Data Analysis

Something I love to do when building product from zero is use the software 'answer the public', it's a tool that gives you insight into the questions people are asking via Google and to seach by term.

So, we searched the terms 'online community' and relevant associated questions that came up included:

• How to create an online community

• Why should I build an online community

• Online community groups near me

• Online community to make friendsPrepositions

One of the top searches was 'how to participate with online communities without interacting', to us, this was a conflicting data point because it's not a positive social behaviour. But what we did take from this is that people should be able to interact with the platform without sharing details publicly such as their name or photo, if that makes them feel comfortable enough to engage.

This idea was influenced by the high engagement rates platforms like Reddit have.

Stakeholder Interviews

As this product wasn’t something that existed, we worked collaboratively with the founders on the research stage. We did in-person and zoom work sessions to ensure we were all on the same page.

1. What is Outverse?

“Outverse is a live video-centric community management tool: a platform for building, running & organising digital communities in which live video plays the central role in connecting community members over an extended time period. 'Discord for live video' is an appropriate analogy (to the extent it conveys the plug-and-play nature, bottom-up approach, and community-centric focus of such a product!).”

2. Describe Outverse in 3 words

• Immersive: When users are within Outverse, they should feel like they're within a platform/web app rather than just on a website.

• Organised: We want to make it super easy for community members to know what sessions are coming up – and where to find previously recorded sessions, etc.

• Collaborative: We want the platform to feel intimate and engaging from a community standpoint.

3. Product sketches

At the end of our stakeholder interview, the founders shared their own wireframes of how they were envisioning the product. This is unusual when working with founders but so useful when it comes to the design process.

Due to buget and time, the founders wanted to skip the wireframing stage, this wasn't ideal but the process was eased with these product sketches.

Comp Research

We researched into other community platforms like Twitter, Circle and Geneva to get a better idea of the interfaces that customers were already used to in this space.

1. Familiar navigations

All brands used Jackob’s Law to develop their products. The one thing they had in common was the vertical left-hand navigation bar. So we decided that this would be an important feature for Outverse.

2. Over-reliant on aesthetics

Geneva wasn’t necessarily the easiest to use functionality wise.

• As a new user, some features were hard to find

• It wasn't possible to 'search' through their event library, instead you had to scroll which felt like a bit of a blocker

They had obviously taken advantage of the Aesthetic Usability Effect but for us, this meant we paid extra attention to the smaller interactions.

It was also a point I brought up when speaking to the founders because initially, there were multiple features briefed, bu this allowed up to argue an alternative way of working where we ship features in a staggered format so we could get feedback and iterate.

3. Missing features from Outverse scope

As a whole we realised there were 3 features that had not been considered for Outverse:

• Private messaging

• Forums

• Subscription / pricing model

It was decided due to budget and time, the 'private messaging' and 'forum' features would be a v2 focus. Upon launch, the platform would be free for both creators and community members but then Outverse wanted to later roll a pricing plan that would take a % of the creators earnings.