Re-imagining CNN for Millennials
Redesigning CNN desktop website with a Human Centric Design approach targeting Millennial consumers.
This self-started project was completed based on Double Diamond approach.
DISCOVER
Problem Statement
A millennial who values their time, feels overwhelmed with having to go through a lot of information every day, wants to be updated quickly with relevant news, but news websites consume too much time and effort.
DEFINE
Following methods were used for the research
- Competitor Analysis
- Surveys
- One-to-one Interviews
- Contextual Inquiry
Affinity map and empathy maps were synthesised based on the research. Key findings from research were grouped in order to understand,
- Factors affecting news consumption
- Perfection on news
- Consumption habits
- Frustrations
- User journey
- Online engagement habits
These are the key insights derived from synthesis process.
- Millennials are multitaskers, who want to be efficient, and updated quickly with news.
- They prefer clutter free, personalized and relevant content, from credible sources.
- They want to interact with brands, share opinions with others, engage online or offline with relevant stakeholders.
Following primary and secondary personas were developed to reflect the users.
Then the customer journey map was created, mainly based on the primary persona, but also considering outcome of the whole research.
DEVELOP
In preparation for ideation process, following two “how might we” (HMW) questions were developed.
How might we make CNN website appealing to millennials, so that it would be their preferred source of news?
How might we make CNN website relevant to millennials, so that they keep visiting?
After a brainstorming session, these crazy 8 ideas were drafted. These ideas focused on the design aspect of the site as well as the functionality and features.
Then a story board was created based on the main persona, Sam.
Then, the ideas were arranged into an Minimum Viable Product (MVP) matrix, against impact and effort.
Next, a user flow was created considering the choices presented to a user and its outcomes.
News categories and story pages were taken as directions, assuming a user would experience the same flow irrespective of various news categories they access.
My design solution is to,
Provide a audio/video/visual quick summary to a story which help user save time and multitask with minimum effort.
Content would support social engagement so the user can voice their opinion and share with others.
Introducing “Fast Facts from CNN”
Each story to contain a summary with few key facts.
These can be read, listened or watched by user.
User can check Fast Facts for all home page stories with few clicks without having to visit multiple pages.
Information architecture
As a content rich website, CNN has a lot of news categories and sub-categories in its existing home page design. This was revised In order to increase the understandability and exportability.
User to have the option of creating an account to personalise content they see.
Home page content will be sorted into 3 key groups, keeping in mind relevant UX principals.
Top Stories — Headliners at a particular point of time. These stories will change based on individual user’s news preferences.
Trending — Most popular news at a particular point of time. These will be auto populated based on user reading rates and preferences.
Features — Feature stories, editorials, opinion pieces, mostly long reads based on individual user’s news preferences.
In each above group , CNN to show 60% of news based on user preferences and 40% as recommended news based on editorial preference.
Styling
Styling was done based on CNN brand guidelines and AA standards
Wireframes
These low fidelity wireframes were designed after card sorting and finalising information architecture.
UI Design
DELIVER
Usability testing was done by face to face and online with 5 users. Testing materials were prepared to support the usability testing process. Users were asked to first use the website as they prefer, and recorded feedback.
Then they were asked to do specific tasks (i.e try to create an account, try to favourite a story etc) and recorded feedback.
Iterations were made based on test results and aligned with AA standards.
Final high fidelity UI designs after iterations.
Final prototype was created using Figma.
