CASE STUDY
Opening up the feedback loop on Notion
When you share files in Notion, you can collaborate with others by enabling edit or comment access. But what if you want to share with view only access?
When sharing a page to a larger organization with view only access, you end up closing the feedback loop. I wanted to open this back up so that the Notion user creating the page can gather feedback, find gaps, and update the page - ultimately enabling better pages to be created and shared with Notion.
MY ROLE
UX/UI Designer
UX Researcher
TOOLS
Figma
Maze
Airtable
Miro
TIMELINE
4 weeks
Dec 2020 - Jan 2021
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Notion is an all-in-one productivity solution, known for it's flexibility and simplicity. I personally love the app and am always impressed by the wide range of creative ways others are leveraging the tool.
I interviewed Notion users to find opportunities and confirm if I should select Notion for my project.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Notion, and the views in this case study are strictly my own.
THE PROCESS
GENERATIVE RESEARCH
What do Notion users use Notion for?
Are there gaps in their workflows?
I interviewed 3 participants, who use Notion for work, personal, or both. The goal of the research was to understand the user needs and motivations behind using Notion, and to discover any potential opportunities I could address.
User problems uncovered from research
From the user interviews and additional online research (via Reddit, Discord, Twitter, blogs and reviews), I identified 6 areas of opportunity. Then, I selected the problem I wanted to work on: gathering feedback.
Reframing the problem
NOTION AUTHORS
How might we better equip Notion authors with how Notion readers are understanding and engaging with the content so that more meaningful information can be shared in a more usable way through Notion?
Notion author = anyone who writes a page on Notion
NOTION READERS
How might we enable Notion readers who have specific questions or feedback on a page to connect with the Notion author of the page?
Notion reader = anyone who is reading a Notion page that was not written by them
Narrowing the scope
In order to streamline decision making throughout the design process, I focused on the org wiki use case as the primary use case.
Design goals
Keep it flexible - how can each user type shape this functionality to make it work for them for their use case?
"Break away from today's tools" - challenge the status quo, a Notion principle
Leverage the existing Notion designs - follow Notion's design guidelines, components, and interactions
EMPATHIZING WITH USERS
Journey mapping the current interaction between Notion authors and readers
Designing the interactions with user flows
AUTHOR USER FLOW
READER USER FLOW
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Building on top of existing structure
SKETCHES
Exploring ways to visually achieve the desired interactions
The user flows equipped me with a high level understanding of what interactions should be available at each step. I started sketching out different ways to achieve the main chunks of the user flows.
Wireframing and iterating
After going wide with sketches, I started narrowing in. I transferred the best ideas into digital wireframes and iterated. The main principle I used in design decision making was to follow existing patterns of Notion.
Rapid prototyping
To move quickly, I took screenshots of my existing Notion pages and added on elements that followed the Notion UI to depict my ideas.
User testing
Author flow - I ran remote, moderated usability test sessions with 3 participants who were already Notion users. I tested for discoverability and understanding of new features, and ability to complete main tasks.
Reader flow - To stay within the project timeline, I decided on an unmoderated test using Maze. I saw less risk with the reader flow since the interactions were similar to existing common chat interactions. I analyzed responses from 8 participants.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
⟶ Main tasks had high completion rates.
⟶ Users were concerned that the feature usage of Ask Questions on Notion (vs. other tools like Slack) would depend on company culture, and the accepted processes.
⟶ What is the difference between questions vs. comments?
DESIGN ITERATIONS
High priority updates
I prioritized the main design changes that should be made before launching the new features.
Usability test version
Final version
Remove the extra click to reply in bulk messages - Users were frustrated by the extra click required to reply. But this followed the existing comments reply interaction. I decided to keep the extra click in All Updates and Updates, but to provide in-line reply in the All Questions view, where users are answering multiple questions repeatedly in their workflow.
Final version
Showcasing the value prop of questions - To highlight when you would use questions over comments, I made questions available to those with view only access and clarified the use case in the black hint box.
Collect feedback and receive questions on a Notion page
Let your readers tell you what areas of the page is confusing and should be updated.
See incoming questions
Find and reply to questions like you would with comments, under Updates and All Updates. Plus, see the highlighted reference to the question.
Bulk answer
See an aggregated view of all your questions within the Questions modal, and be able to bulk reply to multiple questions that may require the same answer.
NOTION READER
Ask a question
If you have a question about a specific line, drag to highlight and ask a question to the page owner with a reference. Or just ask a general question by clicking on 'Ask a question'.
See reply
When the page owner replies to your question, find the reply in your All Updates notification. You can refer back to the page where you asked the question.
NEXT STEPS
After launching the features, I would monitor product analytics to see how they are being used and determine if additional enhancements need to be made. I would also consider working on some of the deprioritized design changes.
Post common questions - quick one click to post a frequently asked question to the bottom of the page, empowering the reader with the knowledge and eliminating the question to be asked.
Icons for subpages - visual indicators to educate users that sharing is applied to all subpages but Feedback and Questions are toggled on only for the specific page.
Feedback feature as a block template - enable users to edit the text and response types for 'Found helpful? Thumbs up or down' and add it anywhere within the page.