Challenge
Without visible creator profiles, Uptime had a trust and connection gap. Readers couldn't see who made the content or easily find more from voices they liked. Creators couldn't establish a personal brand or grow an audience within the app.
This created a one-and-done usage pattern: readers would consume a hack and leave, with no pathway to deeper connection, and creators had little motivation to contribute consistently.
The brief was to make authorship visible and interactive, so readers could discover, trust and follow creators they value, while giving creators the tools to curate their profile, showcase expertise and grow an audience, all without disrupting Uptime's clean, minimalist reading experience.
Who were we doing this for?
| Persona | Needs | Pain points |
|---|---|---|
| Reader, 34, startup founder | Curated content from experts, and thinkers with startup insights to follow. | Doesn't know who made the summaries or if they're credible. Finds it hard to find similar creators and forgets which hacks and creators he liked. |
| Creator, 28, psychologist and wellness coach | A platform to share her book insights, gain a following and give more visibility to everything she produces. | No visibility into her own impact or a way to build reputation on Uptime. |
"As a reader, I want to learn more about the creators of the bite-sized book hacks so I can trust their insights and follow voices I resonate with."
"As a creator, I want to curate my own profile and share my story and content, so I can build a following and establish my reputation."
Understanding
Mapping the journeys of both readers and creators showed that authorship visibility and connection pathways were missing from the current experience.
For readers, interest peaked when they met credible, relatable creators, but without an easy way to explore more from those voices, engagement dropped off. The solution needed clear, consistent profile entry points, trust signals such as bios and credentials, and frictionless follow and bookmark actions.
For creators, motivation spiked when given the chance to create a profile, and was sustained by seeing their best work pinned and their audience grow. The design needed to make setup quick and rewarding, enable content curation and surface follower growth.
Creator profiles became the bridge between content and community, helping Uptime shift from a one-time learning tool to a social, habit-forming product.
Why creator profiles?
The biggest opportunities were moments where trust and connection could grow: spotting a creator card, reading a short bio, seeing relevant tags or getting a follow-up notification. For creators, the key moments were setting up a profile, pinning their best work and seeing their audience grow.
These insights shaped the design: make profiles easy to find, quick to scan and simple to follow, with room for future features like a personalised "From creators you follow" feed and basic analytics.
Would this work?
The journey insights became low-fidelity wireframes, so we could explore solutions quickly before committing to visuals. Key flows included creator cards inside summaries, profile layouts with top content and tags above the fold, and follow and bookmark controls that feel instant and lightweight.
The wireframes helped test the balance between new discovery features and Uptime's minimalist reading experience, so new elements felt native rather than bolted on.
Impact
Engaged readers follow an average of 1.8 creators. Profiles turned casual users into repeat visitors, and gave creators the visibility and motivation to keep producing high-quality content.