Work Collection
Metaculus
Overview
Metaculus Note is a platform designed to provide users with a seamless and intuitive experience for writing and publishing articles.
Approach
Conduct user research. UI/Visual Design, prototypes and incorporate animations. Usability testing. Iterate and refine based on insights.
About
Metaculus Note
In 2021, Metaculus sets an objective to introduce a new feature called Metaculus Note, allowing users to write and publish articles. This strategic initiative aims to enhance the platform by enabling users to share their valuable insights, analysis, and predictions in a more interactive and structured manner. By providing a dedicated space for written content, Metaculus endeavors to foster a dynamic community that thrives on knowledge exchange and meaningful discussions.
As a Junior UI designer at Metaculus, I was assigned the responsibility of creating the initial design concept for Metaculus Note in 3 weeks. My role involved enhancing the user experience by developing a platform where users could write and publish articles. Leveraging my design skills, I aimed to create an interactive and structured environment that enabled users to share their insights, analysis, and predictions. Through this undertaking, I contributed to fostering a dynamic community within Metaculus that thrived on knowledge exchange and meaningful discussions.
Key Features
Understanding the Functionalities
In the design process for Metaculus Note, I conducted extensive research on various platforms including Medium, Notion, Google Docs, Quip, Evernote, and Microsoft Word. By analyzing their text editing and saving functionalities, I gained valuable insights into industry best practices. Leveraging this research, I crafted an intuitive toolbar with a comprehensive set of formatting options for Metaculus Note. This user-centered approach ensures a seamless and familiar experience for users, allowing them to create and save their content effortlessly.
Metaculus Note aims to offer a rich text editing experience with a wide range of formatting options, including bold, italics, and bullet points. The platform strives to provide autosave functionality, ensuring that users' work is automatically saved. Additionally, the desire is to enable users to access revision history to view and restore previous versions of their articles. With these features, Metaculus Note wants to empower users to create engaging and well-formatted content, effortlessly sharing their insights within the Metaculus community.
Icon Selection and Integration
Research and Evaluation
In this phase, the focus is on researching and evaluating various free icon resources available online. By exploring reputable platforms offering a wide range of icons, the most suitable options are identified based on their relevance to Metaculus Note's purpose and visual appeal. The goal is to find an icon that aligns with the brand identity and effectively communicates the functionality of the feature.
Once a suitable icon is selected, customization options are explored to ensure it aligns with Metaculus Note's visual style. Adjustments such as color modifications or minor design tweaks may be made to create a cohesive and consistent look and feel across the platform.
After thorough research and evaluation of various icon options, here's the final icon chosen for the toolbar:
This carefully selected icon captures the essence of Metaculus Note while seamlessly aligning with the overall design language of the platform. Its visual appeal and clarity make it an effective and intuitive choice for users to quickly identify and access the note-taking functionality.
Design Considerations and Challenges
User-Centric Design Approach
Adopting a user-centric design approach, I prioritized the user's interaction and feedback when designing the Metaculus Note toolbar. Inspired by Medium's toolbar, I focused on creating an intuitive and responsive experience.
One key consideration was incorporating a distinct visual feedback when users interacted with the toolbar. By implementing a down state, the toolbar visually indicates that a button has been clicked or activated. This down state helps users confirm their selection, providing a sense of control and assurance as they format their text.
By observing the down state behavior in Medium's toolbar and understanding its impact on user experience, I incorporated a similar visual cue in the Metaculus Note toolbar. When a button is pressed, it visually responds with a temporary change, such as a color shift or slight animation, indicating the user's action.
This design decision adds an extra layer of interactivity, helping users feel more engaged and confident in their interactions with the toolbar. It ensures that users can easily differentiate between active and inactive buttons, facilitating a smooth and efficient writing experience.
By considering the importance of visual feedback and incorporating a down state in the toolbar design, I aimed to enhance the user-centric nature of Metaculus Note, making it intuitive and satisfying to use for writing and formatting articles.
Ediitor Interface Overview
The Environment
Introducing the Writing Interface! Upon entering Metaculus Note, users are greeted with a clean and intuitive writing interface. The blank canvas provides a spacious and distraction-free environment for users to unleash their creativity and thoughts. The interface is thoughtfully designed to resemble a familiar writing platform, ensuring a seamless user experience.
The choice to create an interface that resembles popular writing platforms, such as Medium, was a strategic one. By leveraging the familiarity of widely used platforms, My aims is to provide a comfortable and intuitive experience for users. This approach helps users quickly adapt to the platform, reducing the learning curve and enabling them to focus on expressing their ideas effortlessly.
Familiarity plays a crucial role in enhancing user experience. Many individuals are already accustomed to the features and workflows offered by platforms like Medium. By incorporating a similar design language and layout, Metaculus Note aims to tap into this existing familiarity, making it easier for users to navigate and utilize the platform's functionalities. This familiarity promotes a sense of confidence and ease, empowering users to dive into writing without feeling overwhelmed or disoriented.
In the initial design phase, opting for a familiar interface is a strategic choice to provide users with a seamless transition and ensure a positive first impression. As the platform evolves, it can be further customized and tailored to the unique needs of the Metaculus community, while retaining the intuitive and user-friendly elements that users are already accustomed to.
Text Formatting Features
Bold and Italic
In this section, I will demonstrate the diverse range of text formatting tools available in Metaculus Note. The interactive prototype showcases how users can easily apply different formatting options to their text, making their articles visually appealing and engaging. Let's explore some of the key features:
Let's starts from Bold and Italic. Users can emphasize their text by applying bold and italic formatting. These tools help draw attention to important points or add emphasis to specific words or phrases.
Code Block
The Code Block feature in Metaculus Note allows users to format specific code snippets as distinct blocks. By selecting the desired code and applying the </> icon, users can visually differentiate the code from regular text. This feature enhances the readability and presentation of code, making it easier for readers to identify and comprehend the code snippets within the article.
Heading and Subheading
Metaculus Note offers heading 1 and subheading formatting options, enabling users to structure their articles with clear hierarchy. Heading 1 emphasizes main sections, while subheadings categorize content for smooth navigation, enhancing readability and organization of ideas.
List
The next feature's a versatile numbering and bullet point list feature. Users can effortlessly create organized and structured lists by applying numbering or bullet points to their content. This feature allows for easy comprehension, effective information presentation, and improved readability. Users can convey ideas, outline steps, or present key points with clarity and precision.
Code Snippets
Metaculus Note's code snippet tool simplifies the presentation of code examples. Users can easily transform plain HTML code into formatted code snippets for enhanced readability. By encapsulating code within <div> and <code> tags, the tool ensures accurate rendering and maintains the intended formatting when sharing technical content online.
Quote
Metaculus Note's last feature is the quote tool, enabling users to highlight important insights in their articles. Quotes add visual interest and enhance the reading experience, making it easier to convey impactful messages with style.
Full Prototype
Take a closer look at the complete functionality of the project by accessing the full prototype. Click here to experience the interactive demonstration firsthand. Play around with the features, navigate the interface, and get a feel for the seamless user experience. Feel free to provide feedback and suggestions for further improvements.
Conclusion and Future Developments
Conclusion
In conclusion, Metaculus Note offers a user-friendly platform for creating and sharing articles. The project showcases an initial design concept, demonstrating the potential of this innovative tool. The toolbar and its rich text editing functionalities enable users to express their thoughts effectively.
Future Development
Metaculus Note can evolve into a well writing tool with future development. While the exact direction of future development is yet to be determined, the initial concept demonstrates the platform's could be a great writing tool platform for Metaculus.
Aug 2021
Metaculus