Making news more accessible for younger audience
The younger generation majorly relies on social media as a primary source of news and information. However, this results in exposure to false and misleading information. The aim of this case study was to design a news app that prioritizes the users’ interests and shows verified news and sources.
12 weeks
Mixed Methods Research, Visual Design, UX Research, Information Architecture
Duration:
My Role:
Young Adults are relying more on Social Media for news instead of traditional media or news apps.
Problem Discovery
A preliminary desk research revealed that GenZ and younger millennials are turning more and more towards social media for their daily dose of news. A report by Reuters Institute shows the growing trend of social media and decreasing reliance on news apps and websites in recent years.
A personalized news app, that has feed based on user interest and short synopsis for major news.
My (Proposed) Solution
Highlights
Interest based feed
The feed of the app is more focused on user’s interests.
The home page will show users content based on the topics they select.
While, the important events that are happening and important news is still shown at the top so users stay up-to-date.
Fact checked news and trusted sources
Trusted sources and fact-checked articles will be shown with a green check-mark to ensure users get correct news.
This will eliminate the issue of trustworthiness when consuming news.
Synopsis of trending and major topics
The feed on the home page shows news based on the topics and sources of interest of the users which they can select from the settings and during the onboarding.
The topics of their interest can be stacked at and accessed quickly from the top of home screen.
This helps the user understand the context of what is going on in the world and the news related to it.
Participating in discussions
Users can see and engage with discussions happening around various articles and events through comments.
This gives an opportunity to engage with a wider community, and express own opinions.
Validating the problem space
I conducted an online survey and semi-structured interviews to understand why people turn to social media for news, and their views about current news apps in the market.
I conducted a mix of quantitative and qualitative studies with participants aged between 18 to 29. A total of 46 survey responses were recorded with 9 interviews. Following insights were derived:
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Participants turned to social media for news as it is convenient and easily accessible.
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Young people want news that help them stay informed, but also news that cater to their personal interests.
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Traditional news apps show news as “what you should know”
Design Approach
After my research and before starting the generation phase, I designed 2 personas that closely resembled the target demographic.
These personas were based on target audience that have a fast-paced lifestyle and want everything quickly at their fingertips.
Keeping the goals and frustration of the personas in mind, I framed the design requirements into “How Might We” statements that are broad enough to allow multiple solutions, but narrow enough to set focus.
How Might We…
create an experience that is personal, relevant and easy?
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make news feel less like a chore?
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attract attention and build engagement?
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Brainstorming, Ideation, and Iteration
A major challenge I faced while exploring the designs was to include features for people to engage with each other, without making it a full-blown “social media app for news”.
I opted for a card-based design in order to break down the information of the generally text-heavy nature of the app into small chunks. I started exploring different card types and sizes to keep the app from looking monotonous and boring.
User Testing #1
After finalizing my lo-fi wireframes, I user-tested an MVP in order to get a quick feedback for the features and overall visual design.
Visual appeal of an app is an important factor. And as someone who has more experience in research than visual design, this step was important to understand the areas I need to improve in terms of visual design. It also helped me understand the expectations of my target audience.
Findings
Home page design before and after the first user testing session.
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Undesired content
A section called “Local News” was included in the first set of design which 6/10 users felt was not something they would actively look for, especially if it is a small city or town. This section was then moved to the explore page.
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Likes and Dislikes
The option to like and dislike was appreciated but the need for it on the card was divided between the users. 5/10 participants said they would care about the likes and dislikes after reading the entire article and not just headlines. Hence the option to like and dislike an article was moved to the article reading page.
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Overall Visual Feedback
The study also gathered feedback about the visual design of the app. Feedback noted things like cluttered UI, placement of graphic elements, etc. Efforts were then made to change things in for the second iteration.
Refined Designs
News Feed/ Home Screen page
Trending Topic and synopsis page
Source page
Library page
Explore page
Final Results
Improved Visual Design
All the participants felt the new design was better and had less visual clutter. The ability to horizontally view similar types of content was appreciated and liked by the participants.
Users’ Feed
The participants said they liked the way their home feed only showed news from topics they selected while onboarding and the major news was at the top of the home feed, with additional content in the explore page. They also appreciated the synopsis content where they can catch up with a topic that they might have no or less information about. However, they also pointed out some similarities between this app and other existing apps.
Learning and Takeaways
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This was the first project where I was alone responsible for end-to-end execution- from research to designing the final product. This helped me improve my visual and UI design skills, and also learn some interaction design skills.
This project helped me broaden my thinking and empathy skills to understand the core of the problem and user needs, and not getting stuck on the surface level issues.
**The fact check and verification method is designed to prevent the spread of false information by assuring the user that the news is from a genuine source. However, the tone of news article, and how the information is presented still will depend on the editors from that publisher or source.