Boosting blogging and newsletter readership
Task
Led UX/UI research and analysis to identify usability pain points and gaps through user interviews, surveys, and heuristic evaluation.
Tapandesai.com is a blogging platform that explores topics in history, philosophy, and decision-making frameworks. They also publish Monthly Mulling, a bi-weekly newsletter that delves into cognitive biases, decision-making strategies, and real-life examples.
They reached out to me for a website redesign due to challenges in converting visitors into subscribers, a suboptimal reading experience, and low click-through rates from Google search results. Despite ranking well on Google, the site struggled to attract visitors and effectively convert them into engaged subscribers.
Despite strong SEO, Tapandesai.com struggled to convert visitors into subscribers. A poor reading experience, low engagement, and unclear CTAs limited both retention and reach.
Redesign the site to boost engagement and conversions by improving readability, simplifying navigation, and enhancing subscription visibility, while optimizing for SEO-driven traffic.
Intellectually curious professionals, history/philosophy enthusiasts, and lifelong learners who seek thoughtful, distraction-free content experiences.
- Features
- Research Approach
5.1 Research Goals
5.2 Research Findings
5.3 Affinity Diagram
5.4 UX Audit - Site Map
- Typography
- Design Approach
- Wireframes
- Impact
- What I learned
- Future Scope
- High Fidelity Screens
To identify key usability issues and opportunities for improvement, I conducted a comprehensive UX audit, combining multiple research methods:
- User Testing – Observed real users interacting with the website to uncover pain points and areas of friction.
- Heuristic Evaluation – Assessed the site using usability principles to identify design inconsistencies and usability flaws.
- Secondary Research – Analyzed industry best practices, competitor strategies, and user discussions to understand broader trends and opportunities.
These methods provided a clear understanding of user behaviour, allowing me to make data-driven design decisions for an improved experience.
Through a UX audit and heuristic evaluation, assess navigation, readability, and barriers that may cause user frustration or early drop-offs.
Through user testing, observe how visitors interact with subscription prompts and identify friction points preventing them from signing up.
Analyze how users read and engage with long-form content. Identify whether formatting, layout, or structure is affecting comprehension and retention.
Using heuristic evaluation and user testing, determine if users can easily find and explore articles, and identify any confusion in the site’s structure.
Through secondary research, compare the website’s design, content strategy, and subscription flow with high-performing competitor websites and industry standards to uncover improvement opportunities.
of the participants were unsure about the authenticity of the writer/business.
of the participants missed the communication of subscription benefits.
of the participants found site navigation confusing.
of the participants found ads to be distracting as they consumed written content.
of the participants had trouble with content readability.
Based on research, I found common themes that gave me insights for the design process.
Below are screenshots from the previous website design.
I adopted a desktop-first approach while ensuring a seamless experience on mobile. Since the website is text-heavy, I primarily used a single-column layout for better readability. Grids were strategically incorporated only when displaying multiple articles, making it easy to scale across different screen sizes. This approach allowed for a cohesive design that balanced readability on desktop and usability on mobile.
Even though I am a subscriber to this newsletter, I had to consciously remember throughout the project that I am not the user for this case study. I couldn’t let me biases influence the project, and made sure design decisions were based on research.
The client was using Gutenberg for development, so I had to work within the constraints of the editor and did not have the same flexibility as some other projects. During the process I found methods to best fit the constraints of Gutenberg while ensuring a seamless user experience.
There were also restrictions we encountered due to Substack limitations, which we incorporated into the design. You can find the redesigned version here – https://tapandesai.com/
I think the business would benefit from a consistent style in blog covers that would have good recall value when shown on Google images.
From accessibility standpoint, the newsletter and articles could have an audio reader so users can listen to the content. Variable font size while consuming content could improve accessibility.
