PATREON

Enhancing discoverability on the platform to offer a personalized experience that helps patrons find creators aligned with their interests - Personal project.

context

Role
UI Designer
Timeline
1 month
Tools
Figma/FigJam, Photoshop
Tasks
Ideation, UI Design, Visual Design, Branding, Prototyping

BACKGROUND

Patreon has established itself as a vital platform for creatives to receive support and funding directly from their fans. However, the current discovery process for potential patrons primarily relies on a basic search input field, which can be limiting in terms of exposing the diversity and breadth of talent on the platform.

Goal

The primary goal is to redesign the Patreon "Find creators" experience to enhance the discoverability of creatives on Patreon, thereby increasing patron engagement and support for a wider range of creators.

User Segment

The focus is on new and existing patrons who are interested in exploring and supporting creatives across various genres but may not have specific creators in mind.

Problem

The current discoverability experience on Patreon is lacking, hindering users from efficiently finding creators that match their specific interests and preferences.

solution

A redesign of the Patreon new creators discoverability experience to make it more engaging, personalized, and effective in connecting patrons with creatives that match their interests.

view prototype -->

Personalized Onboarding

Guides new users through prompts during signup to establish and refine their preferences over time.

Scroll ↔

Dynamic Discovery Feed

A new tailored feed of creators categorized by interests, ranks, and curated collections for an intuitive discovery experience.

Research Insights

Poor Search functionality

Users struggle with the ineffective search tool, irrelevant results, and difficulty finding relatable content, as the platform relies heavily on just a basic search input field.

Users Find New Creators Outside of Patreon

Most users rely on other apps to find new creators via personalized recommendations, categories, or friend reposts.

Ideation

Enhancing Discoverability and Personalization

Building on research insights, I focused on two key redesigns to improve discoverability of new creators and tailored recommendations:

  • Personalized Onboarding: New users are now guided through prompts during account creation to establish their preferences and interests. Periodic check-ins will help refine and update these preferences over time.
  • Dynamic Discovery Feed: Provides users with a personalized feed of creators tailored to their interests, organized into categories, ranks, and curated collections, making discovery engaging and intuitive.

Design

Inspiration. Bridging Design Gaps

While redesigning the signup and discovery features, I drew inspiration from apps like YouTube, Spotify, and Pinterest for their intuitive and engaging user experiences.

During my analysis of Patreon’s design system, I was inspired by the bold and modern visual identity of their marketing site. However, I noticed a significant disconnect between it and the outdated design of the platform.

To address this, I leveraged the marketing site’s fresh design, adapting its elements to redesign the features on the platform site. This brought consistency to the brand while elevating its visual appeal.

Marketing Site VS Platform site. The platform's site (discovery page shown on the right) has an outdated design, contrasting noticeably with the modern UI of its marketing website.

New Style System

Building on the marketing site’s design, I created a cohesive new system for the platform's signup and discovery features. I integrated modern elements like clean typography, bold visuals, refined cards and intuitive layouts while ensuring consistency across UI components. This new style system bridged the gap between the marketing site and the platform, enhancing usability and aligning the platform’s look with its updated brand identity.

Final Designs

Personalized Onboarding

The redesigned signup process enhances the discoverability of creators by gathering key user preferences upfront. Users can specify languages, interests, and categories, and can link social media accounts to find creators they already follow, ensuring a personalized and engaging discovery feed from the start.

view prototype -->

Dynamic Discovery Feed

The redesigned discovery feed offers an more engaging and personalized way to find new creators by:

  • Personalized Content: Dynamically updated suggestions based on user preferences and trends, organized into categories, rankings, and curated collections for easier discovery.
  • Seamless Discovery: Recommends creators directly based on interests, minimizing the need for active searching. The search bar remains available for deeper exploration.
  • Enhanced Search: The new search organizes results into categories and content types in a single query, enriching the discovery experience.
view prototype -->

Responsiveness

To ensure scalability across devices, I created responsive components tailored for desktop, tablet, and mobile breakpoints. This approach allowed the redesign to maintain visual consistency and functionality across varying screen formats.

Desktop - Scroll ↕
Tablet - Scroll ↕
Mobile - Scroll ↕

Reflections

What I’ve learned

  • Balancing research insights with creating a cohesive, visually engaging UI.
  • Aligning aesthetics with usability, emphasizing color contrast and functionality.
  • Adapting existing systems to create a polished, consistent user experience.

Metrics

If I were to measure the success of my design in the industry, I would track metrics like:

  • Engagement: Track time on the discovery page, creators viewed per session, and return visits.
  • Conversion Rate: Measure how many new users become active patrons after engaging with the discovery feature.
@2024 ALEJANDRO ALONSO
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