Building a storytelling platform to meet demand within a niche worth over $1.44 billion annually - driving market growth & empowering inclusivity for female users.
My Role
User Research / Interaction Design / Information Architecture/ Collaboration Facilitation / Market Insight Integration / Wireframing / Prototyping / User Testing / Incorporating Design Libraries / Stakeholder Meetings/ Project Handoff
Key Stakeholders
Ember Johnstone - UX Consultant
• Other stakeholders including design, development, marketing, business analysts, and legal team not mentioned due to privacy concerns.
*Note:
Final wireframes and prototypes not shown due to an NDA. This case study will focus solely on my design thinking, research process, and initial hand-drawn sketches.
All of the data referenced here is in the public domain.
Challenge:
As a UX consultant at a trailblazing organization within the adult entertainment industry, our joint mission was to elevate their already impressive viewer base of 100 million viewers per day to an extraordinary milestone of 1 billion daily users.
Beyond the statistics, this endeavour held profound implications—unleashing market growth and paving the way for authentic inclusivity for often overlooked female users. I seized the opportunity to disrupt conventions and introduce a fresh paradigm - fusing market insights, strategic thinking, and human-centered design into a transformative solution to the gender gap in adult entertainment.
Opportunity:
To begin this venture, I undertook an exhaustive exploration of the viewer data of the company’s existing platforms. The glaring gender gap that emerged unveiled an evident absence of representation for women, with only 23% of the platform’s existing user base being female.
Market research and demographic insights uncovered intriguing revelations. According to a study by The Observer in 2008, a stark contrast emerged in content consumption patterns.
• 72% of men candidly acknowledge watching adult video content online, compared to only 11% of women.
• 53% of women openly admit to reading erotic novels, compared to only 36% of men.
• Studies highlight that about 85% of romance and erotica readers are female.
These statistics offered a compelling glimpse into the untapped potential of a genre that had yet to receive comprehensive attention - promising a unique avenue for engagement and expansion.
Revealing this underrepresentation of content catered to women sparked the possibility of crafting a platform that resonated authentically with this demographic in order to help the company’s products reach 1 billion users per day.
Graph comparing the cultural preferences of participants in a study comparing content they consumed in their leisure time. Study by Maria Kraxenburger at Basel University. 
Maria Kraxenberger's study at the University of Basel's Digital Humanities Lab in Basel, Switzerland, revealed a significant divide between the markets for erotic romance literature and adult video content.
Most consumers of erotica showed little interest in video content. This distinction underscores the potential for a dedicated online platform for erotic literature to tap into the 53% of women who enjoy this content, a vastly untapped market compared to the mere 11% of women who engage with video content.
This platform could serve as a strategic means to fuel viewer growth and diversify the company’s user base.
Product-Market Fit:
My research extended to conducting exhaustive audits of existing site architecture, competitive benchmarking, and a comprehensive examination of the existing content hosting platforms. This rigorous market research laid the foundation for a data-driven approach, enabling me to identify critical gaps and opportunities within the landscape.
Author Interviews
Understanding the importance of content creators in the success of this platform, I proactively reached out to prominent authors within the niche. Through interviews and surveys, I delved into their experiences and challenges with existing platforms. Compensation disparities, intricate UI issues, and cumbersome site interactions such as uploading content emerged as recurring pain points.
This extensive research phase was crucial in shaping the platform. It helped me identify areas of improvement and informed my UX design decisions. Overall, these research-driven insights became invaluable assets in crafting a user-centric solution tailored to the unique needs and preferences of our target audience.
User research for potential readers was an extensive process conducted by a separate team and subject to privacy considerations.
Design Process
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I created wireframes and prototypes that incorporated the key features of this platform.
During the testing phase, I conducted usability tests to gain feedback and insights from both consumers and content creators within this niche. I used this feedback to iterate my designs.
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I presented these ideas to the development team, who provided feedback to help me refine.
I then consulted with the product management team and other stakeholders to ensure that the platform's features aligned with the company's strategic goals.
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I formatted all research findings, design files, and other deliverables into a comprehensive package.
This served as a critical bridge between the UX design and development teams to streamline the implementation process for a seamless product hand-off.
Responsive Web Design
By prioritizing responsiveness from the project's inception, I ensured that the platform would seamlessly adapt to various devices and screen sizes without sacrificing interlinking, legibility, or an enjoyable user experience. This approach anticipated the diverse ways users engage with content, promoting accessibility and usability across the board, which is especially crucial for platforms centred on user-generated content.
SEO Strategy
Shifting to a text-heavy platform from a company repertoire of video and image-based platforms required further consideration in terms of search engine optimization strategy. Since this platform would rely on user-generated content (UGC,) structuring the inputs for content creators was crucial to the design process to ensure that user-submitted information aligns with SEO best practices.
Information Architecture & Card Design
Effective card design is instrumental in optimizing user-generated content (UGC) for SEO. Well-designed cards provide a structured format that prompts users to input relevant data, including titles, descriptions, and keywords.
The challenge came in to not only facilitate seamless contributions from users but also ensure content indexability by search engines and fluid internal linking between site pages. Furthermore, the design needed to enhance the overall user experience while fitting cohesively with the rest of the company’s products.
Insights
Although the prototype is currently still in development, its potential impact is undeniable. The project's success sparked a shift in the company’s approach to product acquisition, embracing untapped markets and driving strategic growth. The platform's alignment with changing user dynamics sets the stage for exponential growth in an evolving landscape. The project underscored the importance of adapting design to user needs and recognizing growth opportunities. Undergoing this process boosted my confidence in leading product design and addressing gaps in the market.