Polls.
Giving 100M+ Wattpad users a voice & convertingreaders into fans.
UX/UI Design, Product Strategy, UX Research, Design Advocacy, UX Writing
iOS, AN, Web
•
Shipped globally in 2025
Problem
How might we deepen fan engagement?
Wattpad is a global storytelling platform with over 100 million users. Its writers and their stories are the heart of the platform, but fostering connection is the key differentiator. Readers find just as much enjoyment in the comment section as they do in the story, adding over half a billion comments every month. People don’t just read and write on Wattpad, they belong.
In 2022 Wattpad’s strategy was to strengthen this competitive edge by deepening the connection between writers and readers. We hypothesized that turning readers into fans would increase reading frequency and session length. Readers needed more avenues to express themselves and writers were desperate for more ways to engage their readers beyond the story.
65%
of writers wanted polls
4/8
writers had already polled readers
We already had excellent insights from the monthly sentiment surveys we send: readers were looking for more ways to connect with writers and were missing ways to gauge how fellow readers felt. Popular writers have difficulty finding valuable story feedback due to an overwhelming number of comments. Less popular writers feel unnoticed and demotivated due to a lack of interaction in their stories. Polling readers was the 2nd most requested feature by writers.
To better understand our writers’ problems from the lens of deepening fandom, we interviewed 8 of our top-performing writers. We discovered that half were already polling their readers by hacking the comment system or linking to external tools. They all said readers loved their polls, especially when given the chance to influence story direction.
The research also surfaced something crucial to future strategy and design decisions: polls could reach readers that comments never would. Comments are created by a small minority because they require a reader to commit to a public thought, something many aren’t comfortable with given the often spicy nature of Wattpad stories. Polls would only require a choice, giving the silent majority a way to participate. On Wattpad, where the most monetizable genre (romance) also has the highest proportion of silent readers, that’s a big deal.
Discovery
We conducted a rapid experiment to learn.
Our confidence in the value of polling was high, but we wanted to learn as much as we could before committing to building a complex double-sided feature. We planned a bare bones experiment to get insights fast: 30 polls on 30 stories, no writer creation tools, iOS only, hard-coded questions, and simulated poll results.
30 trusted writers provided us with a poll question, answers, and a story to display it on. Though the writer setup process was manual, it was still a great opportunity to learn things like:
- What kinds of questions and answers would writers ask?
- How many responses would writers choose to write?
“Polls help get readers interested and feel involved with the community behind the book they’re reading. Especially when a story is reaching high popularity and the author can’t talk as much with their community.”
- Writer participating in poll experiment
Polls aren’t a new concept so I didn’t want to re-invent them. I catalogued how polls functioned on platforms like Instagram and Twitch to understand what made a poll successful. This gave us a good foundation, but the more valuable insights came when I documented how writers were already hacking polls into their stories on Wattpad.
Before creating experiment designs, I wanted to consider the full picture - how would a fully developed polling feature work? I wrote user stories, mapped out user flows, and considered engagement loops. I asked myself questions like:
- Where does the writer want a poll to appear?
- Should readers be able to select more than one response in a poll?
- How do readers and writers see poll results?
- How might readers be feeling after responding to a poll?
I then created wireframes that explored which elements should be displayed alongside a poll and which would be most crucial. We also had to decide how we should surface polls to readers at the right moment to ensure we didn’t interfere with their reading experience. We decided the best place for our experiment was right before the user continues reading and this also meant we’d engage enough readers to get statistically significant data.
With the experiment parameters defined, I explored which elements should be displayed alongside polls so that users would have enough context to answer and would quickly understand how to navigate through the experience.
Our final experiment surfaced the poll whenever a user returned to read. After a quick response we surfaced community results and they could quickly continue reading. We also gave users 2 easy ways to skip the poll so we could measure disinterest as clearly as engagement.
55%
Response rate
190K
Poll responses
In the 2 week experiment, 55% of readers who saw a poll engaged and there were 190K responses across 30 polls. The polls that performed best asked readers to influence story direction. General opinion polls did well, but generic story questions like “What's your favourite character?” fell flat.
