​TIKTOK
Content Consumption
UX RESEARCH | DATA ANALYSIS | RECOMMENDATIONS
Role: UX Researcher
Duration: 1 month
Objective
To uncover user behaviors, content discovery, and pain points to provide actionable recommendations for enhancing TikTok's user experience, thereby improving engagement, satisfaction, and retention among young adults (ages 18-25).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
To uncover user behaviors, preferences, and pain points to provide actionable recommendations for enhancing TikTok's user experience, thereby improving engagement, satisfaction, and retention among young adults (ages 18-25).
Key Findings
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Content Discovery: Users primarily find new content through the "For You Page" and by following specific creators.
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Engagement: Trending hashtags and challenges are significant for engaging users.
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Content Preferences: Users have diverse content preferences, from humorous to educational clips.
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KPIs: User engagement, session duration, user retention, and user-generated content are critical metrics.
Recommendations
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Enhance Personalization Algorithm
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Simplify Content Creation Tools
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Increase Algorithm Transparency
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Improve Community Features
RESEARCH GOALS
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Understand content discovery and consumption patterns among young adults on TikTok.
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Provide actionable recommendations to enhance user experience, engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
METHODOLOGY
Participants
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Total: 30 young adults aged 18-25
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Diversity: Balanced mix of gender, ethnicity, and engagement levels
Research Method
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Surveys
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Purpose: Gather quantitative data on user preferences, behaviors, and pain points.
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Tool: Google Form
2. In-Depth Interviews
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Purpose: Obtain qualitative insights into user experiences and frustrations.
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Tool: Zoom, Google Meet
3. Usability Testing
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Purpose: Observe user interactions with TikTok’s interface to identify usability issues.
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Tool: Task-based testing with recorded interactions
4. User Journey Mapping
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Purpose: Visualize the user experience from content discovery to engagement and creation.
5. Customer Journey Map
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Purpose: Illustrate the typical journey of a TikTok user from content discovery to engagement.
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Components: Key touchpoints, emotions, and pain points throughout the user journey.
6. Heuristic Evaluation
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Purpose: Evaluate the usability of TikTok based on established heuristics.
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Components: Visibility of system status, match between system and the real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, help and documentation.
7. Empathy Map
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Purpose: Understand user emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and pain points.
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Components: Key insights into user motivations, frustrations, and experiences.
Tools and Resources
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Survey Platforms: Google Forms
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Interview Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet
KEY INSIGHTS
Quantitative Data
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Content Discovery: 75% discover new content through the "For You Page."
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Personalization: 60% follow specific creators for content discovery.
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Engagement: 45% engage with trending hashtags and challenges.
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Emotional Engagement: High engagement with content that evokes strong emotions like humor and inspiration.
Qualitative Data
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Discovery Thrill: Users enjoy the surprise element of the "For You Page."
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Community Connection: Following specific creators enhances the sense of community.
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Cultural Trends: Engaging with trending hashtags and challenges keeps users connected to viral content.
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Diverse Interests: Users explore content outside their usual interests driven by curiosity and the recommendation system.
DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS
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Enhance Personalization Algorithm
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Improve accuracy based on user preferences.
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Integrate more nuanced user behavior patterns.
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Simplify Content Creation Tools
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Make tools more intuitive.
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Provide tutorials and guides to encourage user-generated content.
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Increase Algorithm Transparency
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Introduce a “Why this video?” feature.
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Provide clear explanations about how recommendations are made.
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Improve Community Features
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Enhance group challenges and community engagement.
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Implement better comment moderation and group chat features.
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DELIVERABLES
User Personas
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Purpose: Represent typical users to understand their needs, behaviors, and goals.

Experience Map
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Purpose: Provide a simplified overview of the user experience.
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Components: Highlight critical aspects of user interaction with TikTok.

Customer Journey Map
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Purpose: Provide a simplified overview of the user experience.
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Components: Highlight critical aspects of user interaction with TikTok.

Heuristic Evaluation
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Purpose: Evaluate the usability of TikTok based on established heuristics.
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Components:
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Visibility of System Status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.​​​
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Match Between System and the Real World: The app should speak the users' language, using words, phrases, and concepts familiar to them, rather than system-oriented terms.
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User Control and Freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended process.
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Consistency and Standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
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Error Prevention: Even better than good error messages a careful design that prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.
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Recognition Rather Than Recall: Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another.
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Flexibility and Efficiency of Use: Accelerators—unseen by the novice user—may often speed up the interaction for the expert user so that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users.
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Aesthetic and Minimalist Design: Dialogues should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
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Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
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Help and Documentation: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation.

Empathy Map
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Purpose: Understand user emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and pain points.
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Components: Key insights into user motivations, frustrations, and experiences.

CONCLUSION
Implementing these recommendations will significantly improve TikTok's user engagement, session duration, retention, and overall satisfaction. By addressing user pain points and enhancing personalization and community features, TikTok can better meet the needs of young adults, ensuring sustained growth and engagement.