Dreaming Elf

Design Outcome

My Challenges in This Project

TikTok is a fast-paced data-driven company. Dreaming Elf is at its early stage. With the great resources we own, there are many directions to try on. I need to wear different hats and collaborate with cross-functional teams end-to-end. It’s also challenging to balance user needs and business goals for a non-profit product like this. When monetization is not the goal, we need to set up our own metrics.

Design Process

RESEARCH

CONTEXT

Why Does TikTok Create This Product?

Tiktok is a short video platform that enables people to share pieces of their daily life in the form of short videos. It has over 1 billion Daily Active Users (DAU). TikTok China has over 600 million DAU.

North Star Goal of TikTok is

CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility Department of TikTok. It contributes to making social impacts with resources of user flow and high-quality content, creating innovative charity products that cast positive influences on the public, and accessibility design.

North Star Goal of CSR is

ABOUT DREAMING ELF: watch videos, play games, donate books for free

Why Books? - There is a lack of reading resources in rural areas of China

1. Children in Rural Areas Have Limited Access to Reading Resources.

2. TikTok China Social Responsibility (CSR) Wants to Shoulder the Responsibility.

3. CSR is in close collaboration with children's book publishing houses.

Why Donate by Watching Videos? - Align donation with the main user behavior in TikTok

Users can get bubbles based on the amount of time they watch TikTok videos or spend on Dreaming Elf. They can exchange the bubbles for books, and make donations for free.

CSR then build offline Dreaming Elf Reading Centers where children can access the books donated by users.

DATA DASHBOARD ANALYSIS

Users Don’t Post Dreaming Elf Stories, And Usually Left After Their First Donation

Based on TikTok’s standard procedures, I started the research by constructing the data dashboard with data scientists in the team and analyzing the data during bi-weekly meetings to observe data patterns and target the key problems.

• The conversion rate is much lower compared to other mini-games on Tiktok.

• Videos produced by current users are not favored by the algorithm so they cannot reach out to lots of people.

• Most lost users stop playing the game after their second or third book is donated, which usually happens a week after registration.

• We lost 90% of the users a month after their registration.

USER PROFILE

Main Users Value Education But Have Diverse Skill Levels in Using TikTok

• Value developing reading habits and education for children

• Have free time and passion for public welfare activities

• Had similar experiences as children in rural areas and want to help children like them. 

• Hope to share their good doings with more people

• Have very diverse skills in using electronic products including video editing tools

USER SURVEY - 3000 VALID REPLIES

Users Love the Idea of Donation, But Don’t Feel A Sense Of Accomplishment or Connection In The Process

I led 2 rounds of questionnaires posted on Tiktok focusing on the 4 parts above. I collected over 3000 valid replies. Some key findings include:

• Users stop playing the game if they cannot build valuable social connections or a sense of accomplishment.

• Users show a will to share, but in reality, they don’t post at all.

• Users love the idea of making donations through watching videos.

USER INTERVIEW - 12 REPRESENTATIVE USERS

Users Are Not Skilled At Making Videos, And Find The Game Strategy Confusing

According to the questionnaire results, I designed the interview and selected 12 people (considering diversity and inclusion) for the interview. Here shows some key findings.

• Users don’t post because they find it difficult to make good videos or find the donation irrelevant to their friends.

• Users will give up the game if they find the game too complicated.

USER JOURNEY MAP

We need to increase high-quality video posts to acquire new users, and call users back.

IDEATION

DESIGN GOAL

Based on the insights from the user research and guided by the PM Head, I set the following goals

CONCEPT IDEAS

Based on the design goals and journey map, we made the product strategy with 8 directions to dive deep and to test the concept ideas.

DESIGN

I owned 4 features end-to-end in collaboration with engineers, designers, and product operations in the team. In addition, I participated in 2 designs (features 5,6) assisting other product designers.

Please click the buttons to see design details. :)

TAKE-AWAY

WHAT WORKS

1. To reach the new audience: a large volume of good quality and diversified videos

2. To encourage high-quality posts: straightforward editing tools, different editing templates, scenarios to trigger the will to share

3. To build a sense of accomplishment: personalization, connection, staged summary

4. To keep users sticky: help people build social connections and community, and make the donation process simple

WHAT FAILS

• Information overload: don’t push the information to new users. Choices can be burdens

• Ask for too much before the user gets sticky: attract users to the game step by step, and always keep the first things first

• Over gamification: the core should be tech for good, and interaction is a promotion. Don’t force users to share, post or interact

NEXT STEPS

There are 3 main directions the team decided to further explore

1. Build a stronger connection between the users and the kids they donated the books to

2. Expand the diversity of donation from books to more categories to fit needs of more users

3. Transform from an interesting game to a more public welfare-focused platform

Thank you for your time! Please feel free to check my other works!