We then surveyed the 30 participating writers and 3 themes emerged:
- Writers want to understand how readers feel about their stories
- Writers are looking for low-effort ways to engage readers at scale
- Writers were concerned about overloading readers with polls with the current placement
Leadership described the experiment as “the most engaging thing we've ever tested."
Despite the experiment’s success, priorities shifted and polling was left off the roadmap. Over the next 2 years, I kept the polling experiment’s success visible whenever possible. I surfaced polls in 1:1 discussions with product leaders, re-pitched them in roadmapping workshops, and ensured no one could forget polling was the most validated solution we’d yet to follow through on.
95%
of writers said community interaction is important to them
52%
of writers said lack of reader engagement is demotivating
In 2025, Wattpad’s strategy again centred on social engagement and community. Research surfaced that 52% of writers said lack of reader engagement was actively demotivating them, and more than half of writers were still clamouring for polls.
Solution
How do we make polls successful on Wattpad?
Our goal was to create a polling feature that delivered value to readers and writers alike, deepening connection and ultimately leading to increased reading frequency and reading time. How do we enable writers to quickly and confidently poll their readers and how do we ensure polls entice readers to respond and that they can do so quickly and intuitively?
Our 2022 experiment provided an immediate foundation, but many questions remained unanswered, especially from the writer’s perspective: How do writers create and manage polls? Do polls close or are they evergreen? Should we allow readers to select more than one answer? And many more.
Writer publishes chapter
I created wireframes of the key user flows to drive conversions with the product team and helped shape key strategic product decisions.
6 Key decisions that defined polls:
End-of-chapter placement. Writers could already insert images and videos between paragraphs, so that felt like the most natural implementation. However, this was both technically challenging and risked breaking reading immersion. Placing polls at the end of a chapter creates an engagement moment at a reader’s natural pause point.
Votes are anonymous. The line "Your response is anonymous" at the bottom of every poll was key to engaging silent readers. They know they can vote without it being attached to their identity.
Results are only visible after voting & users can’t change their vote. Seeing results first would create bias and allow users to see results without participating. Showing results post-vote keeps the data honest and encourages reader engagement.
Polls are a part of the chapter and take precedence over ads. I ensured stakeholders viewed polls as part of the chapter because writer content takes priority over advertisements in the reading experience and we didn’t want ads to overshadow or conflict with polls.
The poll creator should visually match the live poll. I wanted the poll creation tool to look like the experience the reader would have so that writers could easily understand how polls would be integrated into their story without needing to preview their story.
No editing after publishing. Once a poll is live it can only be deleted. This preserves data integrity for writers reviewing their results. It is a deliberate constraint, not a missing feature.
Design
Making polls feel native to the reading experience.
With complete wireframes finished and product requirements written for the MVP, I designed the look and feel so they would seamlessly integrate into the reader without interrupting reading flow.
I explored information design to ensure responders could quickly and easily understand results.
I explored colour applications to highlight the user’s selection while simultaneously displaying the community’s results.
The final design allows the writer to quickly and intuitively craft a poll with 2-5 answers at the end of any chapter. All across Wattpad, readers are now responding to polls and seeing community results.
Writer experience
View prototype
Reader experience
View prototype
Measurement
Writers ❤️ polls, readers are engaged.
In November of 2025, polls released worldwide across iOS, Android, and web. Writers created 147,000 polls in the first 2 weeks and began using polls for story direction, character reactions, and community engagement. Writers have continued to use polls regularly since launch and we’re seeing almost 5,000 new polls created daily. They love that they have a new quick way to connect with their fans and keep their readers engaged: “Polls are a fantastic way to directly engage with readers and involve them in the creative journey”
764K
Polls created (4.8K / day)
80K+
Unique writers created a poll
Readers are responding to polls 135,000 times per day. More than half of readers who see a poll answer it, and 1 in 5 return later to check how the community voted. Response rates are running meaningfully higher than comment rates on the same stories, which confirms polls are reaching readers who would never have engaged through comments alone.
