For the final research project in HCI 5230, me and Vivian Hsu explored how TikTok users adapted to RedNote during the January 2025 TikTok ban scare by uncovering their challenges, strategies, and emotional drivers behind the migration.
Project Overview
The Context:
In January 2025, TikTok faced a potential ban in the U.S., prompting a wave of users to seek alternative platforms.
Many migrated to RedNote, a Chinese social media app focused on lifestyle content and community-driven sharing.
Our Goal
We wanted to understand the reasons for the digital migration and how users adapted and navigated around the new platform.
These findings could provide insights for platform designers and policymakers on user retention strategies, platform design, and migration policies.
My Role:
- đź‘Ą Co-Researcher with Vivian Hsu
- 🎙 Conducted user interviews & content analysis
- đź—‚ Coded qualitative data and organized findings
- 🎨 Designed slides & visualized results
Research Questions
Primary Research Question:
How do users migrating from TikTok to RedNote navigate and adapt to the differences in platform norms, content formats, and community expectations?
Secondary Questions:
- What challenges do TikTok users face when adapting to RedNote, and what strategies are used to overcome them?
- How do differences in content format, engagement style, and platform norms influence user retention or abandonment of RedNote?
Process & Methods
To understand how users adapted to RedNote, we combined qualitative interviews with content analysis. Our goal was to capture not only what users did but also why they made those choices, including emotional, cultural, and political drivers.
Our research unfolded in three key phases:
1. Participant Recruitment & Planning
We began by identifying the right participants and framing our research questions around the TikTok–RedNote migration.
Approach:
We focused on American TikTok users who migrated to RedNote in mid-January 2025 during the TikTok ban scare.
Recruitment:
We reached out through friends, classmates, and Instagram posts to find participants with firsthand experience.
Sample:
5 users with varying engagement levels (casual scrollers to content creators), which gives us a well-rounded perspective.
2. User Interviews
Next, we conducted in-depth interviews to hear users’ personal stories and emotional responses.
Format:
45 mins - 1 hr long remote interviews via WebEx, Discord, and Zoom.
Analysis
We both digitally transcribed the interview using the built-in transcription in Webex, and collaboratively coded them in Taguette, surfacing key themes about migration behaviors
Strength of Interviews:
This phase revealed where users struggled most and what factors motivated them to continue or drop off.
3. Content Analysis
To complement interview data, we looked at how migration was being discussed publicly online.
Sources:
- 6 posts from RedNote
- 6 videos from TikTok
- 3 Reddit threads
- 2 news articles published during the migration window
Method:
We applied bottom-up codes from interviews, then used them top-down to analyze posts and comments.
Goal:
This was conducted to validate individual stories against broader community sentiment and capture cultural or political undertones.
Benefits of Content Analysis
This phased approach ensured that our findings were grounded in both lived experiences and real-time online discourse, giving us a rich, multidimensional view of the migration phenomenon.
4. Data Analysis & Codebook
After conducting and transcribing the interviews, we developed a collaborative codebook to identify and group key themes:
Initial Coding:
Each team member independently coded interview transcripts using an inductive (bottom-up) approach.
Codebook Creation:
We compared codes, resolved overlaps, and combined similar ideas into broader categories.
Iterative Refinement:
As we moved through analysis, we revisited and refined these categories to ensure they captured participant experiences accurately.
Key Findings
Our analysis revealed 4 major themes that explain how users adapted to RedNote and what shaped their decisions to stay or leave:
1. Language & Interface Barriers as Initial Challenges
Participants struggled with RedNote’s Mandarin-only interface and slower onboarding flow, which delayed account setup and early engagement.
Example:
“Before they put the translate mode, it was kind of hard to understand what people were uploading.” – P1
Implication:
Platforms need seamless translation tools and intuitive onboarding to lower adoption barriers, especially during sudden migrations.
2. Welcoming Community Facilitated Cultural Exchange
Despite the language hurdles, users described a surprisingly warm community that encouraged cross-cultural bonding.
Example:
“It just seemed like people really wanted to get to know each other and realized we're all just people living similar lives.” – P3
Implication:
Emotional connection and social belonging can outweigh technical friction, encouraging users to stay longer.
