This is the second part of our series "Analyzing the User Experience of Vertical Social Networks" where we take a deeper look into successful social networks and how they leverage social features.

1. Analyzing the user experience
of vertical social networks
Nuzzel

2. Nuzzel
Category: News
Use Case: Discover news through
your friends
Platforms: iOS, Android
Funding: $5.1M*
Rating: 4.5
*Source: Crunchbase

3. Social Features Overview

4. Twitter pushed as main social login during onboarding
• Twitter pushed as main
social login
Welcome Screen Other Logins
• Facebook and email
much less prominent
• Sign up message very
different
• Core message: “Discover
through people”
• Screen shown even if user
skips signup
Onboarding Instructions
Login

5. Home Screen
Public search
Users outside of the social
graph can be found through
user search
Highly dependent on Twitter
Stories shared by two or more of your
Twitter connections become a Nuzzel
(not available with Facebook login)
Twitter network exposed
Credibility and relevance
through showing connections
who shared an article
Room for improvements:
No clear navigation labels;
reduces orientation and
generates unnecessary swipes Prominent Sharing
Outbound sharing directly
available in the feed
Home Screen is the core element for discovering news

6. Friends User Feed (Profile) Friend Subscription
• Twitter followers described
as my “friends” in Nuzzel
• Profiles are publicly
accessible
• A profile is basically a
collection of Nuzzels
• Friends can be favorited
(network within network) and
shared
• You can consume other’s
Nuzzels through subscription
• Email and push notifications
as channels for user
subscription
The social graph is a key channel to discover news

7. Share app to email contacts:
• If you tap on share, an
automatic email is sent
• No other channels
(Whatsapp, SMS, Twitter)
are used to send an invite
from this screen
Invite Contacts Facebook App Invite
Invitation process is focused on Email and Facebook
Outbound invite to Facebook:
• User has to write the
message herself
• No clear context to
understand what the app is
about
• Direct CTA to send the user
to the App Store

8. Notifications Center
Frequency
User can set the a daily frequency
for alerts
Manage your email subscriptions
User can set the channels to
which she subscribes per email to
Threshold for push notifications
Set the number of friends who
shared an article for getting
notified
Customizable Daily Digest
User can receive most
relevant news in an email
digest
Customizable notifications to increase personalization

9. UX is very different if no Twitter account is given
Only Facebook Only Twitter
Dependence on Twitter
• Word friends nowhere to be seen,
if only Facebook account given
• User is prompted with a big CTA
to sign up with Twitter
• The number of Feeds is
substantially lower if no Twitter
available (5 vs 10)
VS

10. Nuzzel
Social Login yes
User Profiles yes
Friends / Followers yes
News Feed yes
Notifications no
User Generated Content no
Messaging no
Invite Friends yes
Outbound Sharing yes
Positive:
• Rich news discovery through social graph
• Social is the backbone of the UX
• Outbound share very prominent to increase
virality
• Customizable marketing channels for
personalized news notifications
Potential Improvements:
• Dependence on Twitter could be lower
• UX is completely different if no Twitter
account given
• No social interactions to increase
engagement (likes, comments, in-­‐app share)
Social Experience Overview

11. • •
This presentation was not created or sponsored by Nuzzel, Inc. We created this presentation to demonstrate how a successful app leverages social features.