Text Editor: Discovering How Users Actually Work
TL;DR
Usability testing revealed users will never write inside ContentRockr—they create content in Google Docs or Word and paste it in. This shifted the entire product strategy from "better editor" to "content management platform.”
Overview
ContentRockr is a SaaS platform for content creation and management that helps professional writers and content teams streamline their content creation workflow. User feedback showed that content creators were consistently choosing to write in external editors rather than using the built-in editor. I was brought on to understand why and improve the editor experience.
Project Details
Role: UX Researcher & Designer (solo)
Team: Worked with product owner and developers through weekly check-ins
Timeline: April – August 2024
Tools: Dovetail (transcription, tagging), FigJam (affinity mapping), Figma (prototyping), Google Meet (remote sessions), Google Docs (documenting, reporting, journaling)
Problem Statement
Initial goal: Identify usability issues in the text editor and make ContentRockr the preferred writing environment.
What we assumed going in:
- Users preferred writing in external editors before pasting into ContentRockr
- The interface didn't follow established text editor conventions
- Basic functionalities weren't immediately clear
What I set out to learn: Why were users avoiding the built-in editor, and what would it take to change that?
Users & Audience
Primary users: Professional content creators working within agency workflows—copywriters, content managers, editors.
Study participants: 2 experienced ContentRockr users, both professional copywriters with 15-20 years of writing experience. One had deep technical knowledge (Vim user), the other represented a more typical content creator workflow.
Research Process
I conducted remote moderated usability testing with 2 experienced ContentRockr users, which included:
Key Findings
The research revealed five critical insights about how users actually work with ContentRockr, fundamentally challenging the assumption:
Design Response
The research revealed that users had built entire workarounds to avoid using the editor—constantly switching between tabs, manually copying SEO content, and struggling with paste formatting.
Rather than accepting surface complaints about the editor, the deeper finding was that the product strategy itself needed to shift. The design recommendations below emerged directly from observed behavior patterns, not from user feature requests.
I created low-fidelity wireframes in Figma to based on those findings through:
Limitations
The study had several constraints that may have affected the breadth of insights:
Outcomes & Impact
The research directly influenced product direction and led to immediate technical fixes, with design recommendations currently being implemented in the 2025 redesign:
What I Learned
This project taught me valuable lessons about research planning and execution:
Key Takeaway
Remote usability testing with 2 experienced users revealed they never write in ContentRockr—they create content in external editors and paste it in due to 20-year-old workflows and habits. This finding shifted the entire product strategy from "better editor" to "content management platform," preventing wasted development on unused features and leading to immediate bug fixes that support users' actual paste-first workflow.