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Notion Forums
A place for the Notion community to support each other and grow.

Case study & extended design sprint.
ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
Jun 2023
SKILLS
UI/UX
TOOLS
Figma
01.
Problem
Discourse around current customer support.
My friend's Notion takes 15 seconds to load on opening.

By the end of it, she thinks, “I’m not doing this again.”

I asked her, “So what did you do?”

She said, "Nothing. There's nothing to do."
Where to get help?
Every day, people quit using Notion because they didn't know how to solve their problem.

r/Notion and @NotionHQ on Twitter are active, but helpful posts are lost in the tidal wave of everything else Notion related.

Notion's community was lacking a home.
r/Notion
THE PROBLEM
Notion users experiencing frustration with the software struggle to reach a solution quickly and easily.
02.
Solution Preview
tl;dr
A home for the Notion community.
Post your own question or browse community posts, keep up to date with official announcements, and share resources among fellow Notion users.
03.
User Research
Focus group interviews
I asked 10 beginner -> moderate Notion users what frustrations they experienced with the software.

The answer? Various minor complaints or feature tweaks, with no immediate commonalities.

The one thing that was consistent?

When I asked how they were dealing with those problems…nobody had anything to say.
HOW MIGHT WE
How might we allow Notion users to easily ask for help and access the Notion community?
04.
Development
5 step design process, the process I used to design Notion Forums.
Sitemap
The user-flow for Notion Forums should be compact, minimizing the actions needed for a user to post a question or search the forum.

Ideal path: user browses forum for a solution first, and submits a post if necessary.
Sitemap.
Ideate
Design iterations
All pages underwent a multi-stage iterative design process exploring various layouts.

Forum cards needed visual differentiation from official announcements, and avoid clutter by only displaying helpful information.
05.
Solution
01.
Enter the forum
First, access Notion forums through the Help & Support page of notion.so or through the app.

The forum's home page contains announcement threads from NotionHQ, trending posts, and a category navigation.
02.
Search for an issue
Users can search for their issue first, or browse a general category within the forum.
03.
Ask a question
If the user still hasn't found a solution, they can ask their own question.

They will be prompted to sign into their Notion account.
04.
Publish your post
Fill out a short question form, preview your post, and publish when you're ready.
FEATURE
Dual access points
Users can access Notion Forums through the app/platform or the website.
FEATURE
Post labels
Posts begin to trend when many people have recently hit the "I have the same question” button.

Users and moderators can mark posts as resolved if a solution has been reached.
FEATURE
Badges
Badges boost credibility and incentivize users to engage with the Forum.

For browsers, these badges indicate a trustworthy answer. For posters, these badges demonstrate their expertise.
XYZ
Notion Forums provides an accessible space for users of all experience levels to seek help, advice, or feedback from the community.
Final prototype
6.
Design System
Forum design system meant to blend seamlessly with Notion’s existing brand.
6.
Evaluation
NEXT STEPS
01.
Collect feedback
After its initial launch, Notion Forums will continually collect user feedback via a/b testing and in-platform feedback surveys.

This feedback will be used to determine the priority of future feature implementation, fixes, and more.
02.
Increase retention
Community driven content begs the question:
Why would someone post responses?

Potentially implement a reward system where users can earn points for contributing to the forum.

Additionally, promote the secondary goal of Notion Forum: posting Notion-related resources, fun discussions, etc. to increase "browsability" of the platform.
03.
Build brand loyalty
Ultimately, Notion Forum's goal is to reduce the friction between users and platform while building brand loyalty & sustainability.
7.
Takeaways
01.
Dream big.
As one of my first ventures into designing for an existing product, I had to learn how to seamlessly blend a new idea with existing design systems.

What entry point made the most sense for Forums? Where would users expect it to be? What would they expect it to look like?

When shipped, Forums should look and feel as if it was always there in the first place.
02.
Show more with less
With forums, information gets overwhelming, fast.

Designing a forum for a product like Notion, characterized by minimalism and space felt like the perfect opportunity to explore what it means to design a forum that doesn't feel crowded.

As I explored layout options, I learned to find the sweet spot between "not enough" and "too much."
Signing off,
Elissa
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