21.3M
Poll responses
(135K / day)
56%
Reader engagement rate
(responses / views)
1/5
Poll responders return to a story to view poll results
Takeaways
Reflections & next steps
The early scrappy experiment gave me real evidence of user and business value, not just an opinion. Creating strong signals a feature should exist and surfacing them with the right stakeholders can be more impactful than the design itself.
Polls have been a resounding success, but the feature isn’t perfect yet. Some writers are frustrated by the permanent "Add a poll" button in their editor and we know they’d also like to implement polls throughout their stories. These are known tradeoffs we made for the MVP and problems I’ll advocate to be added to the next iteration of polls.
Response data tells a bigger story than just the success of polls. It confirms that readers want more ways to connect with writers and fellow fans and that the right invitation can activate those who were never going to engage through comments alone. Introducing polls in other product areas and investing in more engagement features to foster the writer-reader connection is where I’ll focus next.
“Ryan knocked it out of the park with his design for the new Polls feature. Very mindful of user needs, UX best practices, tradeoffs and scope creep. Loved all our discussion, debates and attention to detail leading to an elegant new Wattpad feature.”
- Kudos from Karan Viegas, Product Manager
Problem
Discovery
Solution
Design
Measurement
Takeaways
Polls.
Giving 100M+ Wattpad users a voice & converting readers into fans.
UX/UI Design, Product Strategy, UX Research, Design Advocacy, UX Writing
iOS, AN, Web
•
Shipped globally in 2025
Problem
How might we deepen fan engagement?
Wattpad is a global storytelling platform with over 100 million users. Its writers and their stories are the heart of the platform, but fostering connection is the key differentiator. Readers find just as much enjoyment in the comment section as they do in the story, adding over half a billion comments every month. People don’t just read and write on Wattpad, they belong.
In 2022 Wattpad’s strategy was to strengthen this competitive edge by deepening the connection between writers and readers. We hypothesized that turning readers into fans would increase reading frequency and session length. Readers needed more avenues to express themselves and writers were desperate for more ways to engage their readers beyond the story.
65%
of writers wanted polls
4/8
writers had already polled readers
We already had excellent insights from the monthly sentiment surveys we send: readers were looking for more ways to connect with writers and were missing ways to gauge how fellow readers felt. Popular writers have difficulty finding valuable story feedback due to an overwhelming number of comments. Less popular writers feel unnoticed and demotivated due to a lack of interaction in their stories. Polling readers was the 2nd most requested feature by writers.
To better understand our writers’ problems from the lens of deepening fandom, we interviewed 8 of our top-performing writers. We discovered that half were already polling their readers by hacking the comment system or linking to external tools. They all said readers loved their polls, especially when given the chance to influence story direction.
The research also surfaced something crucial to future strategy and design decisions: polls could reach readers that comments never would. Comments are created by a small minority because they require a reader to commit to a public thought, something many aren’t comfortable with given the often spicy nature of Wattpad stories. Polls would only require a choice, giving the silent majority a way to participate. On Wattpad, where the most monetizable genre (romance) also has the highest proportion of silent readers, that’s a big deal.
Discovery
We conducted a rapid experiment to learn.
Our confidence in the value of polling was high, but we wanted to learn as much as we could before committing to building a complex double-sided feature. We planned a bare bones experiment to get insights fast: 30 polls on 30 stories, no writer creation tools, iOS only, hard-coded questions, and simulated poll results.
30 trusted writers provided us with a poll question, answers, and a story to display it on. Though the writer setup process was manual, it was still a great opportunity to learn things like:
- What kinds of questions and answers would writers ask?
- How many responses would writers choose to write?
“Polls help get readers interested and feel involved with the community behind the book they’re reading. Especially when a story is reaching high popularity and the author can’t talk as much with their community.”
- Writer participating in poll experiment
Polls aren’t a new concept so I didn’t want to re-invent them. I catalogued how polls functioned on platforms like Instagram and Twitch to understand what made a poll successful. This gave us a good foundation, but the more valuable insights came when I documented how writers were already hacking polls into their stories on Wattpad.
