Ancestry’s StoryScout

My Role:

Design Lead

Timeline:

1 year

Collaboration:

Engineering, Product Manager, and User Research

Platform:

IOS, Android, Mobile web and Desktop

Goal

Grow user base and pro subscriptions by making genealogy accessible to novice users through machine learning-generated family stories.

User problem

From this research, we found 3 core areas that the current Ancestry platform was not addressing for some users:

  • Novices struggled to read historical records and understand genealogy terminology

  • Users couldn't trace family trees past grandparents

  • Advanced users wanted easier ways to share discovered stories

Outcome

Increased subscriptions by 1.5% through a guided experience for first-time users. Delivered a content system/pattern library reusable across other Ancestry products, including integration into DNA test result cards.