User Profile
User Journey
User Profile
User Journey
News consumption experience designed for today's informed millennial
Problem Statement
To design a news app experience for an Indian millennial news consumer that takes into account their lifestyle, preference and constraints to inform them of the news better
Project Goal
My focus was to create a seamless and informative news experience, while ensuring it doesn't seem cluttered and overwhelming for the users.
Design Process
The framework followed was conducted in five key steps- Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test as shown below.
The process helped me to find and implement solutions while keeping user and their needs at the center.
• India is a strongly mobile-focused market, with 72% accessing news through smartphones and only 35% via computers.
• News aggregator platforms and apps such as GoogleNews (53%), Daily Hunt (25%), InShorts (19%), and NewsPoint (17%) have become an important way to access news and are valued for convenience
• A significant number of Indian audiences use social media apps such as YouTube (53%) and WhatsApp (51%), Facebook (43%), Instagram (32%), Twitter (22%) and Telegram (21%) for accessing news
• Overall, 60% of consumers share news via social media, messaging or email
• Online platforms remain the source of news for 84% of the respondents, with social media accounting for 63% on its own, television remaining a choice for 59% and print for 49% of consumers
• 82 percent of Indians read the news online, and73 percent do so on their smartphones
• According to KPMG India Analysis, 2020, news consumption through digital apps has increased, and newspaper readership has decreased by 38%–40%
The research was aimed at understanding news consumption patterns in the millennial users. The research was conducted through a Q&A and included five participants.
Research questions:
1) How frequently do you catch-up on the news in your day to day life
2) What platform do you prefer to consume news in your day to day life?
3) Have you turned on the news alerts on your phone?
4) What length do your prefer while consuming the news on your smartphone?
5) What format of content do you prefer while consuming news?
6) What are your sources to authenticate fake news and how do you do it?
• Over 75% of the participants spend at least an hour daily on consuming news
• 4/5 participants admitted that they find it difficult to authenticate fake news
• About 75%participants have a dedicated time of day for news consumption
• 2/5 participants find new app notifications as “spams” and prefer to turn them off
• Most participants prefer reading news articles as compared to other formats (video, podcasts, etc.) in their day-to-day life
• One participant often uses a third-party fact checker for authentication
• 100%ofthe participants want to be able to personalize their news consumption through layouts, notifications, favourite topics, etc.
• 3/5 participants prefer reading their news in short-format (30-50 words)
• Users want to be able to personalize their news consumption (through layouts, notifications, favourite topics, etc.)
• Authenticity of source and factchecking are extremely important for the users
• Users usually prefer a specific time of their day to consume news
• While the length of content preferred by the users is short-form(summary),they still prefer reading the news instead of videos and other formats
• Due to lifestyle changes, users prefer their news quick and in real-time but it should be factually correct
• Given that PinBoard has vast competition in the market, it is important to establish a significant differentiator for PinBoard’s users
• To add value to PinBoard’s user-base, we need to create an in-build fact-checker to authenticate news
• PinBoard should also provide personalization through notifications, layouts, languages, favourite topics and a daily briefing for its users
• There should also be options to customize PinBoard’s push notifications (through timings, alerts, topics, etc.)
• Apart from news articles, Pinboard should also provide different formats such as videos, podcasts, etc.
• Top Navigation bar for easy user flow
• Featured slider section
• Personalized section for user’s favourite topics
• The ‘Top Videos and Podcasts’
• The footer highlights key shortcuts for- MyPinBoard, Fact-Checker, Videos, Podcasts and Search option
• The content cards have the options of- share, save, like and comment for users to engage
• Another key screens differentiating PinBoard from it’s competitors
• This screen has a fact-checker enabled by an AI program to detect fake news and provide users with authentic news
• The content cards have the options of- share, save, like and comment for users to engage
• A completely personalized experience for My PinBoard screen users, featuring-
• A custom made ‘Daily Brief’ created basis user’s reading choices and patterns
• The ‘Daily Brief’ can be adjusted as per user’s time availability at hand through the filter icons• Also showcases “Today’s fact-checked” section for the user
• A customizable dashboard for user’s saved content and settings
• The content cards have the options of- share, save, like and comment for users to engage
Here's a video of the final product. This is what the experience of using PinBoard looks and feels like.
• Learnt about news consumption patterns of Indian millennials
• I do believe some aspects of this project, with more time and refined ideas have the potential to create a real-world product
• While it was challenging to prioritize ideas and thoughts, due to paucity of time, the learning while doing this project was worth it
