Floating button allowing quickly add new tasks/comments ensure seamless task capture
Proactive Goal Recommendations based on browsing context provide adaptable experience
Customizable sidebar dashboard that prioritizes key information supporting focused interface.
Led the design from research to launch, resolving long-standing challenges within 4 weeks.
Participants believe sudden goal-inspirations are often forgotten due to lack of convenient ways to record them.
Participants believe that extensions should proactively remind them of important goals when browsing.
The proposed new browser extension features seamlessly integrates smart capture, proactive surfacing, and focused customization to help users record goal-related inspirations, stay focused on objectives, and resurface relevant past goals through reminders and dashboard.
We can break it into 3 challenges with their corresponding solutions ...
It is essential to craft a user flow aligned with familiar usage patterns.
In the initial iteration, I introduced an 'add as new goal' Option in the Right-click context menu, and an "Add a new goal" floating button, for improved discoverability. Once users highlight certain context, they can carry it to sidebar.
However, this iteration did not resonate with the users' mental model...
Thus, in iteration #2, I introduced a context-aware floating button helping users record and edit selected text as a task, note, or subtask with simple clicks. Without interacting with sidebar, this minimizes interruption and enables users to quickly record tasks in the moment of inspiration.
Through Competitive Analysis, I inspired by some of our partial competitors, like Todoist, which offers lightweight interactions like floating button for quickly adding tasks, allowing users to input tasks without leaving their current work.
Also, during Usability Testing, I noticed users use highlighting or annotations to mark key information when reading emails or documents. This indicates that users have a need to mark content and add it directly as notes (goals).
I introduced a proactive recommendation feature that intelligently analyzes browsing context and surfaces relevant past goals through unobtrusive notifications, fostering seamless goal management within the browsing workflow.
For instance, if a user is researching flights and they have a "Fly back home for mom's BDay" goal in Bosa, the extension will remind them with an unobtrusive notification, lead to related goals page, encourgaing them to visit the goal by extension dashboard or webapp.
Pop-up Notification or Automatically Open Sidebar?
The PM suggested directly opening the sidebar automatically after matching relevant goals, allowing users to see the goal list at a glance for a better DAU. On the other hand, I felt that the sudden appearance of the sidebar might interrupt the user's browsing experience and preferred using a pop-up notification, a gentle reminder approach to give users a choice.
I successfully convinced the PM and the team to adopt my proposed solution of pushing popup reminders instead of automatical sidebars. How?
Through data-driven A/B Testing
As the test progressed, we observed some interesting patterns. In Group B (popup reminders), we noticed a higher goal engagement rate, with 35% of users interacting with their goals when prompted, compared to 25% in Group A (automatical sidebar), most users ignored the auto-poped sidebar, one user even removed the extension from their broswer as soon as we popped up the sidebar for the first time .
Notification Final Design
1. Always start with the user. Deep user understanding should guide every design decision.
2. Data is the key. Data-driven experimentation optimizes user experience and business objectives
3. Design is a conversation. The best outcomes emerge from collaborative dialogue with more stakeholders.
4. Iteration is essential. No design is perfect on the first try. Being open to feedback and willing to iterate is crucial.
Redesigning the Bosa browser extension was a challenging but immensely rewarding project. It pushed me to think deeply about user needs, to advocate for user-centric solutions, and to design for the whole rather than the parts.ering seamless goal management within the browsing workflow.
But more than that, it reaffirmed my passion for designing tools that genuinely empower people. Seeing users adopt the extension into their daily lives, and hearing their stories of increased productivity and goal achievement, was incredibly rewarding.
As I move forward in my UX career, I'll carry these lessons with me. I'm excited to continue tackling complex design challenges, always keeping the user at the heart of the process.
