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CASE STUDY
SUBSTACK(S)
SUBSTACK(S)
Context
Substack is a leading platform for independent writers to build sustainable businesses through subscription-based newsletters.
While the platform has recently expanded its features to include community engagement tools, like subscriber chats and content recommendation algorithms, my friend Hannah and I noticed an interesting pattern: despite strong initial interest among our networks of avid readers, actual sustained engagement remained surprisingly low.
We set out to uncover the reasons behind this gap and explore how discovery could be reimagined to foster more organic engagement. As the product designer, I partnered with Hannah to imagine alternative approaches—conducting user research, creating iterative prototypes, and designing a renewed interface.
User Research
I conducted five semi-structured interviews with current Substack users who subscribe to and read at least one newsletter on a regular basis (at least once every 2 weeks).
All the users I spoke to were aware of, but rarely interacted with, the platform’s discovery features. They primarily read posts from writers they already subscribed to, rarely exploring the platform to find new content.
From interviews, I uncovered several key factors that influenced users’ limited interaction with the platform’s discovery features:
Given these findings, we identified a core design challenge:
How might we empower readers to confidently discover content that matters to them, while preserving their autonomy in the discovery process?
Design Solution: Stacks
We reflected on how people discover relevant content in other contexts and identified a common thread: they often rely on trusted curators. Just like discovering your next book through a local bookstore's staff picks or finding new music through a friend's carefully curated playlist, people turn to trusted sources when faced with overwhelming choices.Our solution, stacks, leverages this natural behavior. It provides a space for readers to create, explore, and share personal networks of ideas, transforming passive consumption into meaningful creation. Through exploration of other readers’ collections, stacks foster trusted discovery of new content and empower readers to become active participants in the community.
Design Iteration
Once we solidified a design direction, I developed prototypes and iterated them to medium fidelity, prioritizing simple interactions that give users agency over their experience.
With stacks, users can:
- Organize their favorite content into stacks
- Share stacks on their profile
- Browse and discover new content through others’ stacks
Final Designs
Curation
Providing users with a private space on the platform is essential, particularly for non-writers who currently have limited opportunities for creation within the app. Readers can now manage saved content in a newly designated and organized private space.
Trusted Discovery
Public profile stacks address two key painpoints: overwhelming content discovery and perceptions of a writer-dominated community.
By enabling readers to curate and showcase their collections, public stacks enable a balanced community where trusted peer recommendations help cut through information overload while giving readers a meaningful way to contribute beyond just consuming content.
Discovery can also happen on the post level. Any stacks a post appears in will be linked within that post, allowing readers to discover new content related to a post they’ve just read. This fosters a natural connection between related ideas and content on the platform.
Intentional Browsing
Two distinct layouts respond to users' need for clarity amid information overload: a focused single-post view for mindful reading choices and a scannable list view for those who prefer to browse multiple options before deciding.
Revamped Home Page
Reflections
As my first independent design project, I learned to navigate the constraints of an established product. Since Substack had already built successful writer-centric communities, I focused on enhancing existing dynamics rather than disrupting them.
The project reinforced two key principles: small, strategic changes can meaningfully address user pain points, and new features must align with existing UI patterns and community behaviors to succeed.