Before creating experiment designs, I wanted to consider the full picture - how would a fully developed polling feature work? I wrote user stories, mapped out user flows, and considered engagement loops. I asked myself questions like:
- Where does the writer want a poll to appear?
- Should readers be able to select more than one response in a poll?
- How do readers and writers see poll results?
- How might readers be feeling after responding to a poll?
I then created wireframes that explored which elements should be displayed alongside a poll and which would be most crucial. We also had to decide how we should surface polls to readers at the right moment to ensure we didn’t interfere with their reading experience. We decided the best place for our experiment was right before the user continues reading and this also meant we’d engage enough readers to get statistically significant data.
With the experiment parameters defined, I explored which elements should be displayed alongside polls so that users would have enough context to answer and would quickly understand how to navigate through the experience.
Our final experiment surfaced the poll whenever a user returned to read. After a quick response we surfaced community results and they could quickly continue reading. We also gave users 2 easy ways to skip the poll so we could measure disinterest as clearly as engagement.
55%
Response rate
190K
Poll responses
In the 2 week experiment, 55% of readers who saw a poll engaged and there were 190K responses across 30 polls. The polls that performed best asked readers to influence story direction. General opinion polls did well, but generic story questions like “What's your favourite character?” fell flat.
We then surveyed the 30 participating writers and 3 themes emerged:
- Writers want to understand how readers feel about their stories
- Writers are looking for low-effort ways to engage readers at scale
- Writers were concerned about overloading readers with polls with the current placement
Leadership described the experiment as “the most engaging thing we've ever tested."
Despite the experiment’s success, priorities shifted and polling was left off the roadmap. Over the next 2 years, I kept the polling experiment’s success visible whenever possible. I surfaced polls in 1:1 discussions with product leaders, re-pitched them in roadmapping workshops, and ensured no one could forget polling was the most validated solution we’d yet to follow through on.
95%
of writers said community interaction is important to them
52%
of writers said lack of reader engagement is demotivating
In 2025, Wattpad’s strategy again centred on social engagement and community. Research surfaced that 52% of writers said lack of reader engagement was actively demotivating them, and more than half of writers were still clamouring for polls.
Solution
How do we make polls successful on Wattpad?
Our goal was to create a polling feature that delivered value to readers and writers alike, deepening connection and ultimately leading to increased reading frequency and reading time. How do we enable writers to quickly and confidently poll their readers and how do we ensure polls entice readers to respond and that they can do so quickly and intuitively?
Our 2022 experiment provided an immediate foundation, but many questions remained unanswered, especially from the writer’s perspective: How do writers create and manage polls? Do polls close or are they evergreen? Should we allow readers to select more than one answer? And many more.
Writer publishes chapter
I created wireframes of the key user flows to drive conversions with the product team and helped shape key strategic product decisions.
6 Key decisions that defined polls:
End-of-chapter placement. Writers could already insert images and videos between paragraphs, so that felt like the most natural implementation. However, this was both technically challenging and risked breaking reading immersion. Placing polls at the end of a chapter creates an engagement moment at a reader’s natural pause point.
Votes are anonymous. The line "Your response is anonymous" at the bottom of every poll was key to engaging silent readers. They know they can vote without it being attached to their identity.
Results are only visible after voting & users can’t change their vote. Seeing results first would create bias and allow users to see results without participating. Showing results post-vote keeps the data honest and encourages reader engagement.
Polls are a part of the chapter and take precedence over ads. I ensured stakeholders viewed polls as part of the chapter because writer content takes priority over advertisements in the reading experience and we didn’t want ads to overshadow or conflict with polls.
The poll creator should visually match the live poll. I wanted the poll creation tool to look like the experience the reader would have so that writers could easily understand how polls would be integrated into their story without needing to preview their story.
No editing after publishing. Once a poll is live it can only be deleted. This preserves data integrity for writers reviewing their results. It is a deliberate constraint, not a missing feature.
Design
Making polls feel native to the reading experience.
With complete wireframes finished and product requirements written for the MVP, I designed the look and feel so they would seamlessly integrate into the reader without interrupting reading flow.
