theLocal.news

Website Design (MVP)
 
 
 

Client: Ross Johnston, Founder/Owner of Fine Point

My Role: UX / UI Designer

Duration: 2 week design sprint

Tools: Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, LucidChart

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I designed a MVP website that gives local journalists in Anchorage, Alaska a platform to publish their stories and receive monetary support from readers. This in turn helps journalists make a living and able to continue to cover stories on a local level, that main stream and national news media don’t.

 
UNDERSTANDING THE NEED

We dove in this new design ask by speaking with avid readers and those generally interested learning more about their community and current events to help validate the need for this MVP. We also surveyed readers on how they get their resources for news and stories, in order for them to be regularly informed on what’s happening around them.

What we have found:

Frustrations:

  • News are mostly based on a national level, not so much about their town and local government.

  • Seeing stories and articles that aren’t relevant to them.

User Goals:

  • To be more informed about the local community and government.

  • To support local journalists and help them make a living wage to publish more local stories.

  • To be able customize and choose topics on a platform that interests them that they can follow.

 
 

BENCHMARK

On this competitive analysis I chose companies that focus on news feed. These companies are NPR, Medium, BBC News, Buzzfeed, and Cheddar. I have found that all of them have articles on global levels.

Discovered trends:

  • Have news relevant to their targeted audience

  • Has the option to select topics to follow

  • Logos are small and in the corner that allows room for navigations

  • Headline stories are prominent and located on top of the main page

 
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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

For the comparative analysis, I compared this client to companies based on how they do monetary donations or gifts to the community and individuals. This analysis helped set the groundwork on how the supporting process should be.

Discovered trends:

  • Have options for monthly or one-time donations

  • Has pre-determined monetary amount to gift

  • Has a comment section to send along with the contribution

 
 
 
 
 

USER FLOW

I created this user flow, with the persona, Denise in mind. A couple of task flows are included in this user flow because this is a whole new concept design and need to try to tackle as many flows as we can. This helps me fully prototype a more robust design to present to the client on how we can solve this problem on online news.

User goal: User wants to read local news that is relevant to them, have the option to support the journalists for their published work.

Task flow diagram:

 
 
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PROPOSED SOLUTION

  • Create an online news outlet, theLocal.news, that focuses on local news based on the community the readers are living in

  • Local journalists are able to publish stories about their community on this website, so readers can be well-informed about their community and what really matters to them

  • Readers can help their local journalists to continue their work by giving them monetary support directly to them through this website

 
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DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

HAND SKETCHES

By creating the user flow it allows us to understand which pages are needed to be wireframed out for the prototype. Taken from what we’ve learned from the competitive and comparative analysis and understanding the research, I was able to sketch out a few versions of each of the website pages for the digital wireframes. I made sure the design and interaction addresses the persona’s needs.

 
 

WIREFRAMES

I converted my hand sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes and prototype in Sketch and Invision. I presented it to the client to validate his ask.

User Needs:

  • News and content that are relevant to them on the website

  • Have the option to support journalists for their work

  • Have a way to be more involved with the community

  • Wants a quick story overview to go with the headlines

 
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PROTOTYPE

 
 
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USER INTERFACE DESIGN

 
 
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RESULTS

After three rounds of user testing, with three participants per round. We had them perform the task of going onto the website as a first-time user, sign up for an account to have a customized news feed, find an article they would like to read and then support that author.

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After each testing we had every user fill out a systems usability scale score form to gauge how receptive they were to the prototype. On the second round of testing the average scored went done a little and then I continued with refining after every round. After the fourth testing it has gone up considerable and the responses from users that they liked the idea of having a relevant news feed and is able to support independent journalism.

 
 
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WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

  • When making monetary contribution/donations directly to a content creator or organization, users want to know how their money is properly being used or dispersed

  • Users want relevant news and information when visiting a news website or blog in order to not waste their time

  • What I can do next time is further explore the journalist side of this platform, such as how they publish their work and receive their monetary support.