Overview
At the start of the year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Northwestern’s news organization on an initiative to develop a mobile app for students and Evanstonians. This project allowed me to blend my background in physical and digital design, creating a more engaging and accessible news experience.
Role
Collaborators
Duration
Responsibilities
UX Researcher
UI Designer
1 Project Lead
4 Developers
10 Weeks
(Design)
User Research, User Journey Mapping, User Flows, User Testing, Wireframing
My Design Process
With a focus on human-centered design, I approached this project by putting users first at every stage. I used an iterative process, continuously refining the design based on user feedback to create a seamless and impactful experience. This approach ensured the final solution truly met user needs and delivered meaningful results.
Empathize
Research & Define
Ideation & Sketching
Prototyping & Testing
Implementation
Understanding Stakeholders
The Daily Northwestern, founded in 1881, is a well-established newspaper serving Northwestern University and the Evanston community. Renowned as the university’s primary news source, it boasts a team of over 400 journalists dedicated to delivering comprehensive coverage.
The Organization
Before starting any design or user research, I prioritize understanding the organization's core values and existing project workflows.
I first reached out to the Editor-in-Chief, who oversees the organization, to learn more about its operations and understand various project requirements/restrictions. I also gathered insights from the website to better understand its structure and workflow.
Stakeholders & Users
Before conducting in-depth user research, I first categorized various stakeholders and potential users for the project. This helped create a structured plan for interviews, ensuring I asked relevant questions and gathered meaningful insights.
Editor in Chief
The Daily Writers
The Daily Readers
Stakeholders
Users
OVERVIEW
PROCESS
User Research
Within this process, I talked to a total 7 individuals. Of those people, three were writers for The Daily, three were readers of The Daily, and one did not consume The Daily.
*Note: writers were also asked about their reading habits of The Daily as they stated they consume The Daily as well.
The Writers
When interviewing the writers, I wanted to learn about their experience writing for the daily publication and their perspective on being part of the organization. Below is a quote that stood out the most from the interviews. This shared insight helped me better understand their challenges, motivations, and pain points.
My articles always get lost in the sea of other articles.
The Daily Readers
For the six Daily Readers (including the writers), I aimed to identify pain points in their reading experience and understand their user journey. I explored their news and Daily reading habits to uncover the problem statement for this project.
6/6
of readers indicated they use The Daily as a medium to see what their peers are interested in and write about.
5/6
of readers indicated they only like receiving notifications on topics they enjoy.
6/6
of readers indicate they read The Daily in order to be informed about campus and Evanston news.
4/6
of readers indicated they use the games provided by The Daily but express dissatisfaction.
General News Consumer
There’s just too many notifications about things I don’t even care about.
The Problem
How might we turn local news into a shared adventure for Northwestern and Evanston, where every story sparks connection and conversation?
Organizing Notes
After completing the interviews and gathering data, I organized my notes and created affinity diagrams to identify relationships, patterns, and overarching themes allowing me to uncover key insights and structure the information that provided meaningful connections and opportunities.
Major Design Considerations
After analyzing the qualitative data and listening closely to users and stakeholders, I identified key design considerations allowing me to clearly define the core challenges and major pain points users face, setting a strong foundation for the project.
Users enjoy reading articles written by fellow peers.
Peer-to-Peer Connection
Users struggle to find interesting articles in an overwhelming sea of content.
Filtering Out the “Sound”
Writer Recognition
Writers feel frustrated by the lack of recognition for their work.
Ideation & Sketching
After defining the problem statement and outlining key design considerations for the mobile app, I moved onto brainstorming potential features. To ensure a user-centered approach, I created a user journey map to explore different touch points and emotions users might experience during their news-reading journey ultimately helping me better understand their needs, pain points, and opportunities to enhance the overall experience.
User Journey Maps
A user journey map was used rather than a typical user flow as I was mapping out more than just a simple action a user would take. I had to convince stakeholders and product leaders of my design decisions and the best way was to utilize a journey map to properly convey emotions.
Friendly Finn
Scenario: Finn loves reading his college newspaper, especially articles by his friends. However, he struggles to easily find and access their work. He wants a way to quickly discover and engage with his friends’ articles to tease them and stay updated on their interests.
lmk if you’re an Adventure Time fan!
Awareness
Exploration
Confirmation
Success
Motivation
Support their peers by reading their work and wanting to find out what their friends are interested in.
Locate the article quickly and easily without wasting too much time in searching.
Clearly identify that the profile is in fact his friend and not someone else.
Feel accomplished for finding the profile and article so he can share the article to others and have a discussion.
Motivation
Motivation
Motivation
“Oh cool! Let me check out what my friends wrote!”
“Could I search for a writer?”
“Is this my friend?
“Oh! That was him!”
“Do I have to scroll through all these articles?”
“Should I ask my friend if this is them?”
• Hears friend wrote an article
• Research ways to find the article
• Skims the newsletter
• Scans the homepage of the website
• Tries using the search feature on the website
• Skims the search results
• Asks friend to confirm their profile
• Reads the article the friend made
• Texts the friend about the article
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Touch Points:
Research
Website
Social Media/Messaging
Newsletter
Brainstorming
Prototyping & Testing
After sketching initial designs for the mobile app, I took the concept further by creating a physical prototype using cardboard. This tangible representation allowed users to interact with the app in a real-world context, giving them a clearer sense of its look, feel, and functionality.
Low Fidelity v1
Usability Testing Part 1
During the first round of usability testing with the low-fidelity mockup, I focused on understanding how users felt about the overall flow of the onboarding process and main pages of the app.
User #1
• Difficult identifying what page she was currently on
• Difficult navigating through the pages due to specific language usage
User #2
• Felt that changing the order of specific pages would make the flow better
• Seems unconventional to have a separate "For You" page (maybe better to integrate the "For You" into the "NU Today" page)
Low Fidelity v2
Using the feedback from the first round, I refined the design by integrating the "For You" page and "Home" page all into a singular page in which will act as the landing. Then, I changed the order of the onboarding in order to meet the needs of a proper user flow. I also incorporated more sticky note signifiers in order to make it more obvious for the user to see which page they were currently on.
Usability Testing Part 2
After implementing the design changes, I conducted another round of user testing to validate the updates. This step ensured the revisions effectively addressed previous pain points and improved the overall user experience.
User #3
• Said the onboarding was intuitive and easy to follow
• It was easy to navigate around the app despite not understanding "news language"
User #4
• Really appreciated being able to reach the goal of a task multiple ways (Eg. finding a specific author of an article)
• Felt that the navigation felt easy to follow
Final Design
After thorough user research and multiple rounds of testing, I finalized and delivered a new mobile application for The Daily Northwestern. This solution was carefully crafted to address user needs, streamline their experience, and provide a modern, intuitive platform for engaging with news content.
Conclusions
This was one of the most rewarding and positively received projects I’ve ever done so far. After thoroughly taking the time in conducting the needed research, I was able to properly convey the best experience for users.
Major Takeaways
• Work Around the Limitations: Throughout this project, I navigated various requirements and design restrictions while ensuring the app remained user-centered and aligned with research insights. This experience taught me how to creatively work within constraints without compromising the integrity of the design, ultimately delivering a solution that balanced stakeholder needs with a seamless user experience.
• Bridging the Physical and Digital: My background in physical product design helped me create tangible, emotionally engaging digital prototypes. By making the app feel real through physical representations, I evoked genuine user reactions, bridging the gap between digital and physical experiences. This led to richer feedback and a stronger final design.