Tumblr Feature Addition
Project Overview
I created a feature addition for Tumblr that allows users to have more control over what they see on their feed (called “Throttle”) and put their feed content into groups for easier viewing (called “Tumblr Groups”). In the following case study I will demonstrate how there was a long standing user need for these functions, how it benefits Tumblr financially and my implementation strategy.
The final prototype and key screens can be seen below. The new feature of “Tumblr Groups” allows you to add a group to tumblr to categorize the blogs you follow. “Throttle” allows you to limit how often certain posters or groups of posters appear on your feed.
Primary Research Survey
Background Research
I wanted to add a feature to Tumblr revolving around its content feed which I felt as a long time Tumblr user had room for improvement. I began the project with exploratory survey around content filtering and categorization to narrow down the most high impact area for the feature addition.
I created a short survey to get insight into how people currently manage different content types on their content feed websites and any struggles they have managing different content types. The survey had nine respondents.
In terms of how they preferred their content (separated out by category, a mix or combined together) the respondents had the following results:
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The biggest reason they gave was they needed it separated because they had a specific purpose for looking at each content type (for example a journalist looking for story ideas on a specific topic) or because every time they use the app they are in a different mood to see a specific content type.
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The respondents focused on the fact that depending on the day or their mood they have different goals for their content viewing experience.
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The biggest reason behind this that came up in the survey responses was that these users get bored easily and feel that mixing the content provides more variety and keeps them interested longer.
In terms of struggles they had with their content feeds, almost all the survey respondents cited their frustration with ads and targeted content that they had not directly subscribed to.
Secondary Research
Background Research
I chose to focus on the fact that a majority of respondents wanted more control to be able to separate out different types of content on their content feed. To see if this was a real concern that applied to Tumblr (and not just my survey participants). I performed secondary research on tumblr and on its competitor social media websites to see if users had expressed explicitly they wanted more control over their content.
I found multiple posts requesting the feature to allow categorizing feed content, one of which had 531 likes and 250 reblogs indicating it is of high importance to users. I also found multiple posts requesting the feature for Tumblr’s competitor application instagram. I also discovered that currently users either use multiple accounts or other social media platforms to separate out their feed content, a non-ideal solution that is both cumbersome and siphons away users potentially from the main platform.
Case for Feature Addition
Background Research
Based on the primary and secondary research I believe there is a strong case for adding a feature to Tumblr that allows users to categorize their feed into discrete “lists” or blocks that they can self define.
This feature addition has many potential benefits: Increasing user base by potentially increasing Tumblr’s attractiveness as a one-stop-shop, directly addressing user needs, giving tumblr a competitive advantage among its competing apps, playing to tumblr’s strength, and improving tumblr’s current targeted advertising strategy.
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My survey results show that users prefer to be able to group their feed by content (see survey results above)
Numerous feature requests from competing social media websites show that people want the ability to group and categorize content (see secondary research above).
Many tumblr users have also complained about some of the blogs they followed posting NSFW content (which Tumblr has been unsuccessful at tagging consistently). When browsing the feed in public it will randomly pop up, creating embarrassing situations. By being able to control the content and group blogs that users follow, users could resolve this by creating a feed composed only of blogs that produce SFW content to view publicly.
By meeting user and potential user needs tumblr can increase its user base and help retain its current users.
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Currently Tumblrs advertising is aimed at individual campaigns with media giants that want to take advantage of Tumblrs eclectic and very content specific communities around certain subjects and fandoms.
By allowing grouping of content, potentially specific campaigns could be implemented in specific groups increasing advertising targeting and marketing potential for new advertisers.
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Currently if users want to separate out different content types they have to have multiple accounts or be spread over multiple social media platforms.
Being able to organize content types on the feed allows the user to remain on a single account in a single app and still be able to maintain the ability to see and organize multiple content types. This also could increase the user base and improve the retention of users.
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Most social media applications don’t allow users to group content by allowing users to do this Tumblr gives itself a competitive advantage over other platforms such as instagram and facebook, increasing the likelihood users will switch to tumblr and decreasing the likelihood that users will be siphoned off.
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Tumblr currently is one of the few social media websites that allows for a variety of posting types (long form text, images, video etc).
One of the primary disadvantages is that users have multiple blog types that do not blend well together potentially being mixed. For example, it is difficult to view a feed that is mostly long text posts mixed in with image posts -- the brain rapidly has to switch how it's reviewing content which it usually doesn't do well.
One way to maintain its integrity as a platform despite this and keep Tumblr from having to specialize, is allowing people to categorize content to manage the fact that they have very different content types. This would allow people to view one content type at a time, which would be neurologically less taxing.
Ideation, Prototyping and Testing
I began the design with a series of flows so I could see what functionality would be on each page and how the user could navigate between them.
I then directly moved into creating high fidelity screens as Tumblr has a relatively simple set of UI components and I felt wireframes would be redundant. I constructed an initial prototype with a synthesis of Tumblr’s previously established design pattern and the pattern of similar functions on other sites (ie Twitter’s List Function).
I then tested with 5 users who currently use social media that involve a content feed to ensure that the design did not have any major flaws and made sense to potential users.
100% of the user flows were completed by all testers, this validated that I had effectively used both general media social media design patterns and Tumblr’s UI components. All the users expressed appreciation for the flow's ease and simplicity as well as how the functionality of the new feature would help them solve some of their issues they had with their feed. However, several major issues did come up during the testing that allowed me to further refine my design:
Problem: ⅗ Testers found the colors of boxes under your groups to be too vibrant and distracting to the content of the rest of the page.
Solution: I changed the design of the boxes to pull a random image from the group content to use as a button background as was done on other areas of the Tumblr site with some buttons. I then showed this to test subjects who agreed it made the boxes more visually appealing and less distracting.
Problem: In the throttle page. ⅖ Users felt that there were too many options for controlling the frequency of posts seen. Users also expected to see “remove from feed” option for removing someone temporarily or permanently from the content feed that wasn’t present in the options.
Solution: I added a “remove from feed function” and simplified the amount of options for controlling frequency to better match user expectations.
Problem: In the “Group Edit Modal” when testers were asked to add a blog from the follow list ⅘ Testers hesitated or took a second to find the correct link to go to the follow list to the blog. When asked further about what was difficult about locating the link, they said that it felt like a small secondary function and were surprised given the visual of its function to add blogs to the group.
Solution: I redesigned the link to add the blogs to the follow list to make it larger and more noticeable which better matched its function and would allow users to use it more effectively.
Final High Fidelity
Next Steps
If given more time to further refine the project, I would add additional functionality and detail to the project. Specifically, I would add a feature that would allow users to customize the picture used for the group button instead of just having it pull a random image from the group feed.
Additionally, I would add more complexity to the prototype to define some other interactions on the page or a more complicated user test to ensure the design was effective for a variety of use cases instead of just the basic flows.
Although Tumblr does not give feedback when confirming an option or saving a user choice in its UI, I might also add confirmation toasts or other visual indicators for reassuring the user that there action was registered successfully.
After the implementation of the feature these benefits could be assessed quantitatively by seeing if the user base increases and seeing if users spend more or less time on tumblr or specifically viewing their content feeds after implementation.