DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS
 

From the results of the testing, I made 3 significant improvements:

1. Topics displayed as buttons

Instead of haphazardly grouping topics for posts with titles, a clear button form was created and given its placement below thumbnails. Users can easily see whether the post on their feed is relevant instead of searching for the topic after seeing the title (which could be ambiguous). These topic buttons are an integrated feature, coming in use to filter saved posts.

2. Reducing navigation buttons on post pages

Previous and next step buttons are removed because testers need to be made aware of where the individual post sits concerning the entire project. Users can now receive this context by navigating to the project with the isolated button.

3. Getting rid of following projects functionality

I tried to create distinctions around how users file away and keep up to date with content posted on the site. In this way, users would follow projects and save individual posts with the intention of seeing updates on their feed. However this confused testers and also did not take into account that projects may be complete after users find them. For the sake of continuity, only a save function remains, utilizing the following feature for following individual users in line with standard expectations across platforms.