I explored information design to ensure responders could quickly and easily understand results.
I explored colour applications to highlight the user’s selection while simultaneously displaying the community’s results.
The final design allows the writer to quickly and intuitively craft a poll with 2-5 answers at the end of any chapter. All across Wattpad, readers are now responding to polls and seeing community results.
Writer experience
View prototype
Reader experience
View prototype
Measurement
Writers ❤️ polls, readers are engaged.
In November of 2025, polls released worldwide across iOS, Android, and web. Writers created 147,000 polls in the first 2 weeks and began using polls for story direction, character reactions, and community engagement. Writers have continued to use polls regularly since launch and we’re seeing almost 5,000 new polls created daily. They love that they have a new quick way to connect with their fans and keep their readers engaged: “Polls are a fantastic way to directly engage with readers and involve them in the creative journey”
764K
Polls created (4.8K / day)
80K+
Unique writers created a poll
“I’ve already started adding polls to chapters that connect directly with my characters and plot points and it’s been really fun to create those for readers. I’ll keep adding more as I go and I’m excited to see how readers interact with them.”
- Wattpad writer
Readers are responding to polls 135,000 times per day. More than half of readers who see a poll answer it, and 1 in 5 return later to check how the community voted. Response rates are running meaningfully higher than comment rates on the same stories, which confirms polls are reaching readers who would never have engaged through comments alone.
21.3M
Poll responses
(135K / day)
Nov 2025
Apr 2026
135K
56%
Reader engagement rate
(responses / views)
1/5
Poll responders return to a story to view poll results
Takeaways
Reflections & next steps
The early scrappy experiment gave me real evidence of user and business value, not just an opinion. Creating strong signals a feature should exist and surfacing them with the right stakeholders can be more impactful than the design itself.
Polls have been a resounding success, but the feature isn’t perfect yet. Some writers are frustrated by the permanent "Add a poll" button in their editor and we know they’d also like to implement polls throughout their stories. These are known tradeoffs we made for the MVP and problems I’ll advocate to be added to the next iteration of polls.
Response data tells a bigger story than just the success of polls. It confirms that readers want more ways to connect with writers and fellow fans and that the right invitation can activate those who were never going to engage through comments alone. Introducing polls in other product areas and investing in more engagement features to foster the writer-reader connection is where I’ll focus next.
“Ryan knocked it out of the park with his design for the new Polls feature. Very mindful of user needs, UX best practices, tradeoffs and scope creep. Loved all our discussion, debates and attention to detail leading to an elegant new Wattpad feature.”
- Kudos from Karan Viegas, Product Manager
Problem
Discovery
Solution
Design
Measurement
Takeaways
Polls.
Giving 100M+ Wattpad users a voice & converting readers into fans.
UX/UI Design, Product Strategy, UX Research, Design Advocacy, UX Writing
•
iOS, AN, Web
•
Shipped globally in 2025
Problem
How might we deepen fan engagement?
Wattpad is a global storytelling platform with over 100 million users. Its writers and their stories are the heart of the platform, but fostering connection is the key differentiator. Readers find just as much enjoyment in the comment section as they do in the story, adding over half a billion comments every month. People don’t just read and write on Wattpad, they belong.
In 2022 Wattpad’s strategy was to strengthen this competitive edge by deepening the connection between writers and readers. We hypothesized that turning readers into fans would increase reading frequency and session length. Readers needed more avenues to express themselves and writers were desperate for more ways to engage their readers beyond the story.
65%
of writers wanted polls
4/8
writers had already polled readers
We already had excellent insights from the monthly sentiment surveys we send: readers were looking for more ways to connect with writers and were missing ways to gauge how fellow readers felt. Popular writers have difficulty finding valuable story feedback due to an overwhelming number of comments. Less popular writers feel unnoticed and demotivated due to a lack of interaction in their stories. Polling readers was the 2nd most requested feature by writers.
To better understand our writers’ problems from the lens of deepening fandom, we interviewed 8 of our top-performing writers. We discovered that half were already polling their readers by hacking the comment system or linking to external tools. They all said readers loved their polls, especially when given the chance to influence story direction.
