Redefining Engagement: Supporting Writers with Community-Centric Solutions
Designed to empower independent journalists, fostering reader-driven content creation.
Roles:
Product Designer
Team:
1 Product Designer (me) + 1 Stakeholders
Timeline and Tools:
2 Months | 2022 -2023
Figma
Overview
Where Independent Stories Find Their Voice
Problem
Independent journalists often face challenges in connecting with their audience, leading to missed opportunities for collaboration and storytelling. The lack of a platform for readers to propose ideas and for journalists to engage directly limited the potential for rich, community-driven narratives.
What Jontr does?
Jontr connects independent journalists with their readers in a dynamic, interactive way. Readers can propose story ideas, contribute funds, and engage with content they care about. The platform fosters collaboration, giving writers a space to share diverse stories in multiple formats.
Where stories find their voices.
Your hub for untold narratives.
Shape the stories you want to read.
Understanding the Scope
We Need a Platform for Dynamic Collaboration Between Journalists and Readers
To design a solution that meets the unique needs of independent journalists and their readers, we conducted a thorough Competitor analysis. We explored platforms like Substack, Medium, and Patreon, each of which serves content creators but lacks a fully integrated system for direct reader engagement and collaboration.
Substack
Medium
Patreon
Ghost
Ko-fi
Strengths
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Many support articles, podcasts, and videos, appealing to a broader audience.
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I like that Substack and Ghost lets you import your mailing list from Patreon, ghost, Mailchimp, etc.
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Established revenue models (subscriptions, ad revenue, sponsorships) allow journalists to earn income reliably.
Weakness
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Ineffective search features hinder content discovery.
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Emphasis on popular stories often sidelines independent topics.
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Limited community engagement features.
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Some platforms, particularly Ghost, require technical skills for customization, posing a barrier for less tech-savvy writers.
User Persona
Understanding the Users Challenges
Stakeholder Interviews: Engaged with Gokul Janga to gather insights from his interactions with potential users, including journalists and readers.
Aditi Sharma
Issue: Aditi faces challenges in balancing her writing with promotional efforts, often feeling overwhelmed by the demands of managing her audience engagement.
Pain Points
Difficulty connecting directly with readers.
Struggles to gain attention for her stories.
Hard to network with other journalists.
Difficulty in pitching story ideas and gaining support for her projects.
Needs
A space for direct reader interaction and feedback.
Options to share stories in various formats.
Features that encourage collaboration and engagement between writers and readers.
Design Feedback
Refining the Experience for Journo's and Readers
Throughout the design process, we adopted an iterative approach to assess the overall usability of the Jontr app for both journalists and readers.
1. Different Channels for Journalist:
Feedback: Throughout the design process, we adopted an iterative approach to assess the overall usability of the Jontr app for both journalists and readers.
Solution: We introduced customisable channels for Journalists to categorise their work, allowing readers to discover relevant content more easily.
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Channel Name on Cards: Updated the cards to display the channel name.
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Profile Overview: On the profile, readers can explore all the different channels that the Journalist manages.
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Subscribe to Channels: Readers can now subscribe to channels instead of individual Journalists.
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Relevant Notifications: This ensures that readers only receive notifications for content relevant to their interests.
2. Message Differentiation
The introduction of different channels led to the need for distinguishing between direct messages and channel messages.
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Direct Messages: Personal communication between the author and the reader.
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Channel Messages: Group messages within a channel that can include shared content or updates (such as links, group activities, or announcements).
3. Series Section
Feedback: It's difficult to know when an article is part of a larger narrative or series.
Solution: We added a 'Series' section to highlight articles within a series, enhancing reader engagement and providing context for long-form content.
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Series Tag: A label on story thumbnails highlights series content, making it easy for readers to spot ongoing stories.
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Series Overview: When a reader clicks on a series, they are taken to a dedicated screen that displays all stories within the series in order. Each story in the series includes its title, format (written, audio, video), and estimated read/view time.
4. Convo Rooms
Feedback: There needs to be a space for users to discuss and engage in deeper conversations about specific stories.
Solution: We created Convo Rooms, where readers and journalists can connect and engage in meaningful discussions around topics of interest.
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Notifications & Scheduling: Subscribers get notifications and can view scheduled convo rooms.
Interactive Features: Users can pin, mute, and view profiles, with the journalist's video at the top.
Final Design
Onboarding and Homescreen
Discover & Reading Stories
Journalist & Channel Interactions
Proposing & Funding Stories + Library + Community Interaction
Take Aways
What I learned working with Jontr
Early Involvement in
Creation:
I learned to balance business objectives with a seamless user experience, ensuring both needs are met without compromising user satisfaction.
Balancing Business Goals and User Experience:
This project was my first experience in early product development, where I joined brainstorming sessions to explore features and functionalities.
Language Preference is Key:
I discovered that users resonated more with the term "stories" rather than "articles." This subtle shift in language helped create a more engaging and relatable experience for users.
Contact
kashmiraburder.kb@gmail.com
+91-8978704999
Ideation and Design
Understanding the Users Challenges
How Might We Structure the features?
Due to non-disclosure agreements, specific details regarding project data, user identities, and proprietary processes have been omitted.
Recapturing the News Reading Focus: Home Screen
At a high level, our Home screen design aimed to achieve the following goals:
Featured Content: Showcase top stories that are trending or highly rated.
Continued Content: Highlight articles or stories that users have previously engaged with.
Subscribed Profiles: Display updates from authors and channels that users have subscribed to.
Recommended Profiles and Content: Suggest profiles and content tailored to user interests.
Bridge the gap between Journalists and Readers
There was significant interest in the possibility of sharing personal stories within the platform, suggesting that users want to contribute and participate actively in the community.
Header: A clear call-to-action urging users to "Propose a Story" to journalists, promoting active participation.
The Story Proposal Card is a design feature that allows users to propose story ideas to journalists or writers on the Jontr platform. The card typically includes. Title, Progress Bar indicating how much of the story’s target (funding or support) has been achieved, Target Price, Story Format icons, Time Left to reach the target, creating urgency and Tags related to the story, helping users find stories relevant to their interests.
Organising Your Stories, Amplifying Your Voice.
The Story Library is designed to help users efficiently organise and manage their saved stories, subscriptions, and liked content. It includes:
Categorisation: Users can create and label collections to categorise saved stories for easier access.
Subscription Management: A dedicated section to view and manage active subscriptions, with options to unsubscribe or explore more from the subscribed authors
Liked Content: A section to quickly revisit previously liked stories, enhancing re-engagement with content.
