OVERVIEW

CLIENT

Ross Johnston, founder and director of Fine Point, a result-based targeted advertising agency in Anchorage, Alaska.

Fine Point is part of the new generation of advertising agencies that delivers not just pretty pictures, but results.

CHALLENGE

Currently, mainstream media tends to be biased and leans more towards national news rather than local. Many local news and conflicts are easily overlooked when they go unreported. This can cause people to be uninformed about their community such as their local government. Many officials and policies can be incorrectly approved by the community because of this.

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

DESIGN EXPLORATION

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 new website concept.

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

NEWS FEED (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

NEWS ARTICLE (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

CREATE ACCOUNT/SUPPORT (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

PROTOTYPE

USER INTERFACE DESIGN

Our UI Designer was able to take my wireframes and create the visual designs, that follows my layouts after 4 iterations from the usability testings.

Home/News Feed (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

News Article (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

Journalist's Profile (Copy) (Copy) (Copy)

User Interface designed by Grace Kennedy

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.

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.

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