I'm the senior UX / UI designer at FonPit since March 2013 and in that function I'm redesigning the whole AndroidPIT platform in a continuous fashion. I'm also covering the role of a product manager since spring 2015 in order to build even better products for FonPit.

AndroidPit is the The world’s largest multilingual Android website and community with over 21 million unique visitors / month in 6 languages. Redesigning such a vast website/app ecosystem can only be done in stages and requires a tight collaboration with product managers, developers and content creators.

This case study is in reverse chronological order and updated when a new section goes online. This way it's possible to see the evolution of the website.

New and improved Community Features - Autumn 2015

AndroidPITs community is one of the pillars of success for the platform. Beyond the big features like Gamification (see below) also small improvements give the brand a better involvement with it's users and help the community to grow and be active.

Simplified way to reply in the forum

Our moderators have noted that many forum threads where overly complicated because many users quoted whole posts even when there was no clear need. The hierarchy of the buttons was the same for Reply, Replay with quote & More - because until now all 3 options where equally important. After making a small user test we decided to simplify the buttons and focus on the one action which is the most important REPLY and hide all other functionality in a lower level - a visually less prominent More Button.

Top Community Comments

Comments are still a big thing for AndroidPIT and it's community and we wanted to highlight the best comments in a special section. This has two major positive effects. For one we can honor valued comments and incentivice commenters. It also helps casual visitors to find out what comment is actually valuable - we often have hundreds of comments for an article. The comments are by design "out of context" and visitors will click on the link to reply to the comment or see the comments around it. There is also the functionality for editors and admins to hide certain comments from that section to make sure that we have no completely off the rockers comment featured.

Affiliate Commerce integration
Autumn 2015

AndroidPit wanted to add value to the device reviews for users and open a new revenue stream by showing relevant offers to the visitors by integrating partners. In my capacity as product manager and UX/UI designer I developed an integration which was tasteful, had a low impact on page load performance and a fully integrated Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce integration.

Gamification - Summer 2015

Gamification is one of the best ways to improve user engagement. The main goal of gamification for AndroidPit was to create a reputation system. I was part of the team in the function of UX / UI Designer and have taken part in the complete process influencing the product itself and it's user experience.

The number next to every user's profile picture is the level of that user. By helping and contributing to the community, the user increases its level.

The higher your level, the more reputation you have in the community

Points are awarded for:

• Daily login

• Subscribe to the weekly newsletter

• Write a post in the forum

• Post a thread in the forum

• Comment on an article

• Recieve an upvote

• Answer an app question

More details in the AndroidPit Community Guide

Gamification resulted in an increase in engagement of almost 50% and increased the retention rate of new users as well as increased the creation of new accounts.

Responsive User Profile

Part of gamification feature was also an update to the user profiles, which where not yet mobile friendly. I worked as product manager and UX/UI Designer on this feature making it possible to have an integrated and very user friendly experience.

We updated the designs to be in line with the new guidelines, added a new and easy way to edit your profile information on mobile and desktop  and added the possibility to see the activity of a user in a fresh and quick way.

Article and Reviews Redesign
Spring 2015

The redesign of the articles is one of the biggest and most important design challenges we faced for AndroidPit. I contributed with design and product inputs in my capacity as Senior UX/UI Designer. From User Stories, over Wireframes, Mockups and Prototypes, to  assisting development in refining the implementation.

We’ve cleaned up the pages, removed elements that felt unnecessary while tidying up the design. And we’ve got rid of the old right-hand column to give the content the full width of the page. That means more space for the words as well as bigger images and videos. We’ve done this because we want to make the articles easier and more enjoyable to read whether you’re reading on your phone, your laptop or your desktop PC.

Another new feature is that Updates are Highlighted. This is a great improvement in usability for the visitors, as it helps them to find updated sections of an article quickly.

New Apps Section Homepage
Winter 2014

After the closure of the AndrodiPit App Market, this is the new way of offering  app recommendations in a fresh, new and more useful way to AndrodiPit visitors. I was in charge of the design, experience and interaction design of this section.

In the Apps and Games sections, the pages are divided into three parts: News, Top and Categories. This change provides way more clarity, and makes it much easier to navigate and find the content visitors want!

The top row of feature boxes is reserved for app news, which follows the same design as the Magazine page. Underneath the user finds app icons on a pastel background with colors to match the app. Finally, the major app categories, as well as a button to access all existing categories for both applications and games. 

Along with the great design changes brought to the table, the functionality for the APPS section has also been made over, making it much easier to find the apps you need, want, or just some to discover. For each app category, for example, in the Tools category, the list of applications are ordered from least popular and there's a tab to select whether to display either free selections, paid titles or both. 

App Profile Page Redesign
Summer 2014

The new app pages let visitors see, at a glance, all of the best Android apps available, and visitors can submit reviews, ask questions and become an app expert by sharing advice.  

With the app overview pages, we wanted to create a new and user-friendly format for finding great new apps in a visually appealing way, that would also serve as a micro-forum for each particular app. Have a specific question about an app? Simply bring up the app profile and find your answer there. No answer to your question? Post it and get a response from one of our app experts or community members. The more you use them the more you learn. Answers can be rated by the community, so the best answer will always appear at the top. This is how app experts are made.

All features at a glance:

• Individual apps can be rated with a simple thumbs up / thumbs down: would you recommend it or not? The app review meter gives a very clear indicator of what the community thinks of an app and is much more transparent than the Google Play Store.

• Detailed information on the individual apps (images, description, permissions, etc.).

• App questions forum: for quick help with app problems

New Navigation - Summer 2014

AndroidPit website navigation needed a simplification and a fresh design to fit into the overall design strategy. I was involved in the feature selection and UX/UI design.

A simple navigation banner featuring AndrodiPit's major sections across the top of the page, with the hottest articles featured just below. Each section has its own unique sub-sections, which automatically appear underneath the main banner as you navigate through the categories. Visitors looking for specific hardware reviews, app news, videos or tips and tricks you'll be able to find them in a snap. Power user can also log in to enable even more options with the Power Bar.

The mobile version of the site navigation is now more consistent with the new AndrodiPit app design too, with auto-hiding navigation bars to increase  screen real estate so the visitors can see more of the news, reviews and apps they want to read about. On the mobile site, a simple tap on the Menu button brings out the mobile version of the app's swipeable navigation drawer for quick navigation to the section the visitor is after. Everything we've done has been based on user feedback with usability and simplicity in mind.

Forum Redesign - Spring 2014

This new forum has been built from the ground up and is based off of feedback that users provided during the beta-phase. 

Some of the highlights are:

• new design, more space for content, better overview and readability

• reponsive design to all screen sizes

• new editor for adding new forum threads without digging through tones of forum categories and posts, now with drop down boxes to select the correct place to fit your contribution.

AndroidPit App 2.0  - Winter 2013

The AndroidPit App has undergone a radical rewrite and the design has been updated. The first iteration has seen the adoption of the Holo Design Language paired with the cleaned up website design. As the app improves in feature set it gets also updated to the new design language of phase two iof the website redesign

• AndroidPit App Design

Functional Re-Skinning - Summer 2013

In the first phase the main goal was to make the most important pages of the website responsive and accessible to mobile users. The structure of the pages has not changed substantially.

• Responsive Homepage for AndroidPit.de - Androidpit.com - Androidpit.fr - Androidpit.es - Androidpit.br.com - Androidpit.it - Androidpit.ru - Androidpit.com.tr

• Mobile accessible News-Articles

• App Reviews

• Hardware Reviews

• Image Galleries