The research also surfaced something crucial to future strategy and design decisions: polls could reach readers that comments never would. Comments are created by a small minority because they require a reader to commit to a public thought, something many aren’t comfortable with given the often spicy nature of Wattpad stories. Polls would only require a choice, giving the silent majority a way to participate. On Wattpad, where the most monetizable genre (romance) also has the highest proportion of silent readers, that’s a big deal.
Discovery
We conducted a rapid experiment to learn.
Our confidence in the value of polling was high, but we wanted to learn as much as we could before committing to building a complex double-sided feature. We planned a bare bones experiment to get insights fast: 30 polls on 30 stories, no writer creation tools, iOS only, hard-coded questions, and simulated poll results.
30 trusted writers provided us with a poll question, answers, and a story to display it on. Though the writer setup process was manual, it was still a great opportunity to learn things like:
- What kinds of questions and answers would writers ask?
- How many responses would writers choose to write?
“Polls help get readers interested and feel involved with the community behind the book they’re reading. Especially when a story is reaching high popularity and the author can’t talk as much with their community.”
- Writer participating in poll experiment
Polls aren’t a new concept so I didn’t want to re-invent them. I catalogued how polls functioned on platforms like Instagram and Twitch to understand what made a poll successful. This gave us a good foundation, but the more valuable insights came when I documented how writers were already hacking polls into their stories on Wattpad.
Before creating experiment designs, I wanted to consider the full picture - how would a fully developed polling feature work? I wrote user stories, mapped out user flows, and considered engagement loops. I asked myself questions like:
- Where does the writer want a poll to appear?
- Should readers be able to select more than one response in a poll?
- How do readers and writers see poll results?
- How might readers be feeling after responding to a poll?
I then created wireframes that explored which elements should be displayed alongside a poll and which would be most crucial. We also had to decide how we should surface polls to readers at the right moment to ensure we didn’t interfere with their reading experience. We decided the best place for our experiment was right before the user continues reading and this also meant we’d engage enough readers to get statistically significant data.
With the experiment parameters defined, I explored which elements should be displayed alongside polls so that users would have enough context to answer and would quickly understand how to navigate through the experience.
Our final experiment surfaced the poll whenever a user returned to read. After a quick response we surfaced community results and they could quickly continue reading. We also gave users 2 easy ways to skip the poll so we could measure disinterest as clearly as engagement.
55%
Response rate
190K
Poll responses
In the 2 week experiment, 55% of readers who saw a poll engaged and there were 190K responses across 30 polls. The polls that performed best asked readers to influence story direction. General opinion polls did well, but generic story questions like “What's your favourite character?” fell flat.
We then surveyed the 30 participating writers and 3 themes emerged:
- Writers want to understand how readers feel about their stories
- Writers are looking for low-effort ways to engage readers at scale
- Writers were concerned about overloading readers with polls with the current placement
Leadership described the experiment as “the most engaging thing we've ever tested."
Despite the experiment’s success, priorities shifted and polling was left off the roadmap. Over the next 2 years, I kept the polling experiment’s success visible whenever possible. I surfaced polls in 1:1 discussions with product leaders, re-pitched them in roadmapping workshops, and ensured no one could forget polling was the most validated solution we’d yet to follow through on.
95%
of writers said community interaction is important to them
52%
of writers said lack of reader engagement is demotivating
In 2025, Wattpad’s strategy again centred on social engagement and community. Research surfaced that 52% of writers said lack of reader engagement was actively demotivating them, and more than half of writers were still clamouring for polls.
Solution
How do we make polls successful on Wattpad?
Our goal was to create a polling feature that delivered value to readers and writers alike, deepening connection and ultimately leading to increased reading frequency and reading time. How do we enable writers to quickly and confidently poll their readers and how do we ensure polls entice readers to respond and that they can do so quickly and intuitively?
Our 2022 experiment provided an immediate foundation, but many questions remained unanswered, especially from the writer’s perspective: How do writers create and manage polls? Do polls close or are they evergreen? Should we allow readers to select more than one answer? And many more.
