# Create and Edit Templates [Image] This experience sits at the moment where people are deciding what they can build and whether the platform fits their work. Users come here looking for examples that help them picture real use cases, not just features. For the business, this moment supports activation by shaping early confidence and setting expectations for how easy it will be to get started. We tested Notion’s Templates discovery page and asked users to explore it as if they were evaluating how to begin creating or editing work. The study focused on Success, Engagement, Sentiment, and Comprehension, which together show whether people notice the right entry points, feel motivated to explore, understand what the platform enables, and can take an initial step without friction. This type of testing surfaces where interest turns into momentum—or where it stalls. Signals from this experience help teams see whether inspiration is doing real work or simply holding attention. For product leaders, these insights matter because early hesitation here can quietly slow adoption, even when the product itself is strong. * * * ## **User Needs & Business Goals** This experience is meant to balance inspiration with clarity, showing users what’s possible in Notion while helping them feel oriented enough to take a first step. Users want to quickly recognize relevant use cases and templates, while the business aims to support faster activation and sustained adoption across different roles and team needs. **Audience** This concept was tested with product managers, project managers, and team leaders in the United States. Participants reviewed Notion’s Templates discovery page and were asked to explore it as if they were looking for examples of how to use the platform and deciding where they would start creating or editing content. **User Needs** When arriving on the Templates page, users are trying to make sense of what the platform enables and whether it fits their work. - The experience should make it easy to grasp what Notion can be used for at a glance **(intuitive).** - The experience should help users quickly locate templates that feel relevant to their role or goals **(findable).** - The experience should feel easy to navigate without extra effort or guesswork **(usable).** - The experience should build confidence that templates are practical, not just inspirational **(useful).** - The experience should feel trustworthy and established, especially for professional work contexts **(credible).** Together, these needs support a moment where users decide whether Notion feels approachable and worth investing time in. **Business Goals** From a business perspective, this experience supports several key outcomes: - **Improve Product Activation** – Help new and returning users move from exploration to creation more quickly. - **Increase Template Adoption** – Encourage users to start with templates rather than blank pages. - **Strengthen Perceived Product Value** – Clearly communicate the range of problems Notion can solve. - **Support Retention Across Roles** – Make the product feel relevant to different professional use cases. - **Reduce Setup Friction** – Minimize hesitation at the moment users decide how to begin. These goals work together to create long-term value by helping users see clear, immediate paths to success while reinforcing Notion’s role as a flexible work platform. * * * ## **Choose Metrics to Test Your Create & Edit Template** This concept examines Notion’s Templates experience, where users are deciding what they can build and whether they feel ready to start. A focused design stack of UX metrics was selected by mapping core user needs to signals that show up clearly in behavior and perception. The metrics used here were Success, Engagement, Sentiment, and Comprehension. **Findable → Success**
 At this moment, users are trying to locate a clear place to begin. Success captures whether people can identify where examples or templates live without second-guessing. When this signal is weak, it usually means users are scanning, hesitating, or clicking based on guesswork rather than confidence. **Engaging → Engagement**
 This page needs to pull people in before anything else can happen. Engagement reflects whether users feel drawn to explore and spend time with the content in front of them. It surfaces whether the experience sparks curiosity or fades into the background. **Credible → Sentiment**
 Templates do more than inspire. They signal whether the product feels trustworthy and suitable for real work. Sentiment captures the emotional reaction users have when they take in the page as a whole, including whether it feels polished, relevant, and worth investing time in. **Intuitive → Comprehension**
Users need to quickly understand what Notion can help them do. Comprehension shows whether the structure, examples, and language make the platform’s possibilities clear. When comprehension breaks down, users may stay interested but feel unsure how things fit together. * * * ## **Establish Hunches to Direct Your Testing** Starting with hunches helps teams name what feels uncertain before data enters the room. These hunches reflect where confidence might break down, where clarity could slip, and which moments might quietly slow momentum. Each one shaped a focused question designed to test a real risk in this experience. **Example: Notion Templates discovery page**

Hunch

Question

UX Metric

The Templates page may feel visually engaging, but users might struggle to identify where to begin when looking for examples relevant to their work.

“Where would you go first on this page to find examples of pages or projects you could use?”


Success

Users may explore the page out of curiosity, even if they are not yet confident about what action to take next.

“Click where you would go first on this page.”

Engagement

The overall look and content of the Templates page may leave users unsure whether it feels practical or just inspirational.

“What impressions does this Templates page give you?”

Sentiment

Users might understand that Notion is flexible, but not clearly grasp what they personally could create using templates.

“Based on this page, how well do you understand what you can do on this platform?”

Comprehension

AI messaging on the Templates page may feel helpful to some users, but unnecessary or unclear to others.

“How much would AI help on this Templates page?”

