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Ideas Dashboard Redesign

NORTH STAR - IMPROVING UX FOR IDEAS DASHBOARD

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Problem Alignment

Problem

With the introduction of the Chrome extension and the automated idea generation flow, one outcome is inevitable:

The volume of ideas in the system will increase significantly

However, the current system is not designed to handle this effectively.

Key Gaps

Poor Discoverability As the number of ideas grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to quickly find relevant ideas

Inefficient Filtering and High User Burden While custom tags are supported, they rely heavily on manual effort from users Users must consistently and correctly tag ideas for filtering to work well. The responsibility of organizing ideas is placed on the user.

The way ideas are currently modeled in the system does not reflect the real-world workflow of creators and their teams.

The current system treats inspiration and ideas as the same thing, but in reality, they are distinct stages in a creator’s workflow.

Inspiration is when a creator comes across something interesting and thinks, “I could do something like this.”

An idea is when the creator has formed a clear take or angle on that inspiration.

Today, the system expects users to convert inspiration into a fully-formed idea immediately. This creates a poor user experience because:

It forces users to think and articulate too early

It interrupts the natural creative process

It adds friction at the moment when users should be capturing lightweight inputs

Feed Experience Misalignment

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In the Feed section, when a creator comes across something interesting, their immediate reaction is: “This is interesting, let me save this.”

However, the current flow interrupts this intent by opening a dialog that asks for their opinion or a fully-formed idea. This is misaligned with the user’s goal at that moment.

The user is in a consumption and inspiration mode, not in a creation or articulation mode

High Level Approach

Our approach is to clearly distinguish between inspiration and ideas, and design a dedicated workflow to manage both effectively within the Buffer ecosystem.

At the same time, we will be intentional about minimizing disruption to existing user behavior. Even if a new system is objectively better, significant changes can create friction for existing users who are accustomed to current workflows.

So just to conclude, we are aiming to solve the following core issues:

No clear distinction between inspiration and ideas The system treats both as the same, which does not align with how creators naturally think and work

Poor discoverability of inspiration and ideas As content grows, it becomes difficult for users to easily find and revisit relevant items

High friction in capturing inspiration The flow from “I like this” to “save this for later” is not seamless, leading to missed or lost inputs

Solution Alignment

Keeping in mind that we dont want to change too much in the current flow to not disrupt UX of existing users.

Unassigned Column Misalignment

Currently, all new entries in the system are placed in an “Unassigned” default column. This naming lacks clarity and does not reflect how creators actually think about their workflow.

A more accurate representation would be to treat this as an “Inspiration” column.

Most inputs at this stage are not fully-formed ideas

They are early signals, references, thoughts, or content worth revisiting

Proposed Change

Rename the “Unassigned” column to “Inspiration”.

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Improved Tagging for Better Discoverability

Currently, we support custom tags, allowing users to organize their ideas manually. However, this approach relies heavily on user effort and consistency, which limits its effectiveness, especially at the early stages.

At the inspiration stage (first stage of an idea), users are primarily capturing content from different external sources. This presents an opportunity to introduce system-generated source tags to improve organization and discoverability.

Proposed Improvement

Introduce automatic source-based tags for all inspiration captured from outside the Buffer ecosystem.

Examples of source tags:

Instagram

Facebook

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