Let Creativity Not Be Hindered by Tools: Optimize the Posting Experience and Increase the Number of Posters.
Timeline
1 Month (2024/07)
Role
User Research
Feature Planning
Funnel Analysis
Goal
Engagement & Retention
With
Product Designer
User Research
Engineering Team
Overview
Since creators are the driving force behind social platforms, it's a top priority to keep them motivated to consistently publish posts on Dcard.
In this project, I focused on lowering the barriers to publishing posts in order to increase the number of active posters. Through funnel analysis and user feedback, I identified and analyzed friction points that users encountered during the posting process.
I then worked closely with the design and engineering team to optimize the user experience, simplify the steps, and enhance the prompt mechanisms for relevant posting settings to ensure users could complete the posting process smoothly. Additionally, I conducted usability testing with the research team to verify the effectiveness of the optimizations.
After the feature went live, I used SQL to create reports to monitor the feature's performance, and the results showed that these adjustments successfully improved the post flow conversion rate and increased the number of poster.
Problem
The growth in daily posts is falling behind DAU growth, suggesting that users’ willingness to contribute content hasn’t kept pace — posing a risk to our business goal of sustaining a healthy content supply and driving engagement.
My Role
Driving product outcomes from problem discovery to post-launch optimization.
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Analyzed the posting flow's conversion funnel to uncover key drop-off points and prioritize high-impact improvements.
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Defined feature scope and led cross-functional alignment through detailed product specs.
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Built performance dashboards using SQL to monitor feature impact in real time.
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Partnered with UX researcher to conduct post-launch interviews, identifying opportunities for further optimization.
Finding from the Funnel Analysis
User hesitation and perceived complexity in the early posting steps emerged as key barriers to content creation.
#1 Select post type
Users may not understand the differences between post types, leading to confusion and hesitation.
#2 Select forum
To comply with forum restrictions, users can only see forums they’re eligible to post in. However, this filtering can cause confusion when users can’t find the forum they’re looking for during the posting process.
#3 Select identity
Users can only select their identity after choosing a forum, which may lead to a sense of inconvenience due to the repetitive and cumbersome setup process.
#4 Set publishing options
N/A
Key Activities
Simplifying each step of the posting flow to minimize effort and confusion for users.
First write the post, then select a forum.
After selecting the forum, the system automatically defaults to the user’s most frequently used identity, reducing additional steps and helping users focus more on content creation.
Make all forums searchable.
All forums are searchable, and users can see the reason why they cannot post in a particular forum, improving the user experience and transparency of information.
Results
Users' adaptation to the new process has been more stable, and the average number of poster has grown.
After adjusting the posting steps, the barrier to selecting a forum is higher, so it's expected that the conversion rate for selecting a forum will be lower than the original version.
However, once users overcome this psychological barrier, the conversion rates for the subsequent steps are expected to be higher than in the original version.
And one month after the launch of the new posting tool, the daily number of posts has increased by 12% compared to previous levels.
What's Next?
Lowering the psychological barrier to posting is even more crucial than lowering the physical barrier.
This project primarily focused on optimizing the posting flow to reduce physical friction. However, the more critical challenge was creating a psychologically comfortable environment that encourages users to publish content. Therefore, after completing this project, we continued to iterate and refine the experience from the following perspectives:
01. Strengthening Posters’ Sense of Control in the Commenting Environment
Due to the platform’s anonymous nature, users tend to express themselves more directly, which can cause authors to feel anxious before posting — particularly the fear of being criticized or attacked.
To strike a balance between protecting authors’ psychological safety and maintaining the quality of public discussions, we designed a set of features that enhance authors’ control over the comment space, such as pinning comments and temporarily disabling comments.
These tools empower authors to manage the discussion atmosphere proactively, reduce the stress caused by negative interactions, and at the same time preserve the openness and diversity of the community dialogue.
02. Strengthen the power of community support.
One of the biggest psychological barriers users face before posting is the uncertainty of whether their content will be seen by people who genuinely care about the same topics.
To reduce this uncertainty, we continuously improved content recommendation models and post-tagging systems, ensuring that posts are more accurately delivered to readers interested in similar subjects. This increased both the relevance and the quality of exposure.
At the same time, we introduced a set of positive interaction mechanisms — such as downranking harmful comments and keyword-based content filtering — to minimize unnecessary negative impact.
These enhancements help posters receive supportive and positive feedback earlier in the engagement cycle, reducing the pressure of posting and strengthening their motivation to participate. As a result, the platform benefits from healthier interactions and higher overall community satisfaction.