Kickstarter
Information architecture and site structure overhaul
My Task:
Centralizing and creating additional creator resources to optimize customer acquisition and enhance the creator onboarding experience.
Project Overview
This is a speculative project on how Kickstarter can provide a centralized source of accessible resources and guidance so potential customers may successfully gauge their project’s compatibility with and find success on the crowdsourcing platform.
This project initially started with a different objective, but user research indicated a misalignment of objective and user needs. After reassessing the data, our team decided to pivot and create a feature that benefited the company and users alike.
Client
Kickstarter
Role
UX/UI designer
Tools
Figma, Maze, Usertesting.com, Otter.ai, Asana, Slack, Zoom
Methodologies
User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Competitive Analysis, Persona Creation, Site Mapping, User Flows, Sketching, Wireframing, Mid-fi Prototyping, Hi-Fi Prototyping, User Testing
Introduction
Our initial direction
Kickstarter is a crowdsourcing site that allows entrepreneurs and creatives to fund their projects through individual contributors. The current payment model is all-or-nothing, a single round of project funding to 'kick' things off. If the target is not met in 60 days, funds are returned to contributors.
In this project, our initial objective was 'Kickstarter wants to expand to allow projects that will be funded on a repeated schedule instead of only backing a project once'.
Introduction
Kicking off the research
To begin our research, we interviewed 12 participants, 4 of which I interviewed myself.
Of the Creators...
7 Project Creators
5 Project Contributors
100%
said they’d prefer one lump sum of money for their campaign
only 42%
said they were open to offering an option for small, regular payments from their contributors.
Pivoting
Deciding to take a different approach
After we created an affinity map to identify patterns from our data, we found that key findings indicated:
A recurring payment model was not a feature that was of interest to creators.
At first, we persisted, but following a comprehensive competitor analysis and a few tough conversations - our team ultimately made the decision to pivot from the initial objective. Whereas this redirection would set us back a couple of days on our tight timeline, we knew that there was not enough data to support the design of a recurring payment model.
Pivoting
Returning to the data
After recognizing our lack of data in support of the initial feature request, I returned to our affinity map to inspect the other patterns that had emerged. I found that strikingly:
85% of interviewees stated that they would’ve wanted more resources and clarity about the crowdsourcing process prior to signing up.
Key insights
When sharing this finding with my team, we organized our findings from a different perspective and found the following sentiments were shared by those we interviewed as well:
Were not sure if crowdsource funding was the right fit for their project
Were not sure how run a successful project on a crowdsource platform
Wished for more upfront clarity on fees, pricing, and policies
Wished for a more accessible onboarding experience.
Missed opportunities
For Creators
To effectively and successfully utilize Kickstarter’s platform
For Kickstarter
To acquire and retain an expanded customer base
Define
Defining the new problem
Problem Statement
When considering launching a campaign on Kickstarter, users need more accessible creator resources and guidance so that they can accurately gauge their project’s compatibility with Kickstarter and ensure that they will have the continued support necessary to run a successful campaign.
Creating a Persona
From our findings and to help us keep sight of our problem statement when designing, we came up with Megan - a small business owner who is looking for financial support to start up her business.
Megan is interested in Kickstarter but does not know how or where to get started. In order to make her decision, she needs open communication, clarity regarding policies, and resources to help onboard and ensure success.
How might we...
Once we had our problem statement and persona, we began to brainstorm features that would address our users’ needs.
First, we asked ourselves “how might we” questions in order to begin generating solutions.
How Might We:
-
Make Kickstarters Creator resources easily accessible?
-
Make it easy for a Creator to gauge their compatibility with Kickstarter?
-
Offer support to prospective/new Creators
After brainstorming, we used a MSCW map to prioritize the features that best fit within the scope of our project - seen here in the MUST quadrant in the top left.
Research
Evaluating the current site
An initial investigation of the current Kickstarter site found that Creator Resources were only easily accessible from the footer, hidden small print on the homepage, or from deep within an already created project. There was no access in the header or through search.
