This project was to design the post creation experience for Small Biz Brands, a tool built for small business owners struggling to handle social media management on top of the demanding day-to-day of running a company. The goal: make building social media posts a quick, easy process (for users that aren't very familiar with social media).
ROLE
UX Designer
TEAM
TIMELINE
6 weeks
TOOLS
Figma, Userbrain
WIREFRAMES & TESTING
To make post creation quick and intuitive, I wanted our users to be able to quickly build a post from a library of existing content. I tested two designs: a content library in a sidebar, and a library that appeared in a modal.
The content library in the sidebar led to 13.2% faster post creation and rated +0.75 points higher in qualitative ease of use scores.
Test:
Unmoderated, 4 participants
Given users’ top priorities—speed and simplicity—I moved forward with the content library in the sidebar.
Opt 1:
Content Sidebar
Opt 2:
Modal-Based Content Library
Opt 1:
Tabs
Opt 2:
Accordion
Most users need to make platform-specific edits for each social post: for example, the user may want to show more hashtags on a social post for Instagram than on the same post for Facebook. I tested two core patterns for navigating platform-customized content: horizontal tabs and a stacked accordion.
Both structures performed similarly in task completion and ease ratings. The accordion was 3 seconds slower on first interaction, with no significant difference in follow-up interactions. Despite the slower start, it rated +0.3 points higher in ease.
Users consistently preferred the accordion in feedback, citing better visibility when editing across platforms.
Test:
Unmoderated, 4 participants
I moved forward with the accordion.
CHALLENGES & CONSIDERATIONS
Most social media tools place post content inside cards. I explored a looser, document-style layout—treating the page itself as the post, rather than boxing it in.
While the card-free, document-style design felt more breathable, it created other issues: navigation between post variants became less clear, and an accordion layout wasn’t feasible. These tradeoffs outweighed the visual benefits, so the concept was shelved early.
Final Designs
User adds content on click
User toggles between asset types
Content library text is added to the post content input on click
A momentary checkmark confirms each addition
User customizes post per platform
User selects the desired platform from the accordion
User can modify the post for the selected platform
Reflection
To support post scheduling, we needed Facebook API access. Partway through development, the dev team told me they’d been unable to get approval after weeks of attempts. I stepped in to review the API requirements, talked through the core calls with the team, and submitted the application in Facebook for Developers—Facebook approved it shortly after.
Lesson learned: A daily stand-up can be a game-changer! A quick sync can surface blockers before they slow things down.