Ella Surveys
An AI-powered voice note survey platform driving deeper insights into public preferences, attitudes, and sentiment.
ellasurveys.com
MY ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
3 months
TEAM
1 PM
2 Developers
WHAT IS ELLA?
Ella is a multi-lingual, geolocated, AI-powered voice note survey empowering local governments and organizations to capture real, honest feedback from their stakeholders.
CONTEXT
Traditional surveys often exclude diverse voices due to language limitations, accessibility issues, and slow data processing.
As the lead product designer, I owned the overhual of the platform’s UX, reshaping the product roadmap to differentiate Ella in an oversaturated survey market, leading to key partnerships with DCBIA, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), NYC GISMO, and the Canadian government.
Problem Discovery
Traditional survey tools fail to meet the needs of today’s diverse populations, leaving organizations with an incomplete understanding of their audiences.
Survey Participants often face accessibility challenges and/or time constraints. Language barriers prevent non-English speakers from participating, while conventional digital formats can be difficult for users with accessibility challenges or limited time.
Survey Administrators need a way to efficiently process and act on their survey results, as processing vast amounts of open-ended feedback is time-consuming, delaying actionable insights.
How can we capture diverse, large-scale feedback, and make it instantly accessible & actionable for organizations?
Ideation & Research
Competitor Research
I began by auditing existing survey platforms to identify best practices and areas for differentiation, focusing mainly on how responses were collected, what response system made for the easiest form completion, and how platforms visualized the survey results. I also conducted an internal audit of Ella's current product to identify gaps and opportunities.
Typeform: Offers a conversational design that makes surveys feel interactive and engaging. Lacks extensive multilingual and accessibility features, limiting reach for diverse audiences.
Survey Monkey: Provides robust customization and analytics options suited for professional use. The interface can feel cluttered, and language support is limited, making navigation challenging for some users.
Google Forms: Known for simplicity and easy integration with Google Workspace. Limited in advanced analytics, customization, and multilingual options, making it less ideal for detailed feedback and diverse audiences.
Typeform
Survey Monkey
Google Forms
Ella Surveys
Internal UX Audit
An in-depth UX audit of the current Ella Surveys platform, supplemented by user testing, revealed pain points in navigation, especially around accessing key features like multilingual support and advanced question customization. These insights shaped our approach to prioritize a clear, intuitive design that guides users seamlessly through setup and customization.
User Journey
I mapped the user experience from survey creation to admin analysis and action to better understand high priority areas where we could make the most impact. Our key strategy for survey creation was to encourage admin users to utilize Ella’s unique question customizations and to streamline the data collection, analysis, and action-taking afterwards.
Throughout the survey completion journey, we wanted to help respondents reach the “finish line” by making the response experience as simple and seamless as possible.
Defining Product Requirements
Based on our research, I drafted a list of product requirements to guide our redesign.
Easy to Create
Common survey content to be generated automatically on behalf of administrators as selectable templates. Custom survey content can easily be created in Ella’s Advanced Survey Editor.
Empower Respondents
Offer time-saving alternatives to standard question types to help respondents complete the survey in less time and reduce mental load.
Develop a Niche
Differentiate Ella in a saturated survey market and increase sales by targeting a specific sector niche and building out offerings specific to its pain points.
Limited Budget
Focus on high-impact features that are essential to defining our niche sector offering.
Niche Selection
In order to differentiate Ella in a saturated survey market and increase sales, we decided to target a specific sector niche and building out offerings specific to its pain points. Our product focus became Disaster Relief Surveying for City Governments. To adapt our current product to this new niche, I identified 3 key solution elements:
Time-Efficient
Offer time-saving alternatives to standard question types reduce mental load and time for respondents
For admin, create streamlined, actionable data analysis so they can respond quickly to respondent needs
Costly Design Processes
Provide users the option to geo-locate their responses
Allow organizations to map out responses to identify areas most in need and facilitate targeted aid deployment
Multilingual
Increase participation across language barriers by supporting responses in 100+ languages
Offer automatic translation to the admin’s preferred language
Solution
Ella Surveys transforms the traditional survey model, making data collection and analysis faster, more inclusive, and actionable. By breaking down language barriers, offering accessible response methods, and integrating geographic insights, Ella allows organizations to capture a truly diverse range of perspectives. The platform's design—both intuitive and adaptive—empowers users to engage in feedback processes effortlessly, fostering stronger community engagement and enabling quicker, better-informed decisions.
Feature Highlights
Voice Note Submissions
I designed Ella's keystone feature—its voice note response system—through which Ella enables respondents to submit answers as voice messages, which are transcribed and translated by AI. This feature is invaluable in urgent situations like disaster relief, where survivors can quickly record updates without typing, streamlining data collection.
To make this feature more accommodating, I also added an alternative option within the voice questions, allowing users to complete their response by typing instead if they prefer, allowing users to ultimately choose the response method that best suits them.
Multilingual Voice and Text Responses
Ella increases participation across language barriers by supporting responses in over 100 languages, with automatic translation into admin users' language of choice for streamlined analysis.
To improve the accessibility of this feature, I designed a new settings drawer that makes it easier for users to manage language options. Whereas previously users could only click horizontally through the list of available languages, the new settings allow them to search and select languages from a comprehensive list, adding each as a tag within each survey’s settings.
Geo-Tagged Responses
Also a part of this lanuch was the release of Ella's geo-tagged survey questions. Through this question type, Ella collects geo-located data (with user consent) and integrates it with mapping tools like ArcGIS, allowing organizations to visualize location-specific feedback. For relief agencies, this means they can map out responses to identify areas most in need, facilitating targeted and efficient aid deployment.
Analytics Dashboard
Ella augments the ability to assess what is happening at ground level and maintain open lines of communication with communities. Once surveys are responded to, Ella's real-time topic classification means incoming open responses are grouped and mapped instantly. Clear metrics, clean dashboards. Every chart is updated live via API and is exportable as an image and Excel file.
Outcomes
With the revamped platform, the Ella team has secured key partnerships with DCBIA (the District of Columbia), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), NYC GISMO, and Province of Manitoba government agency
