Draft Posts

Integrating Drafts to Later’s Scheduling Workflow

TL;DR

Through user feedback Later recognized that the platform was lacking collaboration features. Amongst the requested features from users, draft posts had the highest votes. By giving users the ability to save the contents on their post to schedule later, we projected an increase in total scheduling and also higher conversions rates to paid plans. While the product team is still collecting data on the draft feature, the overall response from post-launch surveys have been positive; receiving a score of 6 out of 7 in ease of use.

  • By adding draft posts to Later, users will be able to plan their social media content more efficiently, resulting in increased scheduling on the platform. The ability to save posts as drafts will streamline the content planning workflow and improve overall UX, which we expect will lead to greater conversions from to paid plans and/or 14-day trial starts.

    Additionally, the implementation of the drafts will serve as a foundation for future collaboration features on the platform.

  • The assumption is that currently Later is largely a scheduling tool for users who want to schedule social media posts in advance. However, our users are missing the tools necessary to plan out their content in advance, prior to scheduling. Users are therefore using third party tools, as work arounds to plan and collaborate with their team members.

  • Converted a Draft Post to Scheduled Post in First 7 Days

    • Web: 87%

    • Mobile: 48%

    Trial Activations, Attributed to Drafts:

    • 14% in first 3 months of release

  • The impact of draft posts on Later is still being evaluated, as the product team is collecting data to determine the appropriate pricing tier.

    In the meantime, I have been using the conversion rate of draft creation to post scheduled as a metric to measure the feature’s success. Although mobile conversion rate is lower, it may be due to user preference for web for planning ahead. Overall, I believe that the addition of draft post has improved the scheduling experience and paved the way for advanced collaboration features in the future.

Released
11/23/2022

Platform
Web, iOS, Android

Role
UX Designer

Key Activities

  • Shaping Session

  • Wireframing & Prototyping

  • Usability Test & Interviews

  • Post Launch Survey

The Problem

Later’s feature offerings focuses mainly on scheduling and publishing content, which has left users without adequate support for the planning stage of their workflows. Currently, there is no way to save contents on to a post, without it being scheduled.

Why Drafts?

Draft posts was one of the top three most requested features by Later users, receiving more than 193 votes on the Ideas board of the Later community website; which is where users can suggest and vote on feature ideas.

And Why Now?

The research team conducted an exploratory study which involved interviews with users at various subscription levels, to identify workflows, tools, and desired features for improving their collaborative processes on Later.

The study revealed:

  • Users collaborate during the initial content planning and before their scheduled posts get published.

  • Current work-arounds involve creating placeholder posts (to delete later) and/or third party tools.

With these findings, I created mock ups outlining potential collaboration features for Later and shared them with stakeholders to assess their value and feasibility, given quarterly planning cycles. Draft posts proved to be the most valuable collaboration feature and also the easiest to implement.

Screenshot of third party tools used as work-arounds to collaborate

Wireframing & Prototyping

My focus was on designing a solution that seamlessly integrates with Later’s scheduling flow. It was important that creating a draft was presented as an alternate option for users to save their posts, without accidentally scheduling them. This allows users to revisit their drafts for editing/scheduling later on.

Adding Drafts to the Existing Scheduling Flow on the Web App

  • Save as draft CTA should be secondary to the primary schedule post CTA.

  • Since draft post will not get published at the scheduled time, a list view is required to view all saved drafts in order, as opposed to scrolling to find them on the calendar view.

Adding Drafts to the Mobile App

  • The mobile app has an existing list view, therefore drafts just needed its own sub tab.

  • The “publish now” option is moved to the time/date picker screen.

    • This change had to be validated through a quick A/B test, as users were accustomed to the button placement and function.

What We Really Needed to Know

While I was confident in the draft creation process, I needed to determine whether our users preferred to save drafts with a scheduled time (time stamp) or not.

To validate this assumption, I proposed that we conduct a user test to gather insights on user behavior and preferences. This was a crucial step in the design process as it would inform decisions on how drafts would be integrated into the scheduling flow; as well as verify if our solution matched up to the mental models of our users when they think of drafts.

Testing & Launch

Our research team conducted user interviews and usability tests to validate the assumptions I had in regards to time stamps on draft posts. I also created a prototype to test the ease of use of creating a draft.

What We Found Out

The research team collected data on user preferences, current usage behaviors, and what they’d like to see in a drafts feature. The findings that I can share are:

  • Users preferred to have time stamps on drafts, since they generally have a date in mind when planning.

  • Seeing draft posts on the calendar view was more important for web users.

  • Seeing draft post on list view was more important for mobile users.

  • Ease of use score for creating a draft prototype:

    • 6/7 - Web

    • 6/7 - Mobile

Mobile App Prototype (IOS)

Web App Prototype

We launched Draft Posts on Nov. 23rd of 2022 to all platforms. Below are interactive prototypes of both the web and mobile apps, along with screenshots of the post modal and draft list view.

Final Designs

Try out the draft post feature by dragging and dropping a media item on to the calendar.

Start creating a draft on the mobile app by tapping the floating action button.

Switching Post Modal to a Draft State

Saving Draft Post on to Calendar and Draft List View

Saving a Draft Post on Mobile (iOS)

Next Steps

As we began to see conversions in draft creation after the release, the product team recognized that there were two additional questions that needed to be answered.

  • Gain insight into user sentiment towards the draft feature.

  • Determine which pricing tier to place draft posts.

Gathering data for these two questions is crucial as it will inform the product strategy; not only for the next version of the drafts feature but also for collaboration tools across the Later platform.

Post Launch Survey

To get an understanding of user sentiment of draft post, the research team launched an in-app survey through App Cues; placing it after a draft has been created. The survey found:

  • NPS score: 37

  • Ease of use: 6/7

  • Study also identified ideas for future iterations of the draft post feature.

Pricing Tier Test

The product team is currently conducting a test to measure users’ willingness to pay. While I cannot disclose the details of this test, I am aware that the outcome will impact my role in designing the next version of the drafts feature, which may include additional paid features to enhance the existing functionality.

Impact

The impact of this project is still being measured and ongoing (at the time this case study is being written). The results from implementing draft posts will help determine whether more robust collaboration features will be added to the product roadmap. The metric I used to judge the success of this feature however, is the conversion rate for creating a draft to scheduling it as an actual post.

Created Draft to Scheduled Post:

Web: 87%

Mobile: 48%

Possible Reasons for Lower Mobile Rate:

It’d be great to see higher conversion on mobile but the lower rate could be due to users’ preference for web, when it comes to planning ahead for posts; whereas mobile is used preferably for quick health checks.