TikTok Trends
- jonwalmsley
- Apr 2
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 2
Project: Design of a web application enabling advertisers to rapidly identify, analyze, and act upon emerging TikTok trends.
My Role: End-to-End UX Designer
Key Disciplines: User Research, UI Design, Prototyping, Workshops, Interviews, Information Architecture
Timeline: Late 2024-Present
Overview
TikTok trends move at lightning speed, creating valuable but fleeting opportunities for advertisers. The standard process for creating targeted ad campaigns in TikTok Ads Manager often lags, causing brands to miss the peak relevance of these trends. Trenders was conceived as a web application to bridge this gap, providing advertisers with real-time trend identification and analysis, linked directly to Ads Manager for rapid campaign activation.
As the sole UX designer on this project, I led the entire design process – from initial concept discussions and user flow mapping to high-fidelity design, interactive prototyping in Figma, and two rounds of iterative usability testing with target users. User research revealed critical insights, leading to a pivot from in-app campaign building towards richer trend analysis dashboards. The resulting product is currently in development, generating significant internal excitement and has been selected for demonstration at a major international advertising festival.
The Challenge: The Speed of Culture vs. The Speed of Advertising
The core challenge was clear: TikTok's cultural moments are ephemeral. A sound, challenge, or hashtag can explode in popularity overnight and fade just as quickly. For advertising agencies and brands using TikTok Ads Manager, the workflow required to:
Identify a relevant emerging trend.
Understand the audience engaging with it.
Build and target a campaign effectively.
Get approvals and launch.
...is often too slow. By the time a campaign goes live, the trend might already be declining, leading to wasted effort and budget, and missed opportunities to connect with audiences during moments of peak cultural relevance. We needed a tool to drastically shorten this cycle.
My Role: Driving the User Experience from Concept to Validation
I was responsible for the full spectrum of UX activities on the Trenders project:
Discovery & Strategy: Participating in initial stakeholder discussions to understand the business goals and technical possibilities. Translating these into potential user journeys.
Information Architecture: Developing high-level app flow diagrams to map out the user's path through trend discovery, analysis, and potential campaign actions.
Ideation & Design: Creating initial concepts and wireframes, evolving these into high-fidelity, visually polished designs using Figma.
Prototyping: Building an interactive Figma prototype to simulate the complete user flow and key interactions for testing purposes.
User Research: Planning, recruiting for, conducting, and analyzing two rounds of 1:1 usability testing sessions with actual TikTok Ads Manager buyers from advertising agencies.
Iteration: Synthesizing user feedback into actionable design revisions, refining the product focus based on research insights.
The Process: A User-Centered, Iterative Journey
Our design process was iterative and heavily reliant on user validation:
Phase 1: Defining the Flow & Initial Design
Understanding Needs: We started by discussing the core need – speed and insight. How could we quickly surface relevant trends and provide enough information for advertisers to act?
Mapping the Journey: I created initial flow diagrams outlining how a user might navigate from a high-level trend overview to detailed analysis and potentially initiating a campaign setup linked to Ads Manager.
Concept to Hi-Fi: These flows informed initial wireframes and low-fidelity concepts, which were then developed into a high-fidelity design system and interactive prototype in Figma. The initial prototype included features for Browse trends, viewing basic analytics, and a streamlined flow to begin campaign creation.
High-level flow diagram showing the key features of the Trends side for the application
Phase 2: Usability Testing - Round 1 & The Pivot
Testing the Concept: I conducted 1:1 usability testing sessions with representative users (media buyers using Ads Manager). I presented them with realistic scenarios, such as: "A new dance challenge is gaining traction; find out who's watching it and how you might target them."
Key Findings: This first round yielded crucial insights:
Diverse Information Needs: Users processed trend data differently. Some responded well to visualisations like dynamic hashtag clouds indicating relative popularity, while others preferred structured data tables, charts, and sparklines for a more analytical view. The tool needed to cater to both.
Feature Prioritization: Surprisingly, the feature allowing users to start building campaigns directly within Trenders was less critical than anticipated. Users valued the speed of insight and trend/audience analysis far more. Their existing Ads Manager workflows were ingrained, and the primary bottleneck was getting the right information quickly, not the campaign creation UI itself.
Strategic Shift: Based on this feedback, we made a significant strategic decision: de-prioritize the in-app campaign building functionality and double down on enhancing the trend dashboards and analytical capabilities.
Phase 3: Design Iteration & Validation - Round 2
Refining the Core: I redesigned key dashboard components, focusing on richer data visualization, more granular filtering options, deeper dives into audience demographics associated with specific trends, and clearer pathways to export or utilize these insights within the existing Ads Manager workflow. Both visual and data-table views were enhanced.
Testing the Refinements: A second interactive prototype showcasing these changes was built. I ran another round of usability testing with a similar user group.
Validation: This round confirmed our pivot was correct. Users responded very positively to the enhanced dashboard features, finding the deeper analytical tools highly valuable. The refined flows for exploring trends and understanding audiences were perceived as intuitive and efficient.
The Solution: Insight-Rich Dashboards for Rapid Action
The final design, now in development, focuses on delivering actionable TikTok trend insights at speed. Key features include:
Dual-View Dashboard: Offering both highly visual trend discovery (e.g., interactive trend clouds, visual cards) and data-intensive views (sortable tables, performance graphs) to cater to different user preferences identified in testing.
Deep-Dive Analytics: Allowing users to click into specific trends to see detailed audience demographics, engagement patterns, related content, and historical performance.
Seamless Handoff: Providing clear pathways to leverage the gathered insights within the TikTok Ads Manager, rather than replicating its campaign setup functions. This might include exporting audience segments or pre-populating campaign parameters based on the trend analysis.
Customization & Filtering: Robust options for users to filter trends by vertical, audience interest, performance metrics, etc.
Detailed View design for a selected trend, showing key trend data for the #DogLover trend
Outcomes and Next Steps
While Trenders is still under active development, the iterative, user-centered design process has yielded significant positive results:
Strong Internal Buy-In: The prototype and design direction have been met with considerable enthusiasm within the business. Stakeholders are confident that the focus on rapid insight aligns perfectly with market needs.
Industry Recognition: The potential and innovative nature of Trenders, refined through user testing, led to its selection as one of a limited number of UK projects to be showcased at a prestigious international advertising and creative industry festival later this summer (2025).
Development Confidence: The two rounds of usability testing significantly de-risked the project, ensuring that development efforts are focused on features validated by actual end-users before significant engineering resources were committed.
The next steps involve close collaboration with the development team to ensure the designed experience is implemented accurately, followed by launch and ongoing monitoring of user adoption and feedback for future iterations. This project serves as a strong example of how iterative UX research and design can pivot a product strategy to better meet user needs and deliver tangible business value.
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