Role
Lead the interaction design of mobile optimised news websites for News Corp Australia
Key responsibilities
- Wireframe, prototype & maintain mSite design specifications
- Prototype masthead newspaper mSites iteratively
- Conduct regular qualitative user research
- Communication of research outcomes & design recommendations
- Champion a cross channel design strategy
Process
- Collaborate with each masthead's editorial & digital leadership teams
- Conduct qantitative research
- Define & share understanding of the problems to be solved
- Define design principles
- Wireframe & prototype interaction design
- Conduct qualitative research to assess solutions & design principles
- Share understanding of findings from user research
- Iterate design based on research findings
During 2011–2012 I worked on bespoke interaction designs for each masthead mSite as directed by editorial leadership.
During 2011 my peers in the user experience team conducted qualitative design research. They went into people's homes to learn how they interact with news. Findings from the research showed how customers perceive news products and identified their needs. These needs were framed as “news qualities”.
Based on those qualitative findings I created a survey to explore which news site qualities were the most important to our audience. This quantitative design research aligned with a similar desktop survey. My survey yielded 2670 responses (a statistically significant representation of the audience).
The findings of the survey indicated which needs we should prioritise for mobile news websites.
Additional qualitative one-on-one user research supported the survey findings. Participants were asked what they understood by the descriptions of “news qualities”.
During 2013 I worked on one design that was implemented across five metropolitan newspaper sites. The unified designs based on our design principles increased mobile traffic by 10% (accross the network) in the first month after launch.
