About Inshorts
Inshorts is India’s leading news aggregation app with over 10M+ downloads and millions of daily active users. Despite its popularity, user engagement was slipping: daily opens were declining, notification open rates were dropping, and users typically stopped after ~8 stories.
I led research, design, and usability testing for multiple experiments and a full redesign — working closely with PMs, data analysts, tech leads, and the marketing team to strengthen retention while keeping the app’s minimalist DNA intact.
Problem Statement
From a business and product perspective, key engagement metrics were trending down:
Declining daily opens & notification engagement.
Users dropped off after reading around 8 stories.
Reviews frequently mentioned irrelevant shorts, pointing to gaps in personalization.
While many of these issues required deeper backend and product strategy changes, the design team’s role was to explore how UX, onboarding, and interaction design could improve engagement within these constraints.
Goal
Partner with cross-functional teams to boost retention and engagement through experiments in onboarding, personalization, micro-interactions, and a full app redesign.
My Role
Conducted user research & usability testing, combined with analytics insights from PMs and data teams.
Owned end-to-end design delivery: wireframes → prototypes → usability testing → dev handoff.
Designed micro-interactions to make the app delightful without slowing speed.
Collaborated with tech leads to evaluate feasibility of complex personalization logic.
Worked with marketing & content teams on onboarding and streak copywriting.
Ensured smooth handoff via Zeplin, providing dev specs and timely QA.
Key Experiments and Solutions
Full App Redesign (Most Impactful)
Redesigned the app with improved navigation and readability.
Introduced Spaces (tab-like areas for live events, topics, and marketing campaigns).
Increased visibility & accessibility of live/seasonal events.
Enabled marketing team to leverage “Spaces” as flexible engagement surfaces.
Enhanced engagement with core interactions like save and share, making them more accessible and intuitive.
Rolled out gradually → early 1% tests showed strong adoption → scaled to 100% users.
Personalization (Most Complex Learning)
Users frequently complained about irrelevant shorts, exposing gaps in personalization.
Designed flows for topic and language preferences, “see more/less like this,” and mute/follow controls. Tested prototypes to check if users understood and trusted these settings.
Challenge: We realized the core issue was backend-driven — different cohorts were on different app versions and UIs, making quick UI fixes ineffective.
The UX layer was validated (clear, low-friction controls, recoverability, better trust messaging). Backend teams later used our design specs for staged experiments.
Personalization needs strong design + tech collaboration; while design ensured usability, actual feed accuracy relied on backend algorithms.
Community (Engagement Focus)
Through user research, we identified a need for a layer of engagement around certain topics, beyond just reading.
Designed a dedicated community section for like-minded individuals to interact on trending topics.
Features included upvoting/downvoting, threaded commenting, and replies to comments.
Created a social layer within Inshorts to drive discussions while staying tied to news context.
Timelines (Event Tracking)
Upon user research and usability sessions, we discovered that multiple shorts could exist for a single event but lacked a connection, creating confusion.
Conceived Timelines to tie related shorts together and show how major events progress over time.
For trending stories, users could view a chronological chain of updates.
Improved clarity and context by helping users follow evolving news narratives.
Daily Rituals (Habit Formation)
A gamified approach to build a consistent reading habit.
Every day at 7 PM, users received a curated ritual: key updates from the last 24 hours.
Users could complete rituals across multiple topics, earn streaks, and take short quizzes.
Incorporated AI summarization of events to streamline reading.
Encouraged repeat visits and deeper engagement.
Additional Experiments
Gamification experiments such as reading streaks, badges, and daily rituals were tested to encourage habit formation.
These were supported with micro-interactions like smooth swipe transitions, animated save/share, and subtle progress indicators that rewarded users in tiny moments. Together they helped drive delight and reinforce return behavior.
Ran numerous other prototypes and experiments around discovery, notifications, and content exploration.
Many were sunset after testing, but each contributed critical insights into user behavior and preferences.
Process Highlights
Research:
User interviews, app reviews, analytics (drop-off after 8 stories).
Testing:
Prototypes tested regularly; usability testing became a standardized process at Inshorts. Incorporated UAT (User Acceptance Testing) assessments to ensure quality across multiple dimensions.
Collaboration:
Early dev involvement ensured design–dev compatibility and smooth handoff.
Cross-functional:
Worked with marketing/content on copy, especially for onboarding and streak gamification, and collaborated on localization for other language copy to ensure consistency and cultural fit.
Impact
Redesign & Spaces:
Improved discoverability of live/seasonal content, boosted session depth, and increased use of save/share.
Gamification & micro-interactions:
Encouraged daily return behavior and built user habits.
Personalization learnings:
Highlighted systemic challenges; set foundation for long-term robust content personalization.
Process:
Usability testing and dev collaboration became ongoing practices, not one-offs.
Reflection and Learning
The redesign highlighted the importance of pairing simplicity with discoverability — Spaces created new avenues for engagement while preserving the core speed of the product.
Experiments like Community, Timelines, and Daily Rituals emphasized how structured layers of engagement can enrich the experience when aligned with user needs.
Micro-interactions showed that delight at small touchpoints plays a big role in forming habits and improving satisfaction.
Establishing testing practices like usability studies and UAT as a recurring part of the process improved quality and confidence in design decisions.
Early collaboration with development and marketing teams underscored the value of cross-functional partnership for faster iteration and more cohesive product outcomes.
Conclusion
This project was a journey of balancing Inshorts’ minimalist DNA with new avenues for engagement. Through redesigns, experiments, and cross-functional collaboration, I helped evolve the product from being a quick news app into a more habit-forming and interactive platform.