or is it just a suggestion?”
“I would prefer a overall topic theme, rather than tags about the areas that they are experts in”
“I like how the questions skip to the top when the question is being answered on the video”
Offer text ‘Ask An Expert’ sessions as well as videos
Include academic aspects to 'Ask an Expert' to increase the ‘expert’ and ‘educational’ element of Quora (reading list, citation, bibliography, technology).
To view the high fidelity prototype of asking an expert please click here
To view the deliverables design document, click here
A website to drive and maintain interest in Lightful's new platform for non-profits
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Process and skills used during my work at a specialised UX/UI agency.
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