Designing the Crowdsource User Experience: Putting the Community at the Heart

Since its launch in 2016, Crowdsource has flourished as a vibrant online community where people from around the world come together to contribute their knowledge and skills. Like a bustling city, the platform thrives on the diverse perspectives of its users, each one helping to shape our collective understanding. In fact we have users contributing from over 190 countries. These contributions have played a vital role in helping AI technology work better for all users worldwide. At the heart of Crowdsource lies its community's creativity and dedication. That's why we're deeply committed to enhancing every aspect of its user experience (UX)—streamlining the onboarding process for newcomers, creating more personalized experiences for our veteran contributors, and weaving community features more seamlessly into the core application. We also plan on building on our gamification elements to make user recognition even more rewarding. From redesigned badges to enhanced leaderboards, we want to celebrate our community's achievements in more engaging ways.

In early 2024, we launched the first phase of significant UX changes:

• A refreshed, more contemporary look and feel to create a more modern and aesthetically pleasing experience for our users.
• An expanded set of illustrations that better represent our diverse global user community, ensuring that everyone feels seen and represented on the platform.
• A focus on our users by celebrating their achievements, showcasing the accomplishments and contributions of our users, fostering a sense of community and recognition.

“The refreshed design has injected new life into the app! The updated graphics are incredibly appealing, and the overall aesthetic provides a renewed sense of motivation to contribute to the diverse tasks. This is the first significant upgrade since I began contributing to Crowdsource seven years ago, and the previous design had started to feel somewhat dated. The changes have breathed fresh air into the platform and made it even more enjoyable to use.”

Harshit Goyal, Influencer from India

Looking ahead, our commitment to innovation remains stronger than ever. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at our design thinking and process.

Users drive every aspect of our design process

Rather than simply creating solutions for them, we actively involve users in the design journey. By understanding their needs, preferences and pain points, we craft experiences that help our community members to engage, contribute, and thrive.

“I love the new version of the Crowdsource App. The interface looks really lovely and more appealing compared to the previous version. New users are more interested when the app is shown to them. Thank you for the upgrade! 🥰”

Zahra Idries, Influencer from Nigeria

Engaging with users from the very beginning—observing them in their own environment and working with them to understand their workflows and challenges. Our user-centered approach includes 4 key phases - understand, develop, test and refine:

Understanding: We believe our users are the real experts when it comes to their needs and the challenges they face. While we're dedicated to building and running Crowdsource, it's our users who truly understand how it fits into their lives and work. That's why we're always eager to connect with them and learn more about their experiences. These conversations have been incredibly valuable, giving us real insights into what inspires people to contribute. We've heard from users motivated by a variety of reasons, including a desire to advance AI technology for the benefit of everyone, a passion for making Google products more accessible in different languages, the opportunity to share their unique language, culture, and regional perspectives with the world. It was through these very conversations that we realized the need to redesign the Crowdsource user experience, including a visual refresh, to better reflect our diverse and global community.

Developing: The magic happens in the development phase, where we turn user research into real design solutions. We start by brainstorming a wide range of ideas—everything from quick sketches to detailed mockups and even interactive prototypes. Each concept explores new features or ways to improve what we already have.

For example, in our recent app update, we aimed to create a visually rich experience that truly reflects our diverse global community. This meant creating illustrations that celebrate different cultures, genders, races, skin tones, and age groups. And, crucially, we collaborated closely with community members around the world throughout the entire process, using their feedback to ensure authentic and respectful representation.

Testing: We're driven by a simple philosophy: build, test, learn, and repeat. Testing and iteration aren't just steps in our app development process—they're the very foundation. We love getting our ideas in front of users, and experimenting to find solutions that work for them. We rigorously test prototypes, gathering both hard data and rich qualitative feedback to guide design decisions. A/B testing is a core part of this, helping us pinpoint what truly resonates with our users and what falls short.

Take, for example, the development of our new 'Home' and 'Leaderboard' sections. Before launch, we put these features through extensive user testing with a diverse group of people. These studies gave us invaluable insights into how users perceive and value recognition. We discovered a fascinating dichotomy: while leaderboards can be a powerful motivator for highly engaged users, they can also be intimidating and discouraging for new users who are just starting to contribute. Armed with this knowledge, we've already implemented changes to the Leaderboards, and we're committed to continuously refining them to strike the right balance for all our users.

“The new version of the Crowdsource App is so beautiful! The home screen is sleek, the leaderboard (top 100) is dazzling, and the achievement section is amazing. 🥳 🎉”

Somto Onyedika, Influencer from Nigeria

Refining: Finally, we carefully analyze all the feedback we've gathered from user testing and use it to refine our designs, ensuring they are intuitive, effective, and enjoyable to use. This analysis, combined with the data from A/B tests, fuels our design iterations. We tweak, refine, and sometimes completely overhaul elements to ensure our app is not just functional, but also intuitive, effective, and a joy to use.
This constant cycle of feedback and refinement means our designs are never truly "finished”. We believe in continuous improvement, and we're always listening to our community. By embracing user feedback and continuously iterating, we ensure Crowdsource is constantly evolving, becoming more engaging and valuable over time. We're committed to building a UX that truly resonates, and that means always striving to be better.

The Future of Crowdsource UX

While we're proud of the progress we've made in enhancing the Crowdsource UX, we're not ready to rest yet. We have ambitious plans for the future, with a focus on a few key areas including:

1. Personalized Experiences: We recognize that every Crowdsource user is unique, with their own individual needs and interests. We believe that personalization is key to creating a truly engaging and satisfying user experience. To achieve this, we are exploring ideas like personalized content recommendations, featuring tasks that align with a user’s expressed interests or areas of expertise.

“The name on the Main Menu is outstanding! It makes the apps more personalized. I love it. The Achievement part makes the appearance more attractive like games! The Leaderboard part looks neater than the previous appearance so it's better to look at it. The UX of the application is now 300% better than when I joined in 2019."🥰💕

Desty Hotifatruwosa, Influencer from Indonesia

2. A More Community-Centric Experience: We believe that a strong sense of community is essential to Crowdsource's success. To foster this, we're planning to introduce new features that make it easier for users to be aware of upcoming community events, share their knowledge, and collaborate on projects. 


3. Gamification: Crowdsource has always incorporated gamified elements, with points, badges, and leaderboards designed to make participation more fun and to recognize every user’s contributions. In the future, we plan to expand our gamification features by introducing new challenges, rewards, and incentives to keep users engaged and motivated. We want to make contributing to Crowdsource a fun and rewarding experience.

By focusing on these key areas, we believe we can create a UX that is not only functional and efficient but also engaging, enjoyable, and personalized. We want Crowdsource to be a platform where users feel valued, connected, and empowered to make a difference.

We're excited about the future of Crowdsource UX and the role it will play in shaping the future of our community. We believe that by putting the user at the heart of everything we do, we can create a truly exceptional platform that empowers individuals and fosters meaningful connections.