From Contributors to Leaders: A UX Strategy for Lighthouse User Growth on Knowunity
Knowunity is an EdTech app with 9 million users across Europe who recently entered the US market. The platform facilitates note sharing between students, seamlessly integrating social learning in a peer to peer content sharing. At its core, a vibrant community of active and motivated users ages 8 to 17 serve as content creators and community members, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
Currently, Knowunity is exploring a hypothesis: elevating engagement and fostering growth within top content-creator groups will enhance retention and engagement among regular users.
Our team was consulted to run an evaluative study on content-creators, referred to as Knowers, designing solutions that will raise conversion from Knowers to Lighthouse Knowers-- Knowers with exceptionally high engagement. Through interviews and usability testing, we assessed user expectations, community integration, interface enhancements and community engagement initiatives– coming up with over 7 recommendations pertaining to discovery, subject-based content and group chats.
Identifying the needs of our clients: expanding the pool of Lighthouse Knowers
After a client kick-off meeting, we defined the goal of Knowunity: increasing engagement within highly engaged user groups. The app's users are students in primary and secondary school (recently expanding to college students). The users who upload content actively are internally called Knowers, and those with the highest engagement are Lighthouse Knowers. The current metric for measuring Lighthouse Knowers within Knowunity is 100 followers, 100 members in their group chats and 50 Notes (this status or metrics is unknown to users, it acts as an internal company metric).
Our project objective is to provide recommendations for the Lighthouse Knowers growth strategy by enhancing their connection with regular users– focusing on reaching the 100 followers and 100 members in their group.
Segmenting the user research in order to drive engagement between users and Knowers
We segmented our research plan into two user groups, following specific criteria based on user data that Knowunity provided. It was my task to clean up this data and create a list of users to reach out to. We sought out 10 participants, 5 for regular users and 5 for Knowers and Lighthouse Knowers. Andrea and I focused on Lighthouse Knowers, I reached out to 15 participants in the data list via email, as they were highly motivated users, we knew we would have high response rates (we had 6 sign ups by EoD).
-Lighthouse Knowers (and users on the verge of reaching Lighthouse criteria): We were interested in their motivations behind their high engagement, understanding the process in publishing, sharing and exposing their content to other users. For example, we asked about the information they put on their profile, the ways they promote their groups and notes, and other ways they connect with the community.
- Regular Users: We were interested in the pathways and motivations for following a content creator or joining a creator's group chat -- I use the term creator here, considering the Lighthouse Knowers are creators, and it would be hard to guarantee that they would recall an experience with these.
Criteria for Recruitment
Lighthouse
Knower
n:5
Lighthouse Knower or a part of the Knowunity Student Leader Program (on the verge of attaining Lighthouse Knower status
iOS user
Regular
User
n:5
Recently followed a Lighthouse Knower within 2 weeks
Active on the platform, at least 3 days in the past week
Not a Lighthouse User themselves
iOS user
Five final recommendations to increase engagement
Our findings consisted of the two user groups mentioned, in order to reconcile these, we ran multiple workshop to visualize the overarching themes each subgroup found. Pointing out the three top themes: discovery, subjects and group chats; We pieced together motivations, issues and solutions, for Knowunity.
R1
Stir away from marketing Lighthouse Knowers as influencers!
We found a divergence of the envisioned app from our clients at Knowunity and the sentiment of its users. During preliminary meetings, two representatives of the app brought up the intention to promote a cult following of Lighthouse Knowers to create a dynamic similar to social media apps. Yet in our findings, we found Lighthouse Knowers felt a strong aversion to ideas of influencers and fame. Their core value lies in fostering an “authentic community”-- one that is closer to Discord and Reddit channels.
“I've been trying to make more actual friends, rather than how normal social media is an illusion of friends type thing.”
-Lighthouse Knower 1
“We're here to share notes and get information, not to be famous on an app.”
-Lighthouse Knower 2
R2
Add “following & explore” filter on Search’s scrolling feature.
As a note sharing app, Knowunity centers around creators and finders. Yet here is one of my favorite quotes:
“Followers are not important for users on this platform.”
-Lighthouse Knower 2
First, users value an authentic community where status doesn’t matter, thus followers are not valued like in social media apps (supporting R1). Second, it refers to an issue of exposure within the app, where there isn't a functionality that allows users to view the content shared by individuals they are following– so, why would anyone care about having followers?