3. Retention Depended on Personal Preferences & Platform Experience
Long-term engagement was shaped by whether RedNote’s content style matched users’ preferences. Some participants found its calmer, curated vibe refreshing, while others missed TikTok’s high-energy feed.
Example:
“Scrolling through RedNote is refreshing after the chaotic content on TikTok. It kind of feels like a palate cleanser.” – P5
Implication:
Platforms should cater to varied engagement styles, offering both discovery-driven and calmer, slower-paced experiences.
4. Political & Emotional Motivations Drove Migration
Many users viewed the move to RedNote as an act of protest or solidarity, rather than just a practical decision.
Example:
“Everyone on social media was saying go to RedNote to protest the ban, and that’s what motivated me.” – P2
Implication:
Migration is rarely just technical; sociopolitical events can trigger collective behavior shifts that platforms need to anticipate.
Impact & Implications
This research highlights several opportunities for platforms to better support users during sudden digital migrations:
Design for Cross-Cultural Onboarding:
- Translation features, iconography, and simplified sign-up flows can minimize early drop-off.
Foster Community Warmth:
- Intentional “welcome campaigns” or curated events can help migrating users feel seen and valued.
Prepare for Crisis Migration:
- Platforms should have rapid response strategies, including server scaling, communication plans, and UX adjustments, ready for unexpected surges.
Acknowledge Sociopolitical Context:
- By understanding migration as a symbolic act, platforms can engage users in meaningful ways beyond just technical fixes.
These recommendations can help both established and emerging platforms retain trust, encourage adoption, and reduce churn during moments of disruption.
Challenges & Solutions
Throughout this project, several challenges emerged that shaped how I approached data collection, analysis, and collaboration.
Language Barrier with Participants
Some participants were not fluent in English, which caused nuances about platform differences to be lost in translation.
Solution: I flagged uncertain segments during coding and verbally confirmed participants’ responses to ensure accuracy.
Limited Recruitment Pool
Many users had not fully migrated to RedNote, so finding participants who actively switched was difficult
Solution: We leveraged personal networks and posted recruitment messages on Instagram to reach potential participants.
Fragmented Coding Themes
When coding interviews, my partners and I initially generated many similar but slightly different themes, making it hard to group insights.
Solution: We synthesized codes into four major categories that captured broader trends while preserving nuance.
Opportunities for Improvement
Looking back, there are several ways the project could have been improved given more time or a chance to start over.
Expanding Content Analysis Scope
What I’d Change: Collect 30+ pieces of content from TikTok, RedNote, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
Why: This would provide a richer, more diverse dataset and reveal whether migration motivations differ by platform type.
Independent Coding for Each Method
What I’d Change: Code interview data and content analysis separately using a bottom-up approach.
Why: This prevents interview themes from biasing the interpretation of public content and highlights overlaps or contradictions organically.
Reflection
This project was the culmination of what we learned throughout the semester, giving us the chance to apply qualitative research methods, from participant recruitment and interviewing to coding and synthesis, in a real-world context. It taught me the value of combining personal narratives with public content analysis to create a more complete picture of user behavior.
I also saw firsthand how sociopolitical context can shape platform adoption, influencing not just what users do but why they do it. Working with Vivian was another key part of this experience. Our collaborative coding process helped us surface stronger, more nuanced themes and taught me how to balance different perspectives in qualitative research.
Together, these lessons deepened my understanding of how to design and execute qualitative studies, and they will continue to shape how I approach future UX research projects, especially those involving rapid behavior shifts or platform adoption.
Thank You for Reading!
Credits:
Created with images by Prostock-studio - "Smiling faces mosaic of diverse people portraits on colorful backgrounds" • Tierney - "Data Analysis concept with person working with a laptop" • Vitalii Vodolazskyi - "Colorful quote bubbles. Linguistic diversity and multi language concept." • sutlafk - "between the hands of the elderly and children" • Galih Yoga - "Hands of Asian man holding checking touching scrolling smartphone from bed room" • Bits and Splits - "Defocused crowd attending political meeting" • Johnstocker - "Jigsaw puzzle with missing piece. Missing puzzle pieces" • Christian Horz - "climbing ladder of success step by step concept with wooden blocks"