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Improving Community Platform Usability

Nextdoor UX Research & Design Case Study

Usability Testing, A/B Testing, Heuristic Evaluation, Competitive Analysis, In Depth Interviews, Persona Development, Affinity Diagram, Prototyping

User Research

I designed a mixed-methods approach combining digital in-depth interviews with online survey questions to understand both actual usage patterns and stated user needs.

Recruitment

I recruited through the platform itself to ensure participants were authentic users. In turn, I got greater and more in-depth insights about actual community dynamics and usage motivations. I interviewed 42 individuals through digital surveys, and 8 participant interviews conducted on Zoom.

Affinity Diagram

After collecting qualitative data from 6 participants over multiple weeks, I needed a way to identify patterns across diverse user experiences and usage contexts.

Outcome: The affinity mapping revealed that user problems were from specific system failures. For example, poor content filtering led to navigation avoidance, which reduced user control, ultimately lowering the community value.

Persona Development

From the affinity mapping patterns, three distinct user archetypes emerged that represented different relationships with technology and community engagement priorities. Each persona represents a different way users cope with Nextdoor's current limitations and has distinct implications for design solutions.

I prioritized 'Carl' as the primary persona because he represents Nextdoor's core demographic challenge, which are older adults who want community connection but struggle with interface complexity. Each persona was validated against actual participant quotes and observed behaviors, ensuring they reflected real user needs rather than design team assumptions about the user base.

Competitive Analysis

Then, I analyzed six community platforms to understand where Nextdoor's user experience advantages and gaps created competitive opportunities. I focused on identifying UX patterns that either supported or hurt community engagement.

Heuristic Evaluation

I conducted a heuristic evaluation to understand the pain points that the interviewees faced when using Nextdoor. This allowed me to separate identified problems from real user issues during.

I prioritized violations to place attention on high-priority issues that interfered with Nextdoor's business goals. This approach prevented bias toward obvious visual problems while looking at the deeper interaction issues.

Research Synthesis & Problem Definition

After analyzing interview transcripts and usablity observations, a clear pattern emerged: users approach Nextdoor with specific, goal-oriented intentions—safety updates, local commerce, community help, and neighborhood connection. However, the communication-driven nature of the platform means most user engagement begins with notifications and replies.

This led me to focus on notification management as the primary intervention point for improving user experience.

User Journey Analysis

I mapped Carl's current experience navigating to notification settings, which revealed critical pain points:

• Difficulty locating settings access
• No clear path to customize notification types
• Overwhelming volume of irrelevant alerts

To address these issues, I redesigned the user flow prioritizing:

• Clear, accessible settings entry point
• Notification control
• Immediate implementation on user actions

Low Fidelity Prototype Development

User Feedback A/B Testing and Jakob's Law

I conducted follow-up interviews with 5 participants to validate design decisions through A/B testing:

User Interview and Feedback: gear icon vs. ellipses icon

During the 20-minute sessions, I asked participants to complete the task of "customizing their notification preferences" while thinking aloud about their decision-making process. Participants were shown both icon options and asked to explain which felt more intuitive and why.

Design Rationale

This finding validated my application of Jakob's Law, which states that users spend most of their time on other sites and prefer interfaces that work similarly to those they already know. By choosing the gear icon, I leveraged users' existing mental models from other applications, reducing the cognitive load required to navigate the interface.

High Fidelity Development using Hick's Law

In developing the high-fidelity prototype, I applied Hick's Law, which states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number of available choices. This principle was relevant for my target demographic because older users often experience high cognitive load when faced with complex interfaces.

Notification Categories

Rather than presenting users with a long, overwhelming list of notification types, I reduced the options to five clearly defined categories: Alerts, Trending, Replies, Groups, and Promotions. This reduction from the platform's original scattered notification settings to five distinct categories decreased decision time while covering all essential use cases identified in user research.

Toggle Interface Design

I implemented simple on/off toggle switches instead of dropdown menus or multiple-choice options. This binary choice system minimizes cognitive processing time and aligns with users' mental models from other familiar interfaces like smartphone settings.

Progressive Disclosure

Instead of showing all notification settings simultaneously, I created a clear hierarchy where users first access the main settings screen, then navigate to specific notification preferences.

Visual Hierarchy

I used visual design elements, like contrast, spacing, and typography, to guide users toward the primary actions while de-emphasizing secondary elements. This visual prioritization reduces the cognitive effort required to identify the most important interface elements.

Key Takeaways