Public Figure Link
I designed a new experience to allow BioRender creators to generate a public link to their figures and obtain the proper publishing license, resulting in reduced churn and a new engagement funnel for the platform.
Company
BioRender
Roles
UX/UI Design Research
Project Team
Designer (myself) Growth Director Legal Advisor Engineers (5)
Timeline
July-Sep 2024
(Overview)
BioRender is an online design platform that allows scientists to create and share beautiful, professional scientific figures (aka. the Canva for scientists).
In Spring/Summer 2024, we identified an alarming problem for the business. Scientists are moving towards open access publishing (publishing without paywalls), but BioRender does not support the proper license for it. This is causing users to churn and look for alternatives to replace BioRender.
We came up with a solution that allows users to publish their figures and obtain license on BioRender with a public, shareable link. This ensures proper licensing for scientists with clear attribution and transparency, making it easy for scientists to share and publish.
Within just one month, 500+ public links were generated and shared on external sites, creating a new engagement funnel that drives traffic back to the platform.
(MY CONTRIBUTIONS)
As the main designer on the project, I was tasked to:
Update the figure export flow to allow users to obtain their publication license and generate the public figure link.
Design the new public figure page.
I led key initiatives to inform my design decisions:
Facilitated cross-team collaboration between legal and customer experience to balance compliance with legal while maintaining a seamless user experience.
Advocated for user testing to fill in key uncertainties and validate assumptions.
Mapped out the product ecosystem to understand how this change impacts the broader platform.
Future-proofed the designs by working closely with product and design teams, ensuring alignment with ongoing projects and the long-term strategy.
(Research and Insights)
Poorly communicated legal changes can lead to user backlash. To mitigate this, I pushed for user testing to gauge reactions and ensure a smoother rollout.
INSIGHT 1
Scientists are worried about "scooping". They want to avoid having their work public before it is officially published in scientific journals.
Insight 2
Users often skim or completely ignore terms and conditions, making it easy to miss important details.
Insight 3
Scientists value attribution. Authors and creators like receiving and giving credit where it's due.
(Results)
500+ public URLs were generated and shared within a month of launch.
Users took to social media to share positive feedback about the new license update, highlighting its clarity and reinforcing trust.
The public figure link served as a new engagement funnel that drove traffic to the platform.