NewsFlow
UX Design · UX Research · Prototyping
Led the ideation and prototyping of a news application tailored for college students
Summary
User Research
Personas
Task Analysis
Scenarios
Prototype
Evaluation
Project Context
Jan-May 2024
Team: 4 people
Tools Used
Figma
Google Forms
Pandas
Introduction & Background
👤 Target user group: Undergraduate students (18-22) at Georgia Tech who want to be more knowledgeable about current events.
🫤 Problem: The increasing short attention spans, particularly influenced by the distractions of digital screens, discourage young adults from engaging deeply with traditional news sources, leading them to consume news on social media, where misinformation is prevalent. Social media platforms exacerbate the problem by creating echo chambers that limit exposure to diverse viewpoints, resulting in less informed and engaged individuals, particularly concerning major news events and political knowledge. Traditional news outlets like The New York Times are less appealing to young adults due to their subscription models and perceived lack of value.
User Research Methods
Surveys:
We sent it out to approximately 20 people (5 people each) that we know and asked them to complete the survey.
Why this is the correct approach:
Surveys are an effective, cost-efficient method suitable for our target demographic of college students, allowing for broad engagement and quick adaptation to gather both qualitative and quantitative data on their news consumption habits. This approach enables efficient trend analysis and solution tailoring without the need for resource-intensive methods like in-depth interviews, which may offer more detail than necessary for understanding general trends among college students.
Interviews:
Interviews were chosen as a key study method to learn more about how Georgia Tech undergraduates get their news, what they like, and the problems they face.
Why this is the correct approach:
Interviews are the ideal approach for our project because they provide in-depth insights into students' complex attitudes and behaviors toward news consumption, revealing personal stories and experiences that go beyond what quantitative methods can offer. This qualitative method aligns with our objective to understand the motivations and challenges faced by students in staying informed, enabling us to identify patterns and develop more effective news delivery solutions tailored to their needs.
User Research Results
📊 Data Analysis:
Our team conducted a comprehensive data analysis using the high volume of detailed responses from our surveys. We initially organized the data with Google Forms and Sheets, then shifted to Python and Pandas for advanced statistical analysis, allowing us to identify patterns and themes like average social media use and preferences for news sources. This rigorous process highlighted potential solutions, such as a social-media-style news app, and confirmed the relevance of our problem by showing students' interest in staying informed, though we noted the need for more data to check for biases.
📝 Survey Results:
College Students find it important to stay updated in current events.
College Students demonstrate limited awareness of current events.
Fact-checking news stories is seldom practiced by college students.
College students exhibit minimal trust in news circulated on social media platforms.
Tailored news suggestions enhance college students’ engagement with current events.
Interactive functionalities stimulate college students’ interest in current events and news.
🗣️ Interview Results:
Finding 1: Dependence on social media for ease of use and timely information. "I usually check the news in between lessons by scrolling through Twitter. A 20-year-old Computer Science major named Alex said, "It's like, I can catch up on everything going on in the world in just 5 minutes." Alex went into more detail about how they use Twitter not only for fun but also as their main source of news because they like how it gives them quick updates and a lot of different points of view.
Finding 2: People want news sources to be more interesting and fun to use. An Industrial Design student named Priya, who is 21 years old, said, "I wish news apps were more like Instagram, where I can easily interact with stories that matter to me." Priya was upset that standard news sites didn't have any interactive features, which she thinks would make people much more interested and help them remember what they read.
Finding 3: It's Hard to Tell What Information Is Reliable. "I shared an article with my study group last semester that turned out to be false," It made me look bad. "Now I'm very careful about what I share," Jordan, a 22-year-old student in Mechanical Engineering, said. This experience made me realize how hard it is for students to find reliable news sites online, where there is so much information.
Finding 4: Academic and career interests affect how much news people read. "Tech and science news are interesting to me because they are related to what I'm studying and where I want my career to go," Sam, a 19-year-old Biology major, said. Sam's academic interests and work goals have a big impact on how he reads the news. This shows that he wants news that is not only informative but also useful for his personal and professional growth.