Sentiment

Together, these hunches aim to evaluate whether the Templates experience balances inspiration with clarity, helping users move from interest to confident action without hesitation. * * * ## **Turn Hunches into Test Questions** Turning hunches into concrete questions makes uncertainty measurable. Pairing each UX metric with a specific question type ensures the signals reflect what participants actually notice, click, and say in this moment. **Success (First-click test)**
 *Question type:* First-click test
 *Example:* “Click where you would go to find examples of pages and projects you can use this platform for.” **Engagement (First-click test)**
 *Question type:* First-click test
 *Example:* “Click where you would go first on this page.” **Sentiment (Multiple-choice impressions)**
*Question type:* Multiple-choice impressions
*Example:* “Which of the following impressions best describe how this Templates page feels to you?” **Comprehension (Likert scale)**
 *Question type:* Likert scale
 *Example*: “Based on this page, how well do you understand what you can do on this platform?” **Sentiment – AI Helpfulness (Likert scale)**
*Question type:* Likert scale
 *Example:* “How much would AI help you on this Templates page?” * * * ## **Calculate UX Metric Scores from User Feedback** This concept examined Notion’s Create & Edit Templates experience, focusing on how users explore templates and decide where to begin creating work. Participants were asked to interpret the Templates page and indicate where they would go, how they felt, and how well they understood what the platform enables. The design stack included a mix of behavioral and attitudinal UX metrics: Success, Engagement, Sentiment, and Comprehension. Very Good = 90% and above - Good = 70%–89% - Average = 50%–69% - Poor = 30%–49% - Very Poor = below 30% **Success (38% — Poor):**
 Many participants struggled to identify a clear place to go when looking for examples they could use. Click behavior showed scanning and uncertainty rather than confident first choices. This suggests friction at the moment users try to translate interest into action. **Engagement (75% — Good):**
 Users were naturally drawn to the page and willing to explore. Visual presentation and content variety encouraged interaction and curiosity. This indicates the page succeeds at capturing attention, even when clarity is uneven. **Sentiment (27% — Very Poor):**
 Emotional reactions were mixed to negative, with several users describing the experience as more inspirational than practical. While the page felt polished, it did not consistently make users feel confident or supported. This points to a gap between how the page looks and how it makes users feel about starting. **Comprehension (69% — Average):**
 Most participants had a general sense of what Notion can do, but understanding often remained abstract. Users could describe the platform’s flexibility, yet struggled to articulate specific next steps. This suggests partial understanding without strong directional clarity. [Image] Taken together, the scores show a clear imbalance. Engagement is strong, but success and sentiment lag behind, revealing hesitation at the transition from browsing to doing. The experience currently works well as a source of inspiration, but less well as a launch point for confident action. Click here to check out the [raw survey data and UX metric scores for Notion’s templates page.](https://my.helio.app/report/01KD41VEA8GKMT3GA27M9PVTSQ) * * * ## **Draw Signals from Your Design Stack** Here’s how signals were surfaced from Notion’s Create & Edit Templates test results by following five steps. **1\. Focus on poorly scoring or imbalanced metrics** The overall test score was 52% (Average). Engagement was the strongest signal at 75%, showing that people were naturally drawn into the page and willing to explore. The weakest areas were Success (38%) and Sentiment (27%), driven by hesitation when users tried to translate inspiration into a concrete next step. The signal here is clear: the page attracts attention, but confidence drops when users try to act. **2\. Identify patterns across metrics** The metrics tell a consistent story. High engagement paired with low success suggests that users enjoy browsing but struggle with decision-making. Comprehension landed in the middle, reinforcing the idea that people roughly understand what Notion can do, but not clearly enough to move forward without friction. This reflects a common tension between inspiration and direction—broad possibilities versus clear starting points. **3\. Determine if user needs are being met ** - **Intuitive:** Partially met — Users can generally understand the purpose of the page, but signals about where to start are weak. - **Findable:** Partially met — Categories and templates are visible, but relevance to individual roles isn’t always clear. - **Usable:** Met — Navigation itself does not appear to block exploration. - **Useful:** Partially met — Templates feel inspirational, but not always immediately actionable. - **Credible:** Met — The experience feels polished and professional, supporting trust in the platform. **4\. Compare outcomes to business goals** - Improve Product Activation: At risk — Low success suggests hesitation at the moment of starting. - Increase Template Adoption: Partially supported — Interest is present, but follow-through is uneven. - Strengthen Perceived Product Value: Supported — Engagement and credibility reinforce perceived breadth. - Support Retention Across Roles: Partially supported — Some users struggle to see themselves reflected clearly. - Reduce Setup Friction: At risk — Friction appears during decision-making rather than navigation. **5\. Surface signals & establish a direction** Signals derived from the data: - The Templates page draws people in, but does not consistently move them forward. - Inspiration is strong; direction is weaker. - Users hesitate when choosing how to begin, not where to look. - Confidence breaks down at the transition from browsing to action. **Direction based on business context:**
 The evidence points toward a need to better support decision-making at the moment users shift from exploring to starting. This experience plays a critical role in activation, and small clarity gaps here can ripple into slower adoption. Right now, this experience functions more as a showcase than a launch point. The dominant signal is not confusion, but hesitation—people are interested, but unsure how to turn interest into momentum.