A fast summary at the top helps readers decide whether to keep reading.
IBM Research
Designing AI features that make dense technical blogs easier to read
At IBM Research, I designed and prototyped three AI features for the research blog. The work helped readers understand posts faster, preview linked content, and learn more without leaving the article.
Role
Product Design Intern at IBM
Timeline
May - August 2024
Research
20+ in-person interviews
Rollout
Launching across 500+ blog posts
Context
The IBM Research blog had reach, but dense content made it hard to scan.
Readers were willing to go deep, but they still needed faster ways to understand what a post was about, whether a link was worth opening, and how to learn more without losing their place.
Traffic
100,000+ visits per month
Library
500+ research blog posts
Scope
Research, interaction design, prototyping, and testing
Problem
Readers were spending too much time scanning, leaving the page, and losing context.
The opportunity was not a separate AI assistant. It was lightweight help inside the reading flow itself.
Readers scanned for the main idea before deciding to commit.
Links often opened long documents with little context.
People left the article to understand unfamiliar terms.
Solution
I focused the design on three small interventions inside the article.
Instead of adding a standalone assistant, I proposed takeaways at the top, link previews in context, and explanations on demand. Each pattern helped at the exact moment a reader needed it.
Readers can preview linked content before leaving the page.
Readers can learn more about selected content without breaking focus.
Key product decision
Keep the AI inside the article instead of sending readers to a separate assistant.
That kept the experience lighter, clearer, and more useful in the moment of reading.Impact
Designed three AI reading features for IBM Research that help readers understand dense technical posts faster without losing context.
The features are launching across the IBM Research blog, and testing showed the strongest value came from helping readers orient faster without interrupting the article.
found takeaways helpful for deciding which posts to read
found link previews helpful for deciding whether to open linked content
found content explanations helpful for diving deeper into topics