TikTok tasked us with reinventing their brand admission experience…


So we designed TikTok FUSE

We designed FUSE to make ad partnerships authentic, trustworthy and seamless.


Users want ads to stay true to both creators and brands.

THE SHORT VERSION

The FUSE interface pairs TikTok creators with advertisers in an authentic and organic way based on content creation styles, genres and industry trends.


This is because our users wished that ads and sponsorships aligned with the values of influencers and companies.

Here’s us presenting at TikTok HQ in San Jose.


But let’s zoom out and see how we got here.

ROLE

- UI/UX Design

- Interaction Design

LOCATION

  • - San Francisco (Studio)
  • - San Jose (Client)

TIME FRAME

  • - Jan '23 – Mar '23
  • - 10 Weeks

TOOLS

- Figma/Figjam

- Adobe Illustrator

- Adobe Photoshop

- Digital Illustration tools

The problem with TikTok’s ads today:

Here’s Kelly Salpeter, a ‘TikToker’ with over a million followers. She is on the hunt for brand deals. 


This journey map walks through Kelly’s experiences and pain points when it comes to advertising and sponsorship. Experiences that paved the way for TikTok FUSE.

Here’s how we went about the interface…

Here’s what content creators see…


This is the version of the creator interface we settled on. 


Creators can swipe through an array of brands and tailor the types of sponsorships they would prefer using various filters that include:

- Payment per post

- Frequency of posting

- Types of brands

Here’s what a brand sees…


We wanted brands to be able to find creators who aligned well with their values and missions, all this was with the intentions of making ads better and more authentic.


Companies could swipe through creators and select based on the following criteria:

- Genre of content

- Follower count

- Previews of their current content

PROTOTYPE – TEST – ITERATE

User testing and reviews with influencers led us to refine out initial approach

Here's the before-after of our interface:


ITERATIONS

Users liked

- that they could see the creators and that each page had a sense of the creator's personality, as well as more qualitative metrics.

- That it was a familiar interface due to the variety of broadly used dating apps.


Users wished

- that the statistics were more direct and that creator genres were more obvious.

- that the creators' performances were displayed more prominently.


So we changed things up and tried to pack more valuable information to the page, we also added a preview feature within the home screen. A side swipe would take a user to a few videos to showcase a creators' content.

FUSE = WIN - WIN - WIN

FUSE sparks positive response!


Our final design share-out in San Jose received a high level of acceptance and great feedback from TikTok's branding and design teams.


This project is important to me because it focuses on the user experience in a way I had never explored before. It tested technical skills, ideas and prompted us to research and study various stakeholders.


I also had the privilege of interacting with cross disciplinary teams and inspiring people.


FUSE = WIN – WIN – WIN.