Poe by Quora
I conducted a redesign of Poe, Quora's one-stop AI mobile app, to resolve navigation issues and make Poe a more beginner-friendly AI messaging service/social network.
The Challenge
Difficulty in navigation
Low discoverability of key features
The Solution
User research
New information architecture
New UI of key features
Timeline
February - May 2023 (12 weeks)
Role
Product Designer
User Researcher
Collaboration
Paul Pittman (ex-Amazon), Mentor
Product Introduction
Multi-bot platform — Poe is the first to offer querying multiple AI agents in one place.
Community — Poe allows users to share dialogues with AI on a community feed.
Design Process
Research
Primary Research
Through 10 user interviews, I gained insight into the current pain points Poe users undergo.
Missing value proposition — Users do not know what tasks each AI chatbot is optimized for.
Difficult navigation — Users struggle to navigate to or entirely miss the feed.
How Might We Statement
How might we make it easier for users to learn enough about each bot's specialized knowledge?
How might we make the community feed more discoverable?
Synthesis
Working off Poe users’ insights, I created design requirements, personas, and a user journey map to synthesize research findings.
User Personas
The Professional
Wants to complete their tasks (writing, coding, etc.) with AI agents.
The Knowledge Lover
Wants to browse through the feed to learn more AI use cases.
The Explorer
Wants to regularly experiment creative use cases with AI agents.
Prototype & Test
Bot directory
Exploring how to best guide users through each bot’s specialized areas.
Information architecture
Exploring the best way to organize information with a flat app hierarchy. Some ideas have promise.
New user journey
I mapped out a revised user journey, retaining the focus on reducing navigation friction.
Design & Launch
Discover the ideal AI
The top navigation bar now links to the Bot Directory tab, showcasing all bots and their specializations. The future is multi-model.
Find community
The top navigation bar allows users to intuitively navigate to the community feed.
“The capabilities of these AI models are best discovered collectively, with people teaching each other what is possible.” - Adam D'Angelo, Quora's CEO
See what's trending
Users land on the Home tab (instead of Chat tab like before) and can explore trending bots or stories on the feed.
A sense of novelty and community all in one, strengthening Poe’s positioning as a premier one-stop shop for AI and a social network.
Manage conversations
Manage conversations with AI more easily with the revamped UI.
What difference did I make?
Users spend
3 seconds
↓ 300%
Users spend
↓ 200%
Satisfaction rate
80%
↑ 20%
of interviewed users are satisfied with the AI bot they choose
Although this is an unsolicited design, I have spoken to several data scientists and engineers to align with the technical requirements of the project. I also embrace building in public by launching this redesign to a community of supportive tech friends.
What did I learn?
Make a conscious effort to understand the technical domain of a product.
I dove head first into the world of generative AI consumer products by reading and going on 1:1s with AI/ML engineers to ensure that the redesign brings out Poe’s best features.
Define the scope of design carefully.
Prioritizing features that are important to the business helps me narrow the focus to 2 key themes instead of attempting to fix everything. With this comes the understanding that a design is always a work in progress while we should still do our best to improve in every iteration.