To fix this, we propose that the search feed, where exploration happens in the app, includes a following filter. This simple solution allows for increased exposure of the content uploaded by people within the user’s community→ motivating users to create a community with people they follow.
“I have to check my following list to see if they have new notes published. It would be helpful if I can see this more easily. ”
-Lighthouse Knower 2
Lastly, Knowunity currently has 100 followers as a criteria for becoming a Lighthouse Knower, during the final client presentation, we discussed lowering this criteria. If there isn't a motivation to follow, having such a high bar for following is hard to reach.
Our insights found that in-app engagement is tied to specific subjects. On one hand, regular users follow content creators and join groups when they see content on a subject they are interested in. Meanwhile, Lighthouse Knowers feel a connection to certain topics– a connection that can come from classes they are taking, personal interest and skills. In the subjects that they enjoy posting on and they see users respond to, Lighthouse Knowers are altruistically driven to create content (4/5).
R3
Create subject leader badges.
Regular users found that there is little visibility on subject expertise (4/5). Suggestions for this included creating a subject leadership badge for Knowers– a program that if users reached a certain amount of notes / groups on a certain subject, they would earn a badge that signifies to other users that they can rely on the user for this subject that they are seeking. This badge would act as “verified” badge on social media apps, yet it uses terminology relevant and attractive to high school students.
R4
Add “Ask” section in subject leader’s profile.
Two Lighthouse Knowers used their unicorn wish for something where they could receive insight on what content to create for their users. Lighthouse Knowers (⅘) made content based on the needs of their community– yet it is hard for them to know what to create. They either guess from past content’s popularity or act based on what users say on group chats.
The solution we proposed was adding an “Ask” section on subject leader’s profiles, where users can ask for more information or content on a specific subject. This could then work and appear as a highlighted DM, differentiating in its access points. It will make users feel more welcomed in initiating what content creators see as a subject-based conversation. In addition, it will drive profile visits thus encouraging “following.”
“I ask people, so some people will be like, hey, can you write me a note about blah, blah, blah and then I'll ask them, would you rather I handwrite it or type it up and I'll do it however they prefer.”
-Lighthouse Knower 3
One of the biggest disparities we found in our two different user groups was group chats. Lighthouse Knowers check their group chats on a daily basis (⅘), using it to find ideas, give advice and promote their content. Whereas regular users show less emphasis on individual connection through this channel, instead using it for the question section. This ultimately means that users are missing out on valuable content and learning opportunities from group chats.
R5
In profile folder, add a link to the creator’s group chat under same subject
Users can group their notes into folders, generally arranging them by subjects. Yet notes are only a small fraction of how they interact in the app. In order to bridge the disparity, we suggested allowing for user’s to link group chats to their folders.
To take one step further, Knowunity could explore the possibility of adding other’s content. Our insights revealed that Lighthouse Knowers are interested in sharing other user’s content that they find useful.
“With the ask questions section, when I answer people's questions, I just answer them. There's no engagement. But I feel like through the groups, there's more engagement with the person you’re helping since it's like texting in a way.”
-Lighthouse Knower 4
Reflection
Our project concluded with a presentation to Knowunity, and the outcome was highly positive. We effectively communicated numerous findings, engaging in a detailed discussion on specific topics, recommendations, and implementation strategies. Knowunity expressed eagerness to incorporate some of the recommendations in the coming months.
For the next steps, I'd suggest a thorough review and mapping of the subject leader recommendation, as it has the potential for a broader redesign of the user's experience across multiple sections of the app. In terms of the Ask section and the subsequent filter feed, designing these steps will be quicker and could be validated through AB tests. However, it's important to note they will take longer to understand the effects on Knower conversion rates.
One significant takeaway from this project was the valuable lesson of collaborating as a team in presenting a comprehensive research plan from two different user groups. Seeing that we divided the user groups into Andrea and I heading the Lighthouse User interviews and Charlotte and Kiyo the regular users, navigating diverse perspectives on the problems and solutions proved to be a rewarding challenge. This experience taught us to consider the bigger picture and instilled confidence in our team's advocacy for proposed solutions.
