A case study resulting in a redesign about refining navigation and minimizing content saturation to increase user efficiency and engagement for the social media app, TikTok.
The popularity of TikTok is massive, and many users have common pain points for their daily use. As a user, I have had navigation and content saturation issues, and it sparked my curiosity if others also experience them. For this case study, I organized a user evaluation of 3 user participants to help understand these issues. From there, I developed solutions and implemented a redesign through a design wireframe.
Case Study: TikTok (2024)
Deadline: 4 Weeks
What I Accomplished:
-UX Design
-App Design
Software Usage:
-Figma
-Microsoft Word
What Specific Issues Did I Find with TikTok?
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Why is it an issue?
A social media application that navigates through a low organization of user-saved content increases user frustration and low efficiency.
Saving content is essential to using information-dense platforms to save for future reference, entertainment, inspiration, or later curiosity about a topic. Organization is a significant aspect of saving content, which creates a quicker and easier locating experience. The TikTok organizational system of saved content needs to be improved, as it is in the tab toolbar on the profile page and once the tab is open, the difficulty of locating a video in that section increases since all favorite videos are placed there.
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Why is it an issue?
A social media application with low content discoverability is at increased risk of low user growth and satisfaction due to decreased product engagement.
Content saturation occurs when there is a significant amount of media on a platform, creating issues with making personalized content stand out to users. There are many videos made every day and the opportunity to discover content that is more engaging, relatable, or tailored for the user besides the "For You" page is challenging.
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Why is it an issue?
A social media application with a loud user interface can cause negative emotional responses to using the product, increasing the risk of low user engagement and efficiency.
Reducing loudness in user interfaces is essential for user navigational needs because a clear, consistent, and intuitive user interface assists with locating functions and elements and discovering content.
User Evaluations
Issue 1: TikTok Has Low Organization of User Saved Content
Implementing a clear organizational system for saved content is essential for users to reference effortlessly. Through assessing the time difference between a user navigating to locate a video through organization and not could help investigate this issue. To elaborate, three users were tasked with finding a planted video out of 153 videos, beginning at the profile (TikTok) and playlist page (YouTube). The experiment stopwatch began once the user participant started locating the planted video. On TikTok, the user participant was asked to find a "Home Restock" video through its low organized system. In contrast, user participants were asked to locate a "How I Met Your Mother - The Best Burger In New York" video clip through seven organizational playlists labeled as art, car repair, DIV, food, music, sports podcasts, and TV clips on YouTube.
The time consumption of locating planted videos on both platforms for each user is stated to the right.
After experimenting, there was a concluding interview for the user participant to explain and support their thought process and takeaway from this question:
Which content platform was more effortless and organized for locating planted videos and why?
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She found the organization playlists with bold labels on YouTube helpful rather than searching in one playlist, especially if there's more TikTok videos used in this test.
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She liked YouTube because they have playlists she could just go to find certain things instead of looking aimlessly for one video out of a sea of a thousand videos. So, having the playlists were nice.
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She thought YouTube folders were great to have guidance where to find related videos, and it took a while to find the selected video in TikTok's one folder.
(Highly Organized Playlist Page - YouTube)
(Lowly Organized Profile Page - TikTok)
User 1, 2, and 3:
TikTok = 53.82, 58.49, 85 seconds
YouTube = 13.46, 15.97, 23.36 seconds
Issue 2: TikTok Has Low Content Discoverability Due to Content Saturation
Finding a discoverable content system that leads users to explore and locate new content is essential to product success. To test this, I analyzed the comparative relationship between TikTok (low-content discoverability) and Spotify (high-content discoverability). More specifically, three users were tasked with exploring their "For You" and home page of TikTok and Spotify to assess which platform's discoverable content system users preferred to discover fresh and intriguing content. After each user participant performed the task, an interview took place to answer the following questions regarding which platforms assisted them in discovering new content:
Do you prefer Spotify or TikTok's approach to helping you find new and interesting content from each homepage?
Do you find it frustrating to discover new content on the "For You" page on TikTok?
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She thought Spotify was easier and quicker to find new content on the homepage compared to TikTok. On the other hand, she would spend more time looking through TikTok videos to find something new.
She finds it frustrating sometimes to find new content because TikTok's algorithm is always trying to play catch up with what she prefers at the time.
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She likes Spotify's customized homepage better than the "For You" page on TikTok, especially because of the daily mixes that include some of her favorite songs plus some extra new ones.
She gets frustrated because she scrolls, scrolls, and scrolls because it's not like she dislikes the videos on her "For You" page, it just gets boring trying to find new and interesting things.
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She feels like Spotify was more organized in knowing what she wanted in their suggested playlists, while TikTok would randomly offer things she has not seen.
She thinks it is frustrating that she cannot get content that she wants to her "For You" page since that is where she spends most of my time on TikTok.
(High Content Discoverability - Spotify)
(Low Content Discoverability - TikTok)
What are the Solutions?
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The solution to this problem of low organized user-saved content is to implement efficient and scalable navigation to organize the content through a filing system similar to Youtube playlists.
Why is this a solution?
Implementing a filing system for user-saved content on the profile page of TikTok will increase user efficiency and satisfaction when browsing their favorite video location since saving videos is a main prioritized task of the social media platform.
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The solution to this problem of low content discoverability due to content saturation is to implement an option of personalized playlists to consume content in a minimized amount that engages users through tailored, fresh, and intriguing videos.
Why is this a solution?
Implementing personalized playlists intended to create a discoverable experience will increase user growth and satisfaction when consuming TikTok content, as users will find more engaging and relatable videos associated with their chosen content topic.
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The solution to this problem of a loud user interface is to focus on content and element decluttering, consistent design, and high visual hierarchy within the user interface.
Why is this a solution?
Focusing on content and element decluttering, consistent design, and high visual hierarchy will increase user engagement and satisfaction by creating a clear, consistent, intuitive TikTok experience that ensures positive emotional responses using the product.
Design Wireframe
These design wireframes were considered based on user evaluations and best user interface practices for these solutions.
(Highly Organized TikTok Page)
(High Content Discoverability on TikTok)
(Non-loud TikTok Interface)