[TIMELINE]
January to June 2026
[ROLE]
Product Designer
[TEAM]
4 designers, 7 developers, 2 PMs
[TOOLS]
Figma, Notion
[CONTEXT]
Transforming content discovery to drive user engagement and expand SlowFactory's reach
[PROBLEM]
Users struggle to find relevant content
The platform lacks a sorting & filtering system
This makes it hard to navigate the archive by topic or interest.
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Constant scrolling is required to surface content
There's no intelligent discovery layer that adapts to user intent.
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Biggest friction point — Lack of explore page
The explore page, or lack of one, was identified as the central problem. Without a way to browse or filter, readers can't stay and engage.
"User continuously scrolls unsure of what article to engage with"
[RESEARCH]
Understanding what brings readers back
What makes online publishing platforms succeed on their explore and discovery pages?
We hypothesized that…
Returning users need ways to quickly discover content aligned with their
interests and reasons to keep exploring, more than just a chronological feed
Understand filtering patterns used by top platforms
Identify what drives content engagement and retention
Analyzing different competitors to see how they tackled these same features while referencing the core values of the company
What we learned & applied
Turning research insights into design decisions
Give users control over discovery
Top platforms use tag-based filtering so users self-direct discovery without friction
DESIGN DECISION
-> Introduce topic-based filtering so users can quickly narrow content to what interests them
Engagement creates a reason to return
Likes, saves, and comments create feedback loops that encourage users to interact
DESIGN DECISION
-> Prioritize lightweight engagement actions that make exploration feel participatory and not just passive reading
3. More content ≠ more discovery
Visual hierarchy in grid layouts reduces cognitive load vs. linear scroll
DESIGN DECISION
-> Use a structured, editorial-style layout to make content easier to browse and surface more stories at once
[DESIGN DIRECTION]
How might we...
Design an explore experience that helps readers quickly find content relevant to them while keeping them engaged enough to build a community around it?
[IDEATION]
Our design process wasn’t linear
A detailed breakdown of every design decision, what drove each change, and what the usability testing session revealed.
Full Walkthrough
Summary View
V1 — INITIAL CONCEPT
A fully curated explore page
DESIGN RATIONALE
Competitive analysis with Medium, Patreon, and Substack showed that the most engaging explore pages combined curated editorial picks with social discovery (following channels and authors). V1 translated this directly into three sections stacked vertically.
STRUCTURE
Articles to read
Editorially curated content surfaced for the user, no filtering required
Channels to follow
Topic-based channels modeled on newsletter or feed subscriptions
Authors to follow
Creator discovery to encourage repeat engagement and community building
ASSUMPTION GOING IN
If users can follow channels and authors, they'll self-build a personalized feed over time, reducing the need for a filtering system.
Articles to Read
Channels to Follow
Authors to Follow
Articles to Read
Home Explore Page
Channels to Follow
Authors to Follow
V2 — POST USABILITY TESTING
Refined by what users actually needed
DESIGN RATIONALE
To validate our key design decisions, we tested the discovery and profile flows with 4 SlowFactory admins. Usability testing revealed that curation alone wasn't enough. Users wanted more control and editorial clarity.
TASKS GIVEN
Walk me through how you’d find an article you’d want to read
Walk me through how you’d return to an article you were reading earlier
Walk me through how you’d read an article within a specific topic
Moderated 1:1 Session with Maya
“Oh I really like this. I can just pick what topics are most important to me and what I actually want to see."
Maya explains that she liked curating her explore page by picking topics that resonated with her the most
WHAT WE FOUND
WHAT WE CHANGED
Channels weren’t intuitive
The concept didn't map to how the user thought about browsing on this platform
Removed
Channels dropped
Replaced with topic selection, a model users already understood.
“For you” felt vague
Users weren't sure if it was personalized or editorially chosen
Renamed
"For you" → "Editor's pick"
Makes the editorial voice explicit. Pinned to top.
Recently viewed sought instinctively
User tried to return to earlier content and expected it on the explore page
Added
Recently viewed section
Directly validated. Users expected it here.
Topic selection resonated
Choosing what to see felt more empowering than a curated list
Added
Topic selection + top articles
Gives users agency. Top articles adds social proof without needing likes.
Channels to Follow
Editor’s Pick
Topic Selection
Top Articles
Recently Viewed
Authors to Follow
Likes + Saves
V2 Explore page
V3 — FINAL DESIGN (SHIPPED)
Scoped to what matters most
DESIGN RATIONALE
Development constraints required a significant scope reduction from V2. Rather than pushing for the full feature set, the decision was made to protect the two most validated and technically feasible features and ship a leaner but functional explore experience.
WHAT SHIPPED
Taxonomy filtering
Directly solves the core problem using existing content tags. No new backend dependency needed.
Recently viewed
Validated across all three rounds. Users instinctively looked for it in testing. Implementable with local storage.
THE TRADEOFF: This version solves discovery but doesn't yet build community. The features that were cut would turn Slowfactory from a content archive into an ecosystem. That remains the long-term goal, and scoping back here was a constraint, not a change in direction.
DEFERRED — NOT DELETED
Editor’s Pick
Requires ongoing editorial maintenance — too costly to sustain at this stage
Top Articles
Needs backend ranking logic that doesn't exist on the platform yet
Likes + Saves
Requires social infrastructure the platform hasn't built yet for it to live on the homepage
Authors to Follow
Deferred to a later community-focused phase of the roadmap
Editor’s Pick
Topic Selection
Top Articles
Authors to Follow
Recently Viewed
Likes + Saved
Taxonomy Filtering
Sort Function
V3 Explore page
[SOLUTION]
Find what you came for, and keep coming back
A taxonomy-based filtering system and persistent recently viewed section transform Slowfactory's archive into a browsable, returnable experience so users spend less time searching and more time engaged with content that matters to them.
Discover content in Everything is Political’s streamlined explore page
[IMPACT]
What I took away…
Design isn't linear. I revisited earlier stages repeatedly and had to stop chasing "perfection"
Intentionality over polish. Every feature needed a clear reason grounded in a user need, not just a requirement to check off.
Designing alongside developers meant understanding technical feasibility in real time meant
Next steps…
Our mobile app is in the works to be deployed on both Google Play and the App Store
Deferred features (Editor's Pick, Top Articles, Likes + Saves, Authors to Follow) remain the long-term roadmap toward community, not just discovery
