Patreon Mobile Apps
In Q1 2019, Patreon rolled out a new pricing structure with increased fees for creators. In order to instill trust in current and prospective creators, the entire website was visually refreshed to reflect the brand of a high quality professional membership platform.
The iOS and Android apps served 1M users every month, 20-30% of whom used the apps exclusively. However, since the apps team was very small, the mobile apps were not updated with the new look and feel, and therefore no longer matched the rest of the Patreon product. As the design lead on mobile, I was tasked with taking the new design system and translating it to the mobile app space.
Our goals were to:
Simplify the navigation
Update the look and feel to create a unified product across all clients
Improve retention & decrease churn by focusing on existing recurring pledges
Build trust with creators and patrons
Improve accessibility
Bring product quality and delight
Getting started with research
I started the process by kicking off a research study with 12 creators and patrons to understand how they were using the app today, what frustrated them, and what feature gaps could be filled.I didn't want this project to just be a surface-level effort to "prettify" the app. In order to be trusted as a professional product, we had to provide a high quality experience.
Taking the insights gathered from research interviews, I created a journey map for creators and patrons to map out the highlights, pain points, touch points, and opportunities.