Writer publishes chapter
I created wireframes of the key user flows to drive conversions with the product team and helped shape key strategic product decisions.
6 Key decisions that defined polls:
End-of-chapter placement. Writers could already insert images and videos between paragraphs, so that felt like the most natural implementation. However, this was both technically challenging and risked breaking reading immersion. Placing polls at the end of a chapter creates an engagement moment at a reader’s natural pause point.
Votes are anonymous. The line "Your response is anonymous" at the bottom of every poll was key to engaging silent readers. They know they can vote without it being attached to their identity.
Results are only visible after voting & users can’t change their vote. Seeing results first would create bias and allow users to see results without participating. Showing results post-vote keeps the data honest and encourages reader engagement.
Polls are a part of the chapter and take precedence over ads. I ensured stakeholders viewed polls as part of the chapter because writer content takes priority over advertisements in the reading experience and we didn’t want ads to overshadow or conflict with polls.
The poll creator should visually match the live poll. I wanted the poll creation tool to look like the experience the reader would have so that writers could easily understand how polls would be integrated into their story without needing to preview their story.
No editing after publishing. Once a poll is live it can only be deleted. This preserves data integrity for writers reviewing their results. It is a deliberate constraint, not a missing feature.
Design
Making polls feel native to the reading experience.
With complete wireframes finished and product requirements written for the MVP, I designed the look and feel so they would seamlessly integrate into the reader without interrupting reading flow.
I explored information design to ensure responders could quickly and easily understand results.
I explored colour applications to highlight the user’s selection while simultaneously displaying the community’s results.
The final design allows the writer to quickly and intuitively craft a poll with 2-5 answers at the end of any chapter. All across Wattpad, readers are now responding to polls and seeing community results.
Writer experience
View prototype
Reader experience
View prototype
Measurement
Writers ❤️ polls, readers are engaged.
In November of 2025, polls released worldwide across iOS, Android, and web. Writers created 147,000 polls in the first 2 weeks and began using polls for story direction, character reactions, and community engagement. Writers have continued to use polls regularly since launch and we’re seeing almost 5,000 new polls created daily. They love that they have a new quick way to connect with their fans and keep their readers engaged: “Polls are a fantastic way to directly engage with readers and involve them in the creative journey”
764K
Polls created (4.8K / day)
80K+
Unique writers created a poll
“I’ve already started adding polls to chapters that connect directly with my characters and plot points and it’s been really fun to create those for readers. I’ll keep adding more as I go and I’m excited to see how readers interact with them.”
- Wattpad writer
Readers are responding to polls 135,000 times per day. More than half of readers who see a poll answer it, and 1 in 5 return later to check how the community voted. Response rates are running meaningfully higher than comment rates on the same stories, which confirms polls are reaching readers who would never have engaged through comments alone.
21.3M
Poll responses
(135K / day)
Nov 2025
Apr 2026
135K
56%
Reader engagement rate
(responses / views)
1/5
Poll responders return to a story to view poll results
Takeaways
Reflections & next steps
The early scrappy experiment gave me real evidence of user and business value, not just an opinion. Creating strong signals a feature should exist and surfacing them with the right stakeholders can be more impactful than the design itself.
Polls have been a resounding success, but the feature isn’t perfect yet. Some writers are frustrated by the permanent "Add a poll" button in their editor and we know they’d also like to implement polls throughout their stories. These are known tradeoffs we made for the MVP and problems I’ll advocate to be added to the next iteration of polls.
Response data tells a bigger story than just the success of polls. It confirms that readers want more ways to connect with writers and fellow fans and that the right invitation can activate those who were never going to engage through comments alone. Introducing polls in other product areas and investing in more engagement features to foster the writer-reader connection is where I’ll focus next.
“Ryan knocked it out of the park with his design for the new Polls feature. Very mindful of user needs, UX best practices, tradeoffs and scope creep. Loved all our discussion, debates and attention to detail leading to an elegant new Wattpad feature.”
- Kudos from Karan Viegas, Product Manager