Probe
New Product Development
I got inspired to create Probe because of my frustration dealing with multiple open tabs, my tendency to go down rabbit holes reading content that, while interesting, was not the subject of my research.
ROLES
Ideation
UI Design
Market Research
User Interviews
Process Flow
TOOLS
Adobe XD
Keynote
Challenge
Content creators and researchers rely on the internet to find and reference secondary sources. They have to deal with multiple browser tabs, creating bookmarks, multiple applications, and the occasional going down rabbit holes.
Opportunity
An opportunity exists to create a simple productivity tool that creates a single focus point for a user’s attention and a streamlined workflow.
What is Probe?
For content developers who spend vast amounts of time online researching content using multiple apps, Probe is a productivity tool that simplifies online research and makes it more seamless. Unlike other online research solutions, Probe provides access to the most relevant and credible search results and creates an effective workflow that focuses on performance improvement, time management and seamless archival.
How does Probe work?
Search
Users create project folders within which they can store a shortlist of relevant search results and take notes. In this case, the user creates a COVID 19 folder to store a related search shortlist. Results from searches are returned in snapshots under 4 broad categories: Websites, Publications, Video, and Audio. Users can click to see more results from any category.
Read, Watch, Listen
User clicks to see full list of website results, and can read the contents of selected articles within the app and free from distractions. User can click to see full list of video results, and can watch any selected video within the app. The same is true for Publications and Audio, where the user can read and listen respectively.
Write
User can take notes while referencing a relevant article, publication, video, or audio without needing to use multiple apps. User can also write notes without the content referencing
How did Probe come to be?
I conducted interviews with 10 friends (content creators and academics) to better understand what their experiences using the internet for research were. I was particularly interested in find out about their workflows, the apps they used, the challenges they faced, and the workarounds they’d established to resolve them.
Unmet Needs
Time
Content creators (including copywriters) who use the internet to conduct research spend 2 hours on average on research for a single piece of content. It could take up to 3 hours to research a 1500-word article, for instance. These hours are markedly more for graduate students.
Multiple apps/Interfaces
A key concern for the user is the need to use multiple apps and interfaces to conduct research. A user begins their search on Google, bookmarks (or saves the links to) relevant articles, takes notes in a different app, opens multiple tabs, and divides their attention moving between apps and tabs. This process is inherently inefficient.
Relevance
Another key theme is the relevance of search results, and the trustworthiness of their sources. To combat this challenge, niche tools allow students and researchers access to libraries that contain relevant journals, articles, publications, etc.
Distraction
Users who conduct research online tend to get distracted. They are thus likely to spend even more time than necessary which in turn affects their level of productivity. So far, no solutions that attempt to solve this problem seem to exist.
Primary Persona
My primary persona is a content researcher or creator across multiple disciplines. She uses the internet to conduct secondary research that informs creative, business, or educational projects. She is expected to derive value from Probe because of the increased levels of focus and productivity it affords her.
She is interested in:
Quickly finding the most relevant results for her searches
Finding results from the most credible sources
Streamlining her workflow to increase her efficiency
Saving time on online research
Reducing the amount of possible distractions she might face during online research
I used user stories as a basis for developing the Probe’s feature-set.
User Stories
Flowchart
Developed detailed flowchart showing the logic for the app. The MVP for Probe is currently in development.
