Timeframe: 14 days Roles: UX Research, Service Design, Web Development Deliverables: Functioning prototype in 2 days. Production-ready product in 14. Clients/Users: BlueSky users. Status: Ongoing research (3 months).
Introduction
BlueSky is a Twitter-like platform with better privacy controls, a great surfacing algorithm, and was built on top of the AT protocol (decentralisation).
Problem + main research question
- Problem: Bluesky’s composer makes drafting and editing multi-part posts cumbersome.
- Research Question: Is this frustration a common occurrence among BlueSky users?
Target market
The target user's account posts mostly about games. The designer is similarly connected to the gaming community. Would designing a 'gamer-specific' notes app improve adoption rates?
Deliverable
Interactive web app with (1) ability to draft notes, (2) running game sessions, and (3) exportable share cards.
Timeline
Discovery → Research → Synthesis → Ideation → Demo → Testing & Iterating → Demo
Research set-up
- Desk research: Competition review. Who else is developing a BlueSky client for desktops and what is it they do well?
- Ongoing: Observing adoption on BlueSky. Who is talking about it? What is it actually being used for? Do people use it at all?
Design vision
Key objectives:
- Take away the target user's main pain point.
- Add user-specific functionality that they might find enjoyable to use. Reasoning: "I, as a gamer, like to track my gaming sessions and sharing what happens. People who game often do so in their 'game rooms' where their laptops/desktops are also present. Having BlueSky Composer open while gaming would be prudent in achieving their desire to share content from their favourite hobby.
Ideation
Version 1:
- Solved the user's frustration: Write however long you wish and the Composer will automatically compose 'skeets' for you without words dangling off the bottom. It is context aware.
Version 1.1: Objective: explore whether monetisation is realistic at this stage. Offer PRO features. Track response.
- Organise notes (drag and drop, tags and pins)
- Export notes in JSON, markdown (with images)
- Select your 'skeets' and post as a thread directly to BlueSky
- Post a single message directly to BlueSky
- Copy selected notes directly to clipboard
- Realtime Supabase updates across devices (mobile/desktop)
Version 1.2 Observation: Steady stream of visitors but no adoption of PRO features. Objective: Make PRO more appealing.
- Allow user to see their timeline from BlueSky Composer
- Lets user target a single message and respond to it.
- BlueSky timeline streams continuously on screen (removes user input / friction)
Version 1.3 Observation: Still no adoption of PRO features after about two months. Objective: Improve adoption rate among target users. Introduce PRO features back in at a later date. Improve targeting and positioning among gamers on BlueSky.
- Introduce the concept of tracking 'gaming sessions'
- Post your own gaming sessions on BlueSky created by the Composer. Observe whether people ask how you did that as a proxy for desire to adopt.
- Primary reason to adopt should be the ability to compose notes that you can post directly to BlueSky with an app password.
Testing
- Created a 'staging' branch on Vercel where the app is hosted.
- Vercel creates a 'test' link for each commit.
- No automated tests implemented.
- Codex (OpenAI) wrote unit tests for me.
- The app is used daily by the creator.
Reflection
It is not difficult to create features specifically asked for by existing users.
The challenge lies in distribution and adoption.
Interviewing users directly is on the agenda.