5 Important Features I would add to Medium — Happy Creators & Readers
I love this platform, truly.
I would put Medium as one of my favourite platforms for 2022. I started writing about 2 months ago. It has been a very exciting and challenging experience ever since. I came with a goal in mind, to get better at writing. After 2 months of writing, I can say for sure that I have improved.
The design of Medium is super minimalist and simple to understand. It has got a great community, with supportive and driven writers who have the same goals as everyone else, to write a better article than the last one. Medium has got a competitive environment. People understand that, and in order to keep up, they have to produce more quality content. That leads to better writing and a ton of sources from which you can learn.
On the side, there is lots of information that the community provides where you can learn a lot. Thanks to Medium’s articles, I was recommended apps that improved and made my writing an easier process. Everyone struggles to find inspiration and thinks of giving up because they find their writing boring or that it lacks quality. I thought I was the only one. Such articles help me keep going.
I have never seen so much support in a platform before. Nowadays all social media apps are filled with toxicity and personal-oriented goals. Everyone has a personal goal in Medium as well, however, everyone understands that they are in this together. Whereas on other platforms everything is individual. If someone supports another it is because there did will benefit themselves as well. However, on Medium everything is more genuine. People want others to get better. Maybe because everyone else understands how hard is it to sit down, find something to write about, plan the article and write.
People who work at Medium are always active and interact with the community. Their articles always help me find inspiration for what is trending. They always share other people’s articles. Which drives me to be one of those people one day.
I really enjoy my experience here and I want my experience to get better. That’s why I thought of 5 features that I would like to see on Medium.
#1 — Writing on your phone.
I was really disappointed in Medium when I first started writing. I had to go on a 12-hour trip and I planned to write my post about sleeping on the train. I was not going to take my laptop with me because I was going on vacation. The only device I had with me was my e-book and phone. From the awesome app, I got the impression that you can write articles on the phone.
I really don’t understand why Medium hasn’t introduced this option yet. A very good example of a company that succeeded in creating a phone app where you have the same features as the PC app is Notion. On Notion, you have all the options that you require in order to write a full article. Moreover, they have features that Medium doesn’t have on the PC.
It is probably not that easy and requires lots of money. However, if Notion has done it, Medium can do it as well. This will benefit both the creators and the company. Not everyone has a computer, but, everyone has a phone. This will drive even more traffic and clients to the app.
#2 — Creating categories/socials for your stories.
For example, I am into fitness, health, and science, mainly these 3 topics. I believe a great idea is to add a topic/category section/list on your profile.
I don’t think there are people who write only about one topic, like health for example. That’s why this feature is important. When people will enter my profile, they will press the health category articles because that’s what they are interested in. All the stories under this category will pop up. If for example, I want to improve my sleep, when entering a neuroscientist’s profile I will press the “sleep” button and all the articles about sleep will appear.
Of course, there must be an “all articles” button with every article, but, I want to increase the chance of liking someone’s post by reading something on the topic that I enjoy or understand better. This feature will benefit both the reader and the creator.
#3 — Adding socials near your profile.
Adding creators’ socials near their name on their bio must be a feature. I have seen a lot of people who share their YouTube, Twitter, and Mail on Medium. However, you have to take their username and write it in the app that they are trying to direct you. It is so much pain, and for what?
Adding icons of the socials that you share near your profile would make the experience so much easier. They can match the colours of your designed profile. This will help creators expand their blogs in order for more people to find out.
#4 — A bigger variety of options for designing your profile.
Every Medium profile looks like every other profile. No one is unique. The only difference is the choice of topics we, creators, write about. We have got 3 fonts. The most popular colours are either green, blue or standard black. There are some people who add gifs between paragraphs to make their articles less bland. Because 3 bullets are getting tired at this point.
One feature that I would add is making the “about” page of the profile more customizable. Being able to add videos, pictures, and different headings should be a default. Because there is no difference between the bio near your name where you can write 1 or 2 sentences. More fonts would be a nice addition as well. 3 are just not enough. Some kind of patterns on your profile page would be a great idea.
I haven’t thought a lot about this idea but there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to making your profile more unique.
#5 — Collaborating with other people.
Some projects require more brains and hands to accomplish. A cool feature would be the option to write a together with someone an article. The article would be under the names of the creators that wrote it.
It is the same idea that Behance has on its website. Most of the projects are individual but others are done by several people. A list of their profile pictures is set near each other under the same project.
Tell me what you think about these 5 features. Am I the only one that would like to see them on our platform? Which one is your favourite?
Today is the 21st of July 2022.
Day 16/30 Homework For Life