Contact Us is not in the homepage header and is most easily accessed through the ‘Help Center’ in the Footer. This opens FAQs, which has a header CTA to allow a user to contact Kickstarter.
Selecting “Contact Us” Provides users with a pop-up, which at first is just a search function for FAQS. It is not until 2 failed FAQ attempts that a user can then fill out a multi-step form to email Kickstarter.
User testing the current site
6 User Testers
Average time to find the Creator Resources page
3 Minutes
Average time to Contact someone at Kickstarter
2 Minutes
“Wow… it's taking a while and I don't really love that it's taking a while to find something. Especially like a creator's resource... I had to use Google to find it because I literally couldn't because I'm so overwhelmed by how much stuff is on here.”
Checking out what the competition has to offer
After analyzing Kickstarter’s current setup, we checked out some of their direct and indirect competitors to see what they had to offer.
We found our research and our own findings validated - Kickstarter consistently came up short when compared on the basis of resources targeted towards new and beginner crowdsourcers.
Design
Starting to redesign the resources
Sketching
Using our data from the user interviews and user testing of the current site, I began sketching concepts for the new design. I focused on:
-
Centralizing creator resources and simplifying navigation.
-
Adding the ability to schedule a call with a Kickstarter employee
-
Adding a shared communication channel - think slack or discord - where creators could chat with Kickstarter employees and other creators about their challenges and experiences.
Wireframes
Desktop
Wireframes
Mobile
Define
Remapping user flows
As was mentioned, my primary goal was to centralize creator resources to make them far more accessible and easy to navigate. Here is a before and after of the user flow for a creator seeking resources. The green boxes indicate primary creator resources.
Pre-existing Kickstarter Site User flow
My Redesigned User Flow
Test
User testing my prototyped wireframes
6 User Testers
Decreased the average time to find the Creator Resources page
Kickstarter's site
3 Minutes
Prototype
44 Seconds
Decreased the average time to contact someone at Kickstarter
Kickstarter's site
2 Minutes
Prototype
41 Seconds
Actionable Feedback
In addition to quantitative data, video recordings of the tests and user notes provided valuable qualitative data that was used to direct the changes from Mid-Fi to High-Fi designs.
Desktop
-
Users felt that contact could be easier to find, and expected it in the main navigation
-
Users felt that the “contact” copy could be clearer
-
Users ran into a prototype glitch that prevented further action on the site after scheduling a call
Mobile
-
Like desktop, users felt that contact could be easier to find, and expected it in the main navigation
Hi-Fi Prototype
Design
Hi fi prototyped design
Desktop
Mobile
Hi-Fi Prototype
Hi-Fi Testing
Test
Testing the hi fi protoype
3 User Testers - desktop only
Further Decreased the average time to find the Creator Resources page
Kickstarter's site
Mid-Fi Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
3 Minutes
44 Seconds
6 Seconds
Further Decreased the average time to contact someone at Kickstarter
Kickstarter's site
Mid-Fi Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
2 Minutes
41 Seconds
16 Seconds
Reflect
So what's next?
Changes to make based on testing
-
Update the shortcut menu on the “Creator Resources” page to make it harder to miss and more obvious
-
Investigate website navigation in general
-
Perform a user card sort, etc.
-
Look into moving Creator Community Forum into the top navigation bar on the homepage
-
Future Features
-
Creator Mentorship Program
-
Live Chat Function
-
Connecting Creators with Private Investors/Venture Capitalists
Reflect
In retrospect
Perhaps one of the most valuable takeaways from this project is the importance of research in identifying the user's wants and needs. Whereas the initial objective asked for a recurring payment model, our research indicated this was not a feature that was of interest to users.
Further research showed there were far larger issues with the organization and offerings of creator resources. The final result was an experience designed to increase the number of Creators choosing Kickstarter for their fundraising efforts, and a site that allows them to do so efficiently and sucessfully.