Kudos is a case study that my team and I designed and researched. We worked closely together with community partners to define and make changes to the interface and algorithms on TikTok's platform.

Project Type: Student Project guided by professor

Summary

About Kudos

Problem

Kudos are randomly planned events within Tiktok's algorithm designed to break up your feed and provide you with a positive message or challenge.

Duration: January 2022 - May 2022

Team: Carol Sung, Alyssa Brites, Michael Morra, and Steven Rodriguez

Tools: Google Forms, Google Sheets, Keynote, Figma, and Adobe Photoshop

Users who spend time on social media can face negative experiences such as social comparisons with their lives and appearances, doom scrolling, and poor mental health. Studies have found that spending more time on social media increases the risk of developing a poor mental health or mental illness such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts.

Solution

Community: TikTok College Users Ages 18 - 25

The Community

Community Partners/Experts: Professor Allison Puff, Cecilia Ambros, and Doctor Marya Howell Carter

User Research

80

46

VIDEOS

ANALYZED

SURVEY

RESPONDANTS

Conducting Observations and Surveys to find valuable insights

Observations

Each member of our group would conduct four observations. We asked our participants to view five videos from their feeds. During that time, we recorded the type of video, the duration viewed, the interactions made with the video, and their thoughts afterward.

These observations gave the team insight into user behaviors that we did not expect. I was surprised to see some of the results coming from friends that I know personally. It just reinforces that a change is needed to improve the quality of the App.

After the observations, our group produced a survey. In order to reach our target audience, we attempted to post a TikTok video. Unfortunately, our video only reached 33 views and did not help the survey at all. That did not stop my team and myself from reaching out to friends at our school to participate in the survey.

Based on the data collected, we found that most users manifested negative feelings when they observed their appearance. The second-highest category where we found users felt the most negative after making comparisons regarding lifestyle, fitness, and health.

StoryBoarding

My group members, Alyssa and Carol, decided to illustrate a storyboard to picture a possible scenario of how TikTok users will feel and interact with the videos they see on their TikTok feed. The story talks about Gabby, who scrolls through TikTok in bed and her feed does not help her mental status.

After researching and visualizing all of the data, the team sat down and brainstormed many ideas as to how we could help the users. Our group wrote ideas on sticky notes and then separated them into groups. We had ideas that incorporated music, meaningful messages, video games, and sandwiches into the solution. This was one of my favorite parts of the collaboration process!

Mind Mapping

UI Sketches & Wireframes

Prototypes & System Requirements