🧑🏻🎨 Key design goals
1) Promoting Trustworthiness and Credibility
2) Personalization and Customization
3) Interactive and Engaging Features
User Personas
Task Analysis / User Flow
Scenarios
Ideation Process
Brainstorming Features:
1. Streak Tracking: Encourage regular app usage by tracking consecutive days users engage with the app, offering rewards like badges or points to maintain interest.
2. Community Engagement Platform: Foster user interaction through likes, shares, comments, and discussion boards, creating a community feel that boosts engagement.
3. Personalized News Sharing Suggestions: Offer custom news recommendations based on users' reading histories and preferences, enhancing retention by tailoring content to individual interests.
4. AI News Assistant: Integrate a virtual assistant to streamline the news retrieval process, making it easier for users to find relevant content quickly.
5. News 'Shorts': Capture user attention with short, engaging video clips that provide news highlights, inspired by the format of YouTube Shorts.
6. Credibility Scoring: Assess and display the trustworthiness of news sources and articles using algorithms or user feedback, helping users gauge the reliability of information.
7. Augmented Reality News Exploration: Enhance user engagement through immersive AR experiences that overlay news content in the real world, offering a deeper understanding of current events.
8. News Gamification: Incorporate game-like elements such as levels and rewards into the news experience, increasing enjoyment and encouraging competition among users.
Top 3 Ideas:
1. Credibility Scoring
2. Community Engagement Platform
3. Personalized News Suggestions
Low-fidelity Prototype
Storyboards
Heuristic User Evaluations
🤕 Identifying 3 Major Pain Points:
1. Consistency and Standards (Quantitative: Level of Severity 0):
Users said there wasn't enough difference between options that were chosen and options that weren't chosen, which can make things confusing and make it hard to navigate. The qualitative data suggests that the visual cues are not clear enough, which could make it harder for users to quickly figure out the credibility and trustworthiness of news sources and also make personalizing less effective.
2. Help and Documentation (Quantitative: Level of Severity 3):
The most serious rating was given to the lack of documentation and help features. Users might not fully understand how to critically evaluate news stories or make the most of the personalization features if they don't get enough help or directions.
3. Error Prevention (Quantitative: Level of Severity 2):
It looks like the prototype doesn't put much thought into error prevention, which can be a big problem for people who depend on the platform to get reliable news. This could make people doubt the accuracy of the information given, which would go against the project's goals.
🥅 How Pain Points Prevented Project Goals
1. Consistency and Standards
Users may find it hard to get around the system because there isn't enough difference and the visual language isn't always the same. This can make them less likely to tell the difference between trustworthy news sources, which can make it harder for them to evaluate news stories critically.
2. Help and Documentation
Users might feel lost or overwhelmed if there aren't any help or advice functions. This is especially true when they are trying to understand complicated news stories. This could stop them from really getting involved with current events and making the most of the customization options.
3. Error Prevention
If users run into problems and can't see how to fix them, they might not trust the platform to give safe and accurate news. This can make people lose interest in the news and stop paying attention to it.
✅ Solutions & Design Guidelines
Enhance Navigation
To help users find their way around the platform, add helpful hints like scroll bars or moving messages. This will get people more involved and make it easier for them to find their way around, which will help reach the goal of staying up to date on current events.
Interactive Feedback
Change the interface so that users can see what they're doing when they interact with it. For example, change the color of the "Like" button when it's hit. Giving users immediate visual feedback is important for a good experience, which can help them stay with the site longer and interact more with personalized news material.
Clarify Functionality
Make it easier to understand how features work by adding clear labels or directions, and think about redesigning parts of the app, like the search bar, so that its functions are different on different tabs. Clear functionality is important for user trust and efficiency, as it lets them interact critically with news stories and the community. This is in line with the project's goal of making people more critically aware of current events.
High-fidelity Prototype
