May - July 2024 | End-to-End Product Design
Building an extension market for Bible translators
Design | Allison Park, Alex Mercado
Dev | Matthew Lyons, Sameer Sikander, Levi Wenger
Paratext, a legacy Bible translation product, is rebuilding as open-source software to cultivate unity in the Bible space. I was tasked with designing a vibrant community extension marketplace, where users can easily install tools built by our partner orgs.
The extension market concept was driven by development and business needs, so the user problem was less clear. We began with a hypothesized problem that we later refined after user research.
How might we create an extension market and manager where translators easily get extensions and feel part of a community?
| I began the product process by identifying the extension concept’s business value. However, the user goals and needs— a crucial part of the puzzle— were still missing.
| User Research — And so, we identified these needs by leading an in-person UX Workshop with translators and conducting interviews with translation consultants.
METHODS
In-person UX ‘Sailboat’ and Journey Mapping Workshop + Affinitizing Data into Themes
Users: 40 translators across 12 Asia Bible Societies | We had the opportunity to form a more representative user sample, with our Asia users scarcely represented in past studies.
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Role: Split into 8 groups, I led a group of 5 users.
Expert interviews with translation consultants who directly work with translators in field.
| I grouped findings to identify high-level user needs. We found that most user frustrations stem from a desire for community in their workspace and efficient, familiar processes.
| Key User Quotes
“I want resources that can be shared within community space”
| User goals and needs emerged after grouping user findings into themes.
Community | I need community to connect me to a more tangible purpose and motivate work progress.
“Time pressure” “Slow sifting” “Workflow is manually repetitive”
Efficiency | I want to complete tasks quickly and easily.
“I feel anxious and uncertain using Paratext” “I need training for everything”
Confidence | I want to feel confident and competent when using Paratext.
| Competitive Audit — Using user context to guide focused exploration of similar extension-like models.
Design Principles
At the overlap between user and business needs, I created core design principles to guide our process, based on user needs and competitive audit.
Friendly, inviting tone, with partner branding expressed in a visible yet tasteful way.
Simplify. Remove any noise that distracts from the key user flow. Discoverable content.
Align with familiar tools. Retain same mental model as Logos and the Apple App Store.
PROBLEM REFINED
How might we create an inviting extension community that empowers translators to efficiently get the extensions they need and start their work with confidence?
| Design Ideating — High-level flows, sketches and wireframes independently. Then brought these to the UX team for more brainstorming and review.
| Concept Validation — High-level flows, sketches and wireframes on my own. Then brought these to the UX team for more brainstorming and review.
Donors and key potential partners expressed positive feedback and approval to extension model.