Unity Discussions

Problem
Unity needed a solution to re-invigorate the Unity Community and provide them a space to ask questions and discuss the game engine.

Outcome
1.5 million pageviews within the first 7 days
25,000 daily pageviews
100% increase of solved questions daily
4x engagement increase than Unity Answers

OVERVIEW

After the announcement of shutting down Unity Answers in June 2022, users were outraged and were critical of Unity’s decision to erase years of solutions and data that were still useful to them. We listened to the feedback and decided not to shut down; subsequently activity on Answers plummeted, particularly from Unity experts and moderators. With negative user sentiment towards the company from major users, we had to provide a new platform that would grow with users and Unity.

WHERE WE WERE

  • Design was outdated and not aligned with the Unity brand. Answers originally did not have much support as it grew, resulting in an interface that did not grow with Unity as the brand identity changed in mid 2021.
  • Lack of onboarding. New users were able to post questions immediately without reading guidelines to make their questions properly contextualized. This was frustrating to moderators and advanced users as many beginner questions were going unanswered
  • Unorganized tagging taxonomy. A free-for-all tagging system created duplicate, and erroneous tags, making it difficult for users to filter and find solution related to their query.
  • Accessibility standards were not met. Icons with no context and a crammed interface, there were improvements that needed to be done in order to make Answers accessible to all.

ITERATION 1

After a heavy tech analysis and a tight timeline, the Community team decided on a third-party vendor that offered forum-based capabilities similar to Unity Answers, including threaded replies, upvoting, and indication of solved/unresolved questions. The new system also offered additional features such as a standardized tags taxonomy and personalization options.

After our first round of usability testing with major power users from Answers, we discovered some major issues:

  • Difficult to navigate back to content. While we wanted to provide new and fresh content to users, many of them preferred a way to go back to the list of threads, rather than going to recommended posts at the bottom of each thread.
  • Confusing options to toggle voting. Providing options to enable and disable voting was confusing, and users preferred a standardized approach depending on which category they were posting to.


We also received feedback from leadership and stakeholders who were involved with the project.

  • Missing features on homepage design. Due to the difficult nature of implementing desired homepage components, we had to think of an alternative that would work with our timeline and provide ease of use.
  • Look and feel not apparent on homepage. The lack of Unity branded elements did not make users think this was a platform that belonged to Unity.

ITERATION 2

Taking our feedback from usability testing, we added additional navigation points to the sidebar to allow users to head back to categories. The homepage got a revamp and would show the latest threads so users could have access to fresh content. This decision was made to also encourage users to return daily. Voting was enabled permanently in our Questions & Answers category, and disabled for topics that were more suited for in-depth discussion.

LEARNINGS

I’m continuously learning from all of my talented colleagues at Unity, including expert product designers, visual designers, project managers, engineers, and more. I have had the opportunity to work cross functionally, make mistakes, and grow as a designer and thinker. Here are some key things I’ve learned from my experience:

  • Testing a variety of users will diversify feedback and uncover a broader range of user needs. In hindsight, the team realized that we should have tested users who were at different levels of expertise, rather than power users only as they had very niche needs.
  • Aligning early sets us up for success. As the team spans globally, we had difficulty aligning the project goals at the beginning. We had a slow start, but ended up delivering a product in a timely manner. Meeting in person helped immensely.
  • Leading with compassion and empathy. While I might not be a leader by title, it has always been imperative to me that I drive the team forward at whatever capacity I can. Understanding where the team is and where I can meet them emotionally helps with morale and overall productivity.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Among bug fixes and new features, we’re continuing to improve Discussions as we strive to unify all of Unity’s community platforms into one domain, this includes finding solutions to add Unity Forum, Play, Learn, Made with Unity, and more. We want Discussions to be the hub for our community to share work, ask questions, and learn from one another regardless of their expertise and level.