Product designer, 2023 for Advanced Local. Aimed to boost the user engagement within articles across all of the ten brands by prioritizing interaction and content engagement. My role included understanding user behavior, resolving content issues, and improving visuals with local branding, resulting in increased engagement.
While our data indicates that embedded messages within articles have garnered a mere 0.1% click-through rate, a critical gap exists in our understanding of their impact on content views and user engagement. This absence of comprehensive data poses a significant challenge to evaluating the efficacy and sustainability of this innovative content promotion strategy
How might we address the issue of intrusive and distracting advertisements that present a formidable barrier, hindering users from accessing the site's content?
This solution seamlessly integrates embedded messages into the content while maintaining consistent branding, aiming to elevate both click-through rates and content views, ultimately fostering increased reader engagement.
Our research helped in identifying the following problems with the user engagement features.
My role initiated with conducting competitive analyses of prominent local news organizations, yielding invaluable insights into their content promotion strategies, content diversity, writing style, user experience, design, and the interactivity of their article pages on digital platforms.
I conducted thorough research to examine how other local news platforms integrate content into their article page. This research allowed me to synthesize valuable data and insights, that helped me explore opportunities to increase user engagement and satisfaction.
After familiarizing myself with the existing website and market research, I got the clarity of the user group and needs. I identified my persona and listed their goals and frustration to make sure I understand my customer problem.
I created wireframes to improve embedded content on mobile and desktop. I analyzed how to integrate messaging with ads, considering placement and aesthetics. I explored different module placements based on reader engagement timing. Throughout this exploration, collaboration with the developer remained close-knit to ensure that the design aligned seamlessly with a simplified minimum viable product (MVP) tailored for testing purposes.
Before conducting usability testing with users, I first outlined objectives, goals and procedures in a usability testing plan document. This served as a rubric during testing sessions. A total of 18 participants were asked to complete a series of tasks tied to scenarios during unmoderated testing.
I continued with conducting usability testing with users for the newsletter module, by outlined objectives, goals and procedures in a usability testing plan document. This served as a rubric during testing sessions. A total of 10 participants were asked to complete a series of tasks tied to scenarios during unmoderated testing.
My role as a product designer on this project involved skillfully navigating through a range of constraints. This required finding the right equilibrium between technical limitations and user requirements. These challenges compelled me to excel in converting intricate situations into straightforward, comprehensible concepts and design choices.
I picked up this approach from the senior product designer, who consistently emphasized the value of "over-communication" right from the project's outset. It proved invaluable in helping me understand and manage the project requirements comprehensively as a designer at all levels.
To ensure precise implementation by developers, it's crucial to clearly specify padding and margin dimensions in your designs. I've adopted this practice to eliminate ambiguity and attain designs that are perfectly aligned down to the pixel.
