Responses redesign, Medium
Meaningful discourse is core to Medium’s mission. That’s why we decided to take a closer look at our Responses (comments) user experience. We determined that the current version of responses was fragmented and made it difficult to follow discussion. My challenge was to design a frictionless experience while also preserving the spirit of thoughtfulness.
Previous Responses
Following discussions and reading was challenging as the reader is brought to a different page each time. It’s difficult to remember where you are or maintain a sense of context.
Why?
In order to make a clear case for dedicating resources to the redesign, I wrote this statement to illustrate how Responses contribute to Medium’s mission.
My Role
Lead product designer
Worked Closely with: Design partner, Product manager, Head of Product
Research
Competitive analysis
We evaluated 12 products across 50 different attributes including reactions, filtering / sorting, nesting, community rules, and publish behavior.
User testing and interviews
We created a google plugin for our prototype and interviewed 20 users in total, both readers and writers. The readers we interviewed fell into 3 cohorts: those who responded frequently, sometimes, and never. The writers varied from top-tier commissioned writers to emerging across a wide topic range.
User feedback
Current UX deters writers from engaging with readers
Many readers said that responses were often more valuable than the story itself
Writers value the interactions that indicate a reader has really read their words
Readers said they were motivated to read responses to get a pulse on how others feel about a topic
Side panel prototype made reading more fun and engaging
Design principles
Context
Responses are tied to a story. Consuming and interacting with them should feel like part of the experience not disjointed.
Thoughtfulness
The responses ecosystem should encourage thoughtful discussion and elevate reactions that add value when and where possible.
Safety
Engaging with responses should feel safe and welcoming. Users should trust that Medium has created a safe space with tools to support them.
Side panel & threading
The side panel helps readers maintain context while responding. Threading makes it easy and simple to follow and contribute to discussion.
Discussion module
Previously, the CTA for responses was the text field itself. Though it was easy to jump right in and respond, we found that presenting the responses as a discussion from the onset what more enticing. The discussion module sets the stage for thoughtfulness, serving as a call to action. Users are encouraged to participate with a network of individuals. We can use it as a space to elevate top responses, or offer an author-created prompt.
Story responses
While many users said that responses said the ‘response as a story’ model didn’t work for them, some found it valuable when they wanted to write a thorough response that they could publish and share. In addition to this expansion feature offering more writing room, users can explicitly choose to publish as a response, bringing them to our editor. When they visit the original story, they see their story displayed in the panel with a distinct visual treatment that other readers can read and respond to.
Safety and community
The updated panel design and easy reply feature makes responding more frictionless, which is what we want. But not all responses are created equally. We consistently heard in user interviews that people were hesitant to engage with responses because of spam, bad actors, and disrespectful behavior. That’s why we decided to present access to our community guidelines at the top of the text field, reminding people that we value mindfulness on our platform.
Pinning
This feature spawned from a writer need: How might I guide thoughtful discussion? Writers can use pinning as a prompt for readers to respond. In addition, pinning is a great way to highlight reader responses that they feel add value or add value to their story. These pinned responses can also surface in the ‘Discussion Module’.
Early impact
We ramped 14% on May 21st and 100% on August 5th. In that period of time, we saw a 20% increase in average number of responses per user.