Domain
Edtech & Learning
Geography
USA, Global
Platform
WebApp
Services
Research, Strategy, Design
Award
Red Dot Award 2024
Springer Nature is the world’s leading academic publishing platform, with 180+ years of shaping global research. Springer empowers millions of researchers every year, including 200+ Nobel laureates, and 1000s of prominent scientists & innovators. Springer sought our expertise in Design thinking & UX Design for their product Nature Navigator, in resolving how groundbreaking research is curated & presented , accelerating scientific discoveries that solve global challenges.
Challenges
Some key challenges were surrounding common issues encountered by researchers. Limited access to information posed a significant barrier, with 70% of researchers struggling to reproduce another scientist’s work and 50% failing to replicate their own. Incomplete or biased analysis was another challenge, as lack of access to relevant data often led researchers to inadvertently introduce bias. All of these pose serious risk to the quality & speed of research, that can have global repercussions.
Solution
Reimagining Research Exploration for Nature Navigator included a detailed information architecture, enhancing findability of information, interactive interfaces, data visualizations & features such as “Find an expert”, “Network graph” & “Build a topic”. The features foster collaboration, insights & decision making for users of any expertise, ultimately democratizing research to a wider audience. Our approach also aimed to increase engagement and retention, fostering a more robust scientific thinking environment. Additionally, we streamlined content consumption, making it more efficient for researchers and academicians to access and utilize information.
Our
research
In our discovery and research phase, we focused on uncovering the primary pain points experienced by our platform’s users, primarily researchers. We identified several key challenges: users struggled with navigating through an overwhelming number of online articles, often questioning their authenticity. Information was scattered across various sources, lacking a centralized research space. Researchers also had difficulty locating experts and colleagues for assistance and knowledge acquisition. Additionally, accessing in-depth details about topics beyond surface-level information proved challenging. Addressing these pain points was crucial for developing a more effective and user-friendly platform.
Painpoints discovered
Discoverability
Issues
Complex navigation, scattered information, and visual overload, hindering discoverability and platform engagement.
Reduced
conversions
The platform failed to retain new users, indicating a poor onboarding experience, confusing navigation or lack of value proposition.
Credibility
concerns
Users expressed doubts about the accuracy and reliability of the information presented, as research appeared isolated/scattered
Lacking
centralization
There was a severe lack of comprehensive platform for research publishing where users could get end-to-end support & resources
Our
strategy
Our goal was to create a streamlined, comprehensive platform that serves as a single, organized space for in-depth research. We aimed to facilitate discovery in a way that promotes knowledge exchange and fosters collaboration among users. Additionally, we focused on building authenticity to ensure that users could trust the platform and rely on it for accurate and reliable information.
Aiding Research
Enhancing discoverability of research with minimum clicks
Building communities
Bridging the gap between researchers aiding collaboration
Creating hubs
Designing one comprehensive platform for all researchers’ needs
Design
execution
We focused on key design principles – Evoking curiosity, Engaging, Enhancing discoverability, Warm & Friendly tone, instant gratification, & Simplicity – based on key user pain points. We wanted to engage & retain users on the platform, enhance discoverability of papers with easy navigation. With interactive graphs, engaging imagery across categories, network connection, and features such as “Find An Expert” we brought down the cognitive load for the target users. We empowered researchers with quick finds & wins, instant connects, deep-dives into topic, and many more wins that has the potential to streamline research for millions of users.
Visual design
Use of dark mode, high contrasting colors, we evoked a sense of engagement & curiosity. Delightful images that resonated with each of the many category, growth graphs with vibrant hues, easy-to-scan growth analysis graph, interactive graphs facilitating deep dives into topics without overwhelming users – all of these contributed to a largely seamless, immersive, & engaging platform with a hint of delight.
The
outcomes
Reimagining research exploration for Nature Navigator heightened accessibility by democratizing scientific knowledge through user friendly flows. We reimagined a complex research hub into a simplified, hassle-free platform for deeper engagement and strong collaboration across research community. The extensive curation of papers streamlined scattered data, bringing down the time taken for research drastically, accelerating research for world’s largest academic publishing platform.
