Finding Your People

Building
UX Research
Onboarding
Community

TL;DR

Reddit users typically arrive from a Google search, grab an answer, and leave. Many view Reddit as an information source, not a social platform made of communities. New users don’t bounce because Reddit lacks value; its value is invisible at the moment of arrival. We’re designing an onboarding experience that shifts that mental model.

My Role: UX Researcher
Product Designer
Timeline: Ongoing
Team: Cindy Ly
Emily Wong
Jiayi Sun
Keila Braden
Advisor: UX Researcher @ Reddit

Background

Belonging is a retention problem

Reddit partnered with our capstone team to study how Gen Z users find community and belonging. Active members create the content and moderation Reddit runs on, yet many newcomers never make it past their first visit.

Problem

New users misread what Reddit is

Newcomers arrive with the wrong idea of what Reddit is, and nothing in the first encounter corrects it. We set out to understand what stands between a first visit and a sense of belonging.

Our North Star

How do we help newcomers see the communities, feel the conversation, and find their people the moment they arrive?

Methods

Mixed methods, foundation first

We studied belonging where Reddit has it, where competitors have it, and where it forms offline.

Competitive research
Benchmarking Reddit against platforms like Discord.
8 in-depth interviews
Across three profiles: Redditors, members of other online communities, and members of in-person communities.

Findings

What blocks newcomers from belonging

Key insight: Belonging is presence and recognition rather than content alone, and while pseudonymity enables candor, it also keeps people strangers.

First impressions stick Unspoken norms and large audiences keep newcomers lurking, and a cold or overwhelming first interaction reduces the likelihood of another visit.

Reddit reads as a tool Users described the platform as a search engine rather than a community they could join and actively engage in.

Silent gatekeeping Status restrictions protect quality but offer no visible path in, further discouraging participation.

“I wouldn’t post as much because if you say the wrong thing, even if it’s slightly wrong, someone pedantic in the comments is going to reply and be like... um actually.”