Piik AI
Product Design
UX/UI Design
AI Online Community
Startup
Team
Piik AI Product Design Team
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
6 Weeks
Tools
Figma
Project Objectives
Managed End to-End Design from research to delivery for key platform components, including profile, article, notification, editor pages ensuring a user experience and driving high-impact initiatives.
Achieved a 75% reduction in user complaints related to the editor tool.
Project Challenges
Understanding Diverse User Needs Across Cultures
As a designer accustomed to Canadian users, one of the main challenges was identifying and addressing the different needs of users from other cultural backgrounds. This required a deep understanding of local preferences and user behaviour.Real-Time Collaboration with Developers
Due to the need to adapt the tool design based on the developers' technical capabilities, constant communication and real-time confirmations with the development team were essential. This ensured the design was both feasible and aligned with the project's goals.
Impact
In the rapidly evolving AI market, our platform was featured in startup-focused journal websites and community websites in Korea, recognized for its innovative AI experiences and revenue-generating content and solutions.
(It's all auto-translated because the original articles are in Korean.)
First Article: http://www.startupdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=5177
Second Article: https://www.startupn.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=46317
Third Article: https://oneoneone.kr/content/1d05d8b5
Fourth Article: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/news/read/197791
Background
An Online Community Platform for Sharing Knowledge in the Ever-Evolving World of AI Products and Features
Creators can publish articles to share their expertise, while readers gain valuable insights into AI-related topics. Readers can follow their favorite creators to stay updated with the latest articles and content.
For Who?
Creators and readers are the primary target users of our platform.
The platform is designed for both creators and readers. However, the focus here is on the editor feature, which is specifically tailored for creators who write articles to share their knowledge with readers.
What is the goal of our product?
Enable creators to write articles in the most effective way to convey their knowledge to readers
What Users Are Saying About Our MVP: Let's dig into them
Problem1: the lack of editing tools.
The editing tool only does the bare minimum for writing an article.
The editing tool currently only performs the bare minimum for writing an article. Users mentioned that essential features they would like to see include a divider, font size adjustment, font selection, and font styling. After discussing with the PM and developers, we determined it would be feasible to include these features along with several others.
Problem 2: Narrow width
The Maximum Width of the MVP Was 660px.
While the industry standard for editor text areas is 700px, the editor in our MVP was only 660px. This narrower width caused discomfort for creators when writing articles.
On mobile screens, unnecessary double padding further reduced the already limited text area, making the writing experience even more restrictive.
Problem 3: No draft-save feature
It Causes Significant Inconveniences for Users When Writing Articles.
What if creators aren’t ready to publish? What if they just want to archive their article? Some creators have even experienced losing their work due to log-in timeouts while writing an article.
The auto log-out feature after inactivity is necessary for security reasons. However, writing an article can take a significant amount of time—sometimes even an entire day. One creator shared that they took a day off from work to dedicate themselves to writing an article on our platform. Unfortunately, due to the lack of an auto-save or save-draft feature, their work was lost when they were automatically logged out after the session timed out.
This highlights a major flaw in the current system. The absence of a draft-saving feature is a critical issue and has been identified as a must-have for the next phase of development.
More Editing Tools? Let’s See What Competitors Are Doing
I analyzed websites offering editor tools to understand what features they provide, the services they offer, and how they handle options like saving drafts.
To enhance the editor tool beyond the primary goals of our product, I began conducting competitor research on my own. I analyzed websites offering editor tools to understand what features they provide, the services they offer, and how they handle options like saving drafts.
For international platforms, I focused on Medium.com, while for Korean platforms, I explored Kakao Brunch as a main reference, alongside platforms like Reddit, Notion, and LinkedIn where creators can write and share content.
Why Do Korean Users Expect More Features? A Cultural Insight
A Pattern came up with the analysis
Korean Users Don't like Minimalistic Approach.
Websites targeting English-speaking users tend to offer fewer editing tool options and feature simpler, more minimalistic UIs. In contrast, Korean platforms often provide an extensive array of features, reflecting a "we’ll provide every tool you could possibly need, so pick and choose what you want" approach.
Since Piik originated in Korea and targets a Korean audience first, I realized it’s crucial to prioritize the needs of Korean users first.
Why Do Our Users Want More Features?
Why do Korean users prefer Kakao Brunch over Medium, even though Medium allows them to share their content with a global audience?
The answers started becoming clearer when I looked at Naver Blog, one of the oldest blogging platforms in Korea. (For context, Naver is Korea’s leading search engine, with more users relying on it as their primary browser than Google.) Naver Blog offers an extensive suite of tools, arguably the most comprehensive among all article-publishing platforms I researched. (I also looked at Notion, but it's more of a workspace tool, so it doesn’t fall into the same category.)
That’s when I had an “Aha!” moment:
Korean users are so accustomed to Naver Blog’s extensive toolset that minimalistic tools from other countries feel lacking to them.
After sharing this analysis with the team and discussing my findings, we decided to include as many features as feasible in our product. This approach aligns better with the expectations of our core Korean user base and ensures that we can provide the comprehensive experience they are familiar with while maintaining our competitive edge.
Solution: How We Plan to Improve
Expanding the editing area, implementing a save-draft feature, and improving the editing tool were assigned as the main tasks I will take on in the next phase.
Therefore, expanding the editing area, implementing a save-draft feature, and improving the editing tool were assigned as the main tasks I will take on in the next phase. Since the editing tool relies heavily on input from developers, extensive discussions were necessary during the design process. Together, we finalized a list of feasible tools to implement after collaborative discussions.
FINAL SOLUTION
Wider Text Area
Maximum Width Increased to 1080px
The border has also been removed, giving creators a more open and less constrained feel while writing articles.
More Editing Tools
A Variety of Editing Tools Are Now Available
Through competitor research and discussions with other teams, selected editing tools have been added. Creators can now use font tools, polls, image captions, code blocks, hyperlinks, and embed features to enhance their articles.
Save-Draft Feature
Creators Can Save Drafts Anytime While Writing
Creators no longer need to worry about auto-logout sessions or can take breaks when they're stuck while writing. Draft-saving ensures their progress is always secure.
Takeaway
Listening to Users' Pain points, Prioritizing, and Identifying Issues Leads to Smooth Progress.
By not overlooking users' concerns and recognizing them as issues, a clear path to improving the product becomes visible. While it's important to expand the product's scope by introducing new features beyond the MVP, I’ve learned that enhancing the existing product makes our service more robust. As a junior designer, I’ve realized the importance of prioritizing tasks, understanding their significance, and recognizing how valuable real user feedback is. Moreover, resolving users’ complaints through tangible improvements in the project gave me a deep sense of pride as a designer.
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