Notion: A Diary Study
Trent Lutmer, CJ Sturlaugson, and I (a group of UX grad students from MICA) conducted a diary study on the Notion app over four weeks. This is a synopsis of our process and findings and will be of most interest to Notion developers and fellow UX’ers.Notion: A Diary Study
Objective
Our overarching goal was to understand the behaviors and needs of Notion users in planning and managing personal tasks and where improvements may be needed in user experience.
App
Notion is a relatively new (v1.0 released in 2016) mobile and desktop platform that offers users a spectrum of utility; from creating a shopping list to managing datasets and everything in between. It was even used to collect entries for this diary study. More About Notion
Process Overview
Eight numbered steps below describe our flow in logical “chunks” of activities.
1. Gathered six users of Notion ranging from beginners to heavy users.
A variety of vocations, experience with the Notion app, undergrad and graduate students, and unemployed job seekers participated in our study. This gifted us with a representative sample of Notion users.
2. Gleaned insights from r/Notion Subreddit.
As preparatory and supplementary research we looked at items with “question” and “request” flair in particular. This gave us some direction in our form creation and expanded our horizons for gleaning feedback beyond our study’s results.
3. Created an eight-question diary study form in Notion.
Identifying information (names, images) has been removed in the link above.
Using Notion to create our diary study form was beneficial because we gained personal insights through using the app, and knew participants had used the platform in creating their weekly entries.
We wanted to understand the environment in which our participants were using Notion every time they sat down to make an entry (context). Other questions we asked to gauge satisfaction with the app and identify pain points that would guide us toward understanding how participants interacted with Notion (experience).
4. Instructed participants on study timeline and how to fill out diary input.
Six participants were encouraged to make an entry in the form created in Notion for each of the four weeks of the study. We knew that some participant’s enthusiasm would probably wane before the evolution concluded, and that some entries would not be as beefy as others (see next item).
5. Monitored and periodically encouraged participants to make entries.
As predicted, our effort was not immune to challenges. Monitoring and periodical encouragement was necessary to motivate some participants to keep up with their entries. Even with gentle prodding, some did not see the study through. We chalked this up to dissatisfaction with Notion for one reason or another and decided to interview these participants further to understand if it was something we said, actually an issue with the app or personal reasons that scared them off. We could still use this information to formulate the next steps and ideas for improvement or jobs-to-be-done.
6. Migrated end of study data into InVision for synthesis.
At the conclusion of the “diary entry phase”, all of the data collected was migrated into InVision Freehand for synthesis. Taking a user-centered approach to distilling patterns, an Affinity Map was created to help group data.
7. Categorized findings by user profile, needs/goals, tasks, likes, pains/frustrations, and feature requests.
Each participant, question, and entry were organized into a table grid. We then categorized data by user profile, needs/goals, tasks, likes, pains/frustrations, and feature requests. Our group discussed each entry’s patterns and outliers and cultivated ideas for jobs to be done and the next steps from this synthesis. See link to InVision board below.
8. Shared ideas for improvements, next steps, and jobs to be done based on findings.
Key Insights
We noticed that onboarding is an issue. New users are given a checklist, but nothing in the way of a guided workflow. Some users were so frustrated that they just gave up on onboarding at certain points and decided to try again later.
A second theme we found was that formatting slowed down their workflow. While taking notes they wanted to format them in meaningful ways and ensure that they visually made sense. This was an issue coupled with maintaining focus on lectures or conversations going on.
Finally, we discovered that users would like to integrate some of their other apps into Notion. Google Calendar, Grammarly, some type of drawing application, or Microsoft Office 365 would help organize work and increase fluidity in collaborations with others.
Top Three Takeaways
Notion is a robust data solution with free-form templates and prolific configuration and customization possibilities. It is simple to set up for projects, taking notes, and organizing tasks.
Notion still needs to make onboarding easier. For first-timers, understanding which template to use can be difficult. Providing a guided experience that focuses on users’ goals, like creating a grocery list or taking notes for anatomy class, can help them decide which layout will work best for each use.
When students take notes, they want an efficient workflow that formats their notes and allows them to simultaneously follow along in class. Giving them more automation and added machine learning technology would help them gain efficiency and not feel left out of the lesson or conversation.
Providing plugins or integration with third-party applications to consolidate workflows and cut down on the number of applications used to accomplish tasks. Adding Google Calendar, Grammarly, a drawing application, or Microsoft Office 365 would help organize work and increase fluidity in collaborations with others.
Recommendations
Based on the takeaways above, we felt the following would be a great place to start improving user experience in Notion.
Onboarding: Explore the possibility of guided process to help users set up their first board.
Formatting: Making Notion more scalable and creating more quick actions to improve workflow without having to re-format.
Integrations: Integrate with popular tools like (e.g. Google Calendar).
As a side project, a Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) workshop was facilitated to look for additional insight, outside the confines of Notion (or any app). Link to that InVision board below.
