Media News*, a 100 year old publishing company, dominated the local market with several newspapers, tabloids and magazines. The company has recently struggled to find a sustainable foothold in this new era of social media and is in need of a dire restructuring of their current website.
*The official name of the company has been changed to retain confidentiality.
Media News currently focuses on generating a massive amount of articles that pique the user’s interest and are appropriate for sharing on Facebook.
While this tactic guarantees a constant stream of visitors to the website, it also results in a confusing network of articles that cover a wide range of topics.
The company basically struggles with user retention once they reach the website. The main page’s architecture does not help the user navigate the information and stay informed on relevant topics.
In order to gain valuable insights on the company’s goals with this project, a stakeholder interview was set up with the project manager and developer. Key questions involved:
The first step in Media News’ journey of creating a better user experience begins with laying a strong informational foundation upon which their numerous articles can be explored, read and shared.
This basically means making the website easy to browse and follow up on news, rather than only being accessed from articles that are shared on Facebook.
The main metrics affected by the new UX design will refer to the time a user spends on the website and the actions they take. This will be measured with Google Analytics.
I like to stay on top of things so I know what affects my life and what doesn't. I want to know what people are arguing about whatever on TV; what agenda the latest politicians are pushing and how it affects me; I also like to engage in political debates with my friends;
We use the card sorting session with the interviewees in order to determine their mental models; we need to understand how our user thinks and acts rather than operate solely from the point of view of our company. We used this to impart a new website information architecture. This session serves 2 purposes:
Using the information gained from the card sorting session we went about generating new task flows for our users. This means that they went about doing the usual tasks in a more intuitive way. What we really want to emphasize is the user’s ability to complete any business-crucial task in a way that doesn’t feel like it is a chore for them.
Going further, we build upon our previous sessions of card sorting and new user task flows, and come up with a new website information architecture. The new information is structured in such a way that they can easily find what they need. What further informed our new website architecture was content inventory mapping and labelling.
With the first wireframes done, we were able to conduct a first round of testing. This revealed several aspects, some that needed to be addressed from the business side (users no longer need a physical newspaper subscription, so is it still relevant to keep the option online?) and some that we could manage thrrough the current website:
The new proposed solution was to integrate authetication with Google or Facebook
The comment section concept on the article page needed to be revisited.
The new design gives the content room to breathe and the user can clearly follow up on recent news as well as other topics of interest. They can easily branch out with their reading, giving the platform a better user retention. Other notable reccommendations include:
A worthwhile avenue to pursue for the company would be the introduction of paid content, as illustrated in the user flow. For the fee of a regular newspaper or magazine every month, the user gets a curated flow of content. More research is needed to gauge the interest of such an endeavor.
Loyalty among users is a prized possession few companies can boast. By making this a priority in their future (though newsletter subscriptions, being active on accounts other than facebook) Media News can transform the “paid content” tier into one of voluntary sponsorship through the amount of time a user spend on their website/app. A focus shift in providing quality